What’s All the Fuss ‘Aboot’?

Posted by Cynical Sarah on November 14, 2006

This weekend, my hubby and I trekked across the border back into the United States. We went to Seattle for a jujitsu tournament and some shopping for Christmas gifts for my family back in South Dakota. While there we took the opportunity to meet up with some friends for dinner.

The plans were set up in advance when nobody had any clue what they were going to want to eat, so the plan was to meet at a sports bar, which of course would have a little of something for everyone, at a location convenient to where we were staying. Normally that would be a great plan. Even in a sports bar you can usually find a semi-quiet corner to chat while you’re eating.

At least in Canada it’s that way, but I forgot how crazy sports fans can be in the United States. As soon as we walked into this sports bar, it was obvious true sports nuts had congregated their to watch their respective games. Cheers were erupting around the room, mutterings of game strategy were coming from everywhere and all eyes were glued to flat screen TVs all over the room and even hanging in booths.

I’m a pro football fan and enjoy a good hockey game too, but I had no clue that a place like that would be so busy on a Saturday evening just because of college football.

I’m not sure why I was so surprised. I went to college in Nebraska and did my first year of newspaper work in a small town in that state as well. There’s really nothing like Husker fans, and it’s very easy to get caught up in the craze.

The craze was so widespread that even the country commission’s secretary, who was a little older woman, probably in her 60s at the time, who had a little bit of a resemblance to the aliens from Mars Attacks, had memorized the entire Husker season schedule.

She could tell you what day and time they were playing, against which team, and whether or not it was a home game. I would have put money down that she could even tell you which bars in town would show the game – not that there were many that would risk the chance of being boycotted if they decided not to play it.

It’s been so long since I’ve been immersed in that crazed fan culture, that it just seemed odd that so many Oregon Ducks fans would show up in a sports bar in Seattle to watch the college ball game Saturday night. They were definitely die-hard fans too. I don’t remember who they were even playing, but the score was 0-0 for quite some time, but they still found lots to cheer about.

At first we weren’t really paying attention, and I just assumed the game must be going really well by the cheers and jeers that were going on all around us. It turns out there really wasn’t much worth getting excited over. It was a very defensive battle with no score yet, and they were just getting all worked up about first-downs and the occasional good play.

Canadians are a much different breed of sports fan. Or at least the ones I’ve come into contact are. The best example would be the one closest to home I suppose. My husband will watch the Canucks play and is even a pretty big fan, but he doesn’t get all that worked up over the games.

Will he cheer for goals? Yes. Will he be disappointed if they lose? Yes. Will he cheer every time his team makes a good pass or gets the puck over the blue line? No. They’re actually pretty lucky if he makes it through watching all of the game. It’s too easy to lose him to another show or a computer game during the 20 minute intermissions – and he’s a pretty typical Canadian.

You could probably say it’s another example of the differences between the two cultures. Despite being neighbors and having a fairly common history and ancestry, somewhere along the line, the two nations went their separate ways as far as temperament goes.

We Americans tend to be hot headed. We have road rage, stressed out postal workers, too much work to take a vacation, and the tenacity of a bull dog when it comes to supporting the teams that are nearest and dearest to our hearts. Canadians are a bit more of a laid back people with a “go with the flow” attitude. They do love their sports, especially hockey, but its certainly nothing to get your panties in a bunch about out in public.

- Sarah L. Polson

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