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What bedlam football teaches us about the human condition
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In a couple of days the 2009 version of Bedlam Football will take place in Norman, Oklahoma. This football season started out with high hopes that OU and OSU might be undefeated and playing for a shot at the BCS championship. That honor is going to Alabama and Florida instead. OU and OSU have both had issue to overcome. OU lost their Heisman winning QB to injury early in the season along with the nation’s best tight-end, Jermaine Gresham. OSU, due to other issues, lost the nation’s best wide receiver. So things haven’t turned out like expectations, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of intrigue about this game.
Bedlam is always a big game no matter what the records might be. Interestingly enough, Vegas is picking OU. In spite of how bad they looked against Texas Tech last week, the odds are for OU. OSU has a lot to play for. A win might put them in their first BCS bowl game. OU has only lost twice at home under Bob Stoops. While horrible on the road this year, they have played well at home. So going into the game OSU has been consistently played better, but OU has that home field advantage. OSU has more to play for, but OU still has a lot of pride.
This morning I was listening to the “Sports Animal” radio station and the discussion had turned to which school had the worst fans. People called in with their stories of mistreatment or rudeness on the part of the other schools fans. I hear that a lot. ______________ has the worst fans ever!
Is there any school that has people (fans) that are inherently worse than other schools? Well, a lot of people seem to think so. Of course, I’ve never heard anyone say, “We are the worst fans of any school around. We are rude, obnoxious, belligerent and ugly. Those other schools have fans that behave so much better than we do.”
This is the “Evangelical Examiner” and in spite of appearances to the contrary this is going down an evangelical road…
Let me put forth a theory about sports fans from the Bible… “None is righteous…Their throat is an open grave…The venom of asps is under their lips…All have sinned” (Romans 3:10, 13, 23). “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2). “We all once lived in the passions of our flesh” (Ephesians 2:3). I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point. No school has fans that have any innate moral superiority.
We have all sinned and are all capable of the worst kinds of actions under the right (or wrong) circumstances. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Sporting events are prime catalysts for revealing the worst demons of our natures. Fans (short for fanatics) aren’t called that without reason. Passions are inflamed over these games. People are very serious about “their” teams (as if they had anything to do with them except watching).
Does that mean all things are equal in the way all schools fans and student athletes act? No. “Wait a minute” you say, “you are contradicting yourself.” Not really, let me explain. Every school’s fans have the same capacity to behave in reprehensible ways. Not all fans live down to that capacity. Further, to think evangelically, the degree to which restraints are placed on that capacity will in large part determine how well fans behave.
Schools that create a culture of good sportsmanship are likely to have fans that behave (against their worst instincts) like good sports. Schools that create a culture of “anything” goes are likely to get just about anything.
So one could say that the propensity to act out of the evil nature is more restrained at one school than another, but that is different that saying one school's fans are worse than another’s.
OK, so maybe I’m splitting hairs and overanalyzing the whole argument over who has the worst fans. I’m probably even sapping some of the joy out of the argument for some people. But the argument points to something else. It shows how self-righteous we all can be. Christians are often accused of being self-righteous, but sports fans – Christian or not – are some of the most self-righteous people on the planet. They always find some other school that they can point the finger at and proclaim them the worst fans ever. Somehow they always manage to overlook the obnoxious people who are wearing the same colors as themselves. Or if they do happen to see the violations, they chalk it up to something done in jest, or to a person’s quirky personality, or passion for the team. It’s evil and wrong when it is the other school. It’s fun, odd or eccentric when it is your school.
Sports fans (of which I am one) give us a laboratory to study to human condition. They remind us that there is something desperately wrong, deeply wrong with the human heart. They demonstrate the importance of societal restraints on evil behavior. It also reminds us that restrained behavior is not the same thing as a redeemed soul.
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