30 Tiny Truths - 11

11. Sports Hate (or One Day I Will Piss on Cameron Indoor Stadium) ...

Last week after watching the most excruciatingly horrible sixty minutes of sporting competition ever in my entire life ever (ever!), I resolved that I would form a band, and we would never ever tour Pittsburgh, and would give free cds to anyone who came to our shows and burned/destroyed a terrible towel.

This was not a moment of rational thought, I know this. But I really really really hate the Pittsburgh Steelers (and the Penguins too, but have no real beef with the Pitt Panthers or the Pirates). And I know that outside the context of the sport, this kind of irrational dislike would be the kind of thing that tends to lead to civil wars and other terrible things. But hating other sports teams is one of the great joys of sports. I will never ever not hate Duke. If I'm in the company of some who attended that University I will try for civility, but in my mind I will be thinking unkind thoughts about them.

And the nice thing, though, is that I'm not a lone crazy on this. For example, ask anyone who attended Ohio State what they think of the state of Michigan, then ask someone from Michigan the reverse. Then ask a Penn State alum their thoughts on the other two schools. Then get an alumni of Michigan State to weigh in. You will hear a lot of salty language, at the very least. We've named four schools and already we have enough hate to power a mid-sized city.

But some weeks it's enough just to see your team pull out a win and make it to the playoffs. And those weeks are pretty great too.