Why Do We Love to Watch Football?

Why do we love to watch football?

Because for a few hours, we belong to something greater than ourselves—

A TEAM!

We see people wearing our colors and we feel connected.

For a short while, we’re one of them.

We’re a team anchored in a shared battle—

a brother or sisterhood.

We’re family!

We see their press clips and we love them!

We know them.

We ARE them.

When our team wins, we are winners, too!

We imagine running like they run, jumping like they jump!

We face the opponent like a warrior!

And it’s good clean fun to be a fan.

We can harmlessly talk smack, do our touchdown dances, and act like we know things we never could.

But there are other reasons we love these strangers, too.

We connect with them because we’ve disconnected from ourselves.

Some time ago we stopped dreaming our own dreams.

We got “realistic.”

We tabled our competitive spirits for a safe and reliable life.

We’ve disconnected from our passions in favor of an easier path—

a path that doesn’t require sacrificing our fun time, or waking up early.

We’ve disconnected from our people because we’re weary of being called upon to help the other.

We’re tired of being disappointed by mediocrity.

We’ve lowered expectations and accepted bad behavior as that’s just the way people are.

So when we watch these games, we’re transported back to a time when we believed anything is possible—

for us,

for our team,

and for the people who are watching breathlessly as we use every sinew and face every challenge and take every risk…

For the chance to be a winner.

Maybe that’s why the game can feel so much bigger than a game.

For a few hours, we remember what it feels like to care deeply.

To belong.

To believe.

To take a risk for something that matters.

And maybe, just maybe, watching someone else chase the dream reminds us that we have a dream of our own.

A passion we put on the shelf.

A competitive spirit we talked ourselves out of.

A version of ourselves we abandoned when we decided to be “realistic.”

Maybe the question isn’t whether you love football.

Maybe the question is:

What part of yourself comes alive when you watch someone else go after something with everything they’ve got?

And what would happen if you brought a little of that energy back to your own life?

Let’s go LIONS!

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