A bunch of us had a great time watching the Pats victory last night. What a game! But there is a seamy side to sports fandom that is never far below the surface, and we ran into an ugly display of it after the game.
Here's the story. We called a friend of ours on the West Coast before the game. A die-hard Pats fan, he had moved out west a few months ago, believing that God had called him to go to school out there. Anyway, we left a message on his phone (by "we" I mean the eight of us that were at my house to watch the game last night), all of us shouting "Go Pats!" and other silly things.
Well, after the game he called us back from the bar in which he had watched his beloved Pats eek out another victory. And were we ever surprised by what we heard. I don't know exactly how it got started, but apparently some "sore losers" in the bar didn't appreciate having a Pats fan in their midst. Overhearing the celebratory phone conversation, they actually attacked my friend. We had our phone on speaker so we could all hear. What we heard was a barroom brawl. We all went into prayer for our friend as we listened to enraged shouts, screams, curses, etc. One man, probably the bartender, kept shouting, "Don't do it! It's not worth it!" over and over, so we were worried that someone had pulled a weapon or something.
Anyway, you can imagine our horror. After a while things slowly calmed down and then the connection was broken, as our friend apparently shut his phone. Well, we called him back a few times and finally got through to him. It seems that when the shoving started a fellow came up behind him and said, "Don't worry, man, I got your back." But when our friend turned to him the guy simply sucker punched him right in the face!
Well, anyway, our friend is okay, though somewhat shaken. He went out to the West coast to go to school, feeling it was God's will for him, but he is definitely feeling very discouraged now, because this is just one of numerous trials he has gone through since arriving.
I love sports, but sometimes I really hate sports fans.
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