Anyone who wants to, please send me some Valium! If WVU wins today they will be ranked no worse than #2. I was a season ticket holder for 17 years and it's still very difficult for me to watch a home game on TV. My palms are sweating, I'm clutching throw pillows and my neighbors can likely hear me at times.
So what takes a person from a fan to fanatic? Like so many things, it's our kids. We watch our sons and daughters play, cheer, and preform in the band. One year in particular I had 8 cousin on the football team, 3 in the band and one cheering. When they won the feeling was twofold, being excited for them and me both. My daughters played sports and of course they had friends that were like sons and daughters to me. Some of my family went on to the collegiate level. When my cousin took the field in Morgantown for the first time I had tears in my eyes. The five years he played I got to know a lot of the players and tailgated with their parents. It became like watching dozens of my relatives playing. Some of those players moved on to playing on Sundays and I always rooted for their teams - players like Mark Bulger, Major Harris, Jerry Porter, James Jett, Todd Sauerbrun, and several others. To me they are not just a number on a jersey, there's a personality there, too.
I guess that's true of anyone who follows their favorite team. We look beyond the numbers and to the face behind them. Not a bad philosophy for life.
