Jeremy: My Emotional Gopher Experience

I was standing in Sportsman's Bar on Como Avenue in Minneapolis with my gal last Saturday as Jason Gianni kicked the Gopher field goal that beat Michigan. The first time a Gopher football team had taken the Little Brown Jug from the Wolverines in 19 years. Why I was at Sportsman's surrounded by a bunch of half-hearted (at best) Gopher football fans is not important (and it's pretty anti-climactic too), but what is important is how it felt.
You've already read all the stories about how big of a win it was, how the Gophers did it, how Michigan is having a down year. None of those stories matter now. It's over. The Gophers beat Michigan. It's just a W on the record and let's move on to Wisconsin.
At least as far as the team is concerned.
It's six days later and I can't stop smiling everytime I think about the fact that we finally lifted the monkey that is Michigan off of our backs, threw it to the ground, and walked away able to look ahead.
My uncle and my cousin were there. I talked to them after the game. I wasn't even there, but just talking to them on the phone was an emotional experience for me. My gal will attest to the fact that I was an emotional mess when we walked out of Sportsman's. I was happy with disbelief over the win. I was ecstatic for my uncle and cousin who were at the game. I was slightly sad that I wasn't able to be there with them.
It's the weirdest thing in the world sometimes, to me, to be a sports fan. The logical part of my brain keeps telling me that it's just a game, a dumb football team full of guys that I don't know. But the emotional part of my brain (heart?) is completely overcome.
Anyway, yes, I cried. Okay? I said it, I cried.
I'm walking out of a crap little bar with my fiance and I'm shedding tears over a football game as she consoles me and I'm babbling, "I can't believe we beat Michigan. It's just a dumb football game. I can't believe we beat Michigan. I'm sorry I'm crying, it's just a dumb game, but... it's Michigan. And my uncle and cousin are there."
I can't imagine what it would have been like to be there. I'm sure I would have just collapsed.
I cannot explain it, I simply cannot. I cannot explain my loyalty to sports teams. I cannot explain the anger I feel when they act like idiots off the field. I cannot explain the joy I get when they finally do well. And I cannot explain why it brings me to tears.
But what I can explain is how much fun I've had at Gopher games over the years both home and away, even when I feared for my life one November Saturday in Iowa City. I can explain the memories of tailgating with close friends, making new friends, and having perhaps one too many before heading into the Dome for an 11 a.m. kick off.
And I can explain how close I am to my uncle and my cousin and how I believe Gopher football has played a huge part in that. Gopher football is like a strange family legacy for us. It's an unrational loyalty to a rotating bunch of young men who we have no personal attachment to except for the state in which they play. It's not like being a fan of Florida State or USC or Notre Dame, whose teams have one or two bad seasons in 20. It's different. I believe it takes a bit more intestinal fortitude to be a Gopher fan. Then again, I'm a little bit biased.
I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again...
This is what it's like to be a Gopher fan.