A story for people who take (college) sports too seriously.

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This is a story that has been in my mind for quite some time, but I feel compelled to share with you. It's basically how I painfully cured the "rabid sports fan" I was at one time: I was in high school. I was in the band. I had to deal with a student (actually many students, but this one in particular) named Mike who went out of his way to hate teams like the Detroit Pistons or the University of Michigan (I grew up in SE Michigan); teams I was a fan of. He would always have an excuse for why his teams were better then yours (anything from "Who won last night?" to "Who has more titles?" and everything in between), and he was also the type to mouth off to you and even try to goad you into a fight, only to wuss out when you actually accept. Well, throughout the 1991 college football season, I had to listen to him when Michigan lost to Florida State, but won every other game up to the Rose Bowl. He was often driving me crazy, as were a couple of others. I remember seeing his predictions in the bowl games, and he had something like 45-17 Washington written down, which I'm like "Whatever.", but on my band folder a lot of stuff badmouthing Michigan was written in yellow highlighter. I first asked a friend of mine if it was him (politely, as although he joked about the same things, we were true friends and I conducted myself differently in front of him). He said it wasn't, so I assumed it was Mike. While I made my own jokes in contradiction on my own folder, I was so hoping Michigan would win so he'd shut his mouth. (If they won, they would've had a share of the National Championship as well, which would keep him even quieter.) Rose Bowl 1992 comes, and as I am watching, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Michigan was not going to win. In fact, they got blown out by 20, so it was as though everything I was fearing was going to happen when we returned to school on Monday. All I could imagine myself doing was beating the ever-loving snot out of Mike, because that's all I could think of to deal with the situation. I ended up uttering to my mother how she should "plan on me getting suspended on Monday." She angerly asked why, and I told her because I plan on beating Mike up if he so much as uttered anything to me about this game. At that, she angerly told me it was just a game and to get over it, etc. Now as you read this, you're saying to yourself that she's right, right? Well, she WAS right. I knew it, even then I knew it was only a game. However, that doesn't change the fact that I had Mike to deal with (and maybe a couple of others), and the fact that a fan of a losing team telling people "it's only a game" is like a fat ugly woman saying "real beauty is on the inside"; you never hear those phrases from the opposite people. So now what do I do to deal with the situation. Hmmm. A-HA! I got it! As I mentioned before, he talked smack, but never did anything, and it was proven to me a year earlier when between cutting notes, he kept threatening me, but when I finally named a time and place and told him to "be there", he backed out. However, everything blew over and nothing happened between him and I the rest of the year. I thought, "What if I did it again, this time be more threatening?" So I sat down one night and wrote out this long, drawn out letter basically telling him that he would be put in the hospital, and it also included smack about his love life, plus in response to one of the things written on my band folder ("U-M makes me f---in' puke!"), I told him the smell of his mother's crotch did too but I don't put that all over people's band folders. I also put my name on it (really bad move I know, but it was done to let him know who not to go near on Monday) and made sure I got it in the mail that Friday so he would get it on Saturday, so that all would go well on Monday. (Before I continue, I know I was overreacting, but you have to remember I was an emotionally disturbed 16 year old who truly felt, after analyzing the situation, that this was going to be the only way I would shut him up completely about anything in regard to the Rose Bowl. I had felt he would stay away from me, then in about one to two weeks it would all blow over, and we would all move on with life.) On Monday, it seemed all was going fine (though I still had my guard up). When I got in band class, we weren't playing that day, and all seemed normal to me when I entered. I took off my jacket and walked around looked at my folder to see if anything was on it today. As I did, I noticed Mike walking up to me, and all I'm thinking was, "Is he f---in' crazy?!" because now I was tensing up to the fact I was going to have to do something I felt I was pulling out all the stops to prevent from happening. After all, I promised I'd do it, and I couldn't look like a wuss and not do it. Well, it wasn't that, but it wasn't good. He asked me if I was going to be home when the police come? I'm like, why? He shoves the letter in my face and tells me he has copies because I threatened his life (um, no, I wasn't going to kill him or even render him crippled for life or anything). He and I end up in some kind of argument, where he wanted me to apologize for writing the letter. I refused to, after all, what did I do wrong but try to shut him up because I didn't want to hear it from him. AT ALL! After class, he sat down like he was going to read a story to kids, and started to read my letter to about 10 fellow students. At that point, I was behind him, and was ever so close to getting him into a chokehold and dragging him around the room screaming for him to give back all copies of the notes, but thought better of it and left. After all, if I had, God only knows how much anger and rage would've come out of me, and what I would've done to him, and how much worse everything could've become. He got to my house before I got home as I had to be somewhere I didn't want to be. Of course, I had to hear it from my parents, and I was also forced to go apologize to Mike. I went to his house and spoke to his mother (whom I found out was a very nice lady, so I didn't say anything about what I said to her, but declared I truly was sorry for saying what I said to her), but he wasn't home, but I found him and was trying to explain myself to him but I couldn't get enough time to talk to him other then give him my apology, to which he accepted. However, my reputation in the band, which wasn't all that wonderful before then, had practically turned to mush. I was now a "psychopath", and occassionally people would make jokes about teams I was wearing or that someone said something bad about Michigan or whatever, trying to get me lit up, which wasn't going to happen. Well, needless to say, it was about as painful as 18 shots to the abdomen, but basically I was never a "rabid" fan of any sports team again after that, because that was the kind of attitude that truly led up to this quagmire. Don't get me wrong, I still love my Detroit teams and the Wolverines, but I will not act like the doofus I was or as others act. BTW The person who wrote the stuff on my folder was another kid named Matt, who was just as much a jerk, but I tried to keep my distance from. Ironically, I had actually contemplated writing him a similar letter, but backed out of the idea. He also is someone who I know was crank calling my house about the whole thing, but we never put a trace on the line (this was before caller ID) and just changed our phone number. It was all the better, because I knew it was him but couldn't prove it (still can't), and if we had and we found out it was him, I would've been in my car, baseball bat in hand, roaring for his house, and swinging at everything in my way to get to him. Imagine how much trouble I would've gotten in for THAT! Especially since his father was an Auxillary (volunteer) Police officer for our city. Well anyways, if you're a big fan or rabid fan of any particular team, and never had thoughts anywhere near what I did, then my hat is off to you. My moral is to not let a sports team EVER get the best of you...EVER! I am willing to answer any questions from anyone. Thank you.