Why do people get so personally revved up about a dozen other blokes failure or success? It's only a game.
It's bonkers really isn't it though? We talk of a 'Club' when there's not been a Football 'Club' for about 100 years has there? The 'Club' I started following now play in a different ground, train on a different pitch, have different back room staff, a different business name, different owners, different players, different type of followers...it's like a 100 year old brush with just a few changes of heads and handles.
human beings are psychologically tribal. we no longer fight over food, we no longer fight our neighbours down the road over territory. those of us with functioning brains no longer fight over my god being being that yours. sport replaced all that and we get behind our teams with our mates. edit: the god bit was meant to say "those of us with functioning brains no longer fight over my god being being bigger than yours" not sure why it didn't.
Hmmm, I got fairly well f*cked off with the shenanigans at Brighton away. Not City's fault, but symptomatic of the way football caters for, well, not football fans. At a whim they will change things to suit the £ without consideration for the poor saps that turn up week in week out. Needed to get back from Brighton to London specifically to meet up with a mate whose son had come back from soldiering overseas. He'd come back a different person physically and mentally the poor sod. As always my life was dictated by 3pm and everything hinged on that. 90 mins of football was the be all and end all that weekend. I missed the Brighton game. Felt annoyed that I couldn't get another ground to tick off, to join approx 175 I've already done, majority with City over 50 years, many before the M62 and others opened up when travelling away wasn't easy. But coming back up to Hull after the weekend away I realised I hadn't really missed City that much. The club I started following, the players, the ground, all that. I realised that I don't feel the connection that I once did. It is bonkers.It's something I've done for the majority of my life. But I've only been a few times home and away since Brighton, but I'm the last one standing .. mates just stopped when we were PROPERLY ****, (unlike now when we are not), mates got married & under the thumb, 2 emigrated, 2 died one before Wemberly and the Prem. I felt warmed by the 'Football Family' coming together for Muamba the other week and what has happened there is nothing short of miraculous. But in the context of some of those chaps (and lasses) who survive other life changing events, but don't get the support that they deserve. Well it makes you think about priorities. But does it matter? Nope. Take it easy.
Indeed, makes me wonder why I was so pissed off on Saturday when I've got more important things to be thinking about!
It used to give me something to do on a weekend when I had nothing better to do. Now it's just a habit that I can't shake despite having better things to do.
whoo Dutch asks the million dollar question.. why do I care so much about a second division football team in a city where I've never lived and a county I haven't lived in for 15 years? when I click on the results button after missing a match and if City have lost, why does it hurt like a knife in the heart? why do I sometimes leap around the appartment like an 8 year old, screaming "f****ing yes, get in!" when we score.. and I'm 40 years old? I can only say because they represent us on the field, and if they give 100% then OK as I know I wouldn't walk off the pitch with anything left in the tank if it was me playing, even though I'm crap.. Hull City is part of us all. Most of us are addicts and we'll be hooked on it til we die. Just like my dad..
Hull's gone through a major transformation over the last decade, particularly with the regeneration projects. When we got promoted we were put on the map in many respects with the media and started to draw some attention to the City. We don't often get much coverage in other areas. I genuinely think that a lot of this country's opinions of Hull are either based on complete bollocks, outdated 'facts' and on how they relate to the Tigers. Because it's all they know through lack of proper media coverage among other things, like geographical 'hinderances' The jist of this is that I care about how the team does, not just from a football interest but because it benefits my home town. Granted we need to put football into perspective sometimes, but personally I think there's a little more to it than just the club. It effects the pride of the city to a degree.
For me its all about the football club representing the city that I am fiercely proud of. In my early youth as a then east Hull lad I used to watch Rovers (It was cheap to get in and I could walk to the old Craven Park) but once I'd stepped foot into BP (6th Round Replay agst Chelsea 1966 along with 45,000 others) I knew this was the only club that could really represent the city of my birth. From that day on I was hooked and 40 years on wherever I am in the world (and these days that is mostly Spain where I have a gaffe) I am consumed by the Club on the day of a match.
It's not only a game is it, it's more than that, it's a way of life. Some people choose sport, some people choose religion, some choose a widescreen TV but for us on here the Tigers is our life. Or something.
If you even consider the point that football is 'just a game' then you really shouldn't be on this forum. No matter how daft it seems how much we care about a few blokes kicking a ball, we're crazy about it without really being able to describe how or why - when that's the case you know it really means something. PS not aimed at you Dutch - I know you were just asking the million dollar question and creating a debate.
Losing used to really hack me off. Now having a young family, it doesn't bother me quite so much. Good job current form considered!
