I am just a fan

There's a game tonight.

As I type this, in about two and a half hours, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs will be held in Detroit, between the Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Being a native Pittsburgher, and a fan of the aforementioned flightless water foul, I'll be rooting for "my" team to win. I've even put on my Pens jersey in support, although I am well aware it'll have no bearing on the outcome.

I'm a fan. When it comes to sports, I'm not a rabid, dyed-in-the-wool, diehard, live for my team kinda guy. If the game's on, I'll watch it. When I was living in Pittsburgh, and there was nothing better to do and nothing better on worth watching, sure, the game would be on my television. If I had a few spare bucks (I vaguely remember those days), I'd even go down and watch a game live. Hockey tickets aren't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, even the nosebleed seats. That's why I'd go to more baseball games: I could see three or four games at the park for the price of one hockey game in the igloo.

Still, it tickles me to listen to fans who say "we won". Really? You helped your team to victory. You were out there, on the ice, on the field, sweating and giving your all to help hit the game winning run or goal or whatever? You were in the locker room, on the bench, training day after day after day to keep yourself in top physical shape so you could win?

No. All you did was sit on your ass in front of a television or listen to it on the radio or plop down in some sports bar with all the other drooling, drunken idiots and yell and scream and second guess the coaches. You wore your t-shirt or jersey or whatever and considered yourself a member of the team.

You sat there and cheered them on until they made one tiny mistake. A missed play. A dropped ball. A lost game. Then you came out and cursed them and swore you'd never watch them again and how could they be so stupid as to miss that? He was wide open? How could be drop that ball or let the puck go between his legs like that? What's the forecast in your fair-weathered world? Partly cloudy with a chance of whining?

Let me tell it to you straight, sparky, you ain't on the team.

You couldn't do any better. Sure, when you were a kid, you could run or play stickball or throw pretty well. Yeah, you might still be in decent enough shape, but those men (and women) out there are athletes. They've devoted their lives to what they do, and they're the ones out there playing the game!

I have no illusions about myself. I'm 41 years old. I am nowhere near in the shape required to play sports, professional or otherwise. I'm an observer, a watcher, living some voyeuristic thrill or seeing grown-ups playing a game and getting paid for it. Do I support them? Hell, yeah! They've proven they belong there, that they've got the athletic ability, drive and desire. They are on the team, sparky, not you.

It annoys me when I hear people say "we won". You didn't win. You cheered them on, you supported them, but you didn't help them win. They won. The team won. Say "they won" or "the team won", but not you. You didn't do a damn thing but watch.

Tonight, I have my Pens jersey on. Whether they win or lose tonight, my wearing their colors 300+ miles away won't have any impact on that. Should they win, I'll applaud their efforts. I'll smile. I'll say "they won", but I'll have no illusions that whatever I say or do had anything to do with it.

It's just a game. It's not your life. Watch it. Enjoy the moment. Move on.