Why I Love Sports

I left Cologne yesterday and took a 4 hour train ride to Kaiserslauten. On the trian, I listened to my Ipod and read a travel book on Berlin. I thought about soccer and poker and baseball. My train pulled in to Kaiserslautern around 8:30 PM. I took a taxi to Jason's house and had to wait about 5 minutes before he pulled into the driveway. I came out to meet him and said, "Long time no see! Ready to kick it?" He replied with, "Yeah, let's do it. Today was crazy: Something happened in Iraq and we had 19 patients on the floor today. I'm worn out and need to get some beers."

Suddenly soccer, poker and baseball seemed like dumb things to think about. Jason works as a nurse at an Army hospital in Lanstuhl and treats soldiers that were evacuated from Iraq due to injuries suffered in the war. While he's here in Germany, I'm galavanting around the world, obsessed with sports, and all the while doing nothing of any real significance. It was a very sobering thought and I started to feel indifferent about the US-Italy match. Who cares? It's just a freaking game.

We hit the bars and I tried to express my thoughts to Jason. He rebuffs me and says that he's just doing his job. If he could, he'd be doing what I'm doing. That's why I love soldiers. The "I'm just doing my job" line is so ridiculously humble. "Yeah, I'm just saving lives while putting my own in extreme danger. No biggie."

Fast forward to today, around 3 PM. We're hungover in the streets of Kaiserslautern, among thousands of soccer fans chanting back and forth. The Italians outnumbered the Americans but we still had a good showing, mostly because of the heavy military influence here. I'd say that about half of those wearing red, white and blue had some affiliation to the many Army and Air Force bases nearby. I saw the face paint and I heard them cheering and I started to understand why sports matter. They weren't thinking about the war or the long days ahead of them. They were focused on a soccer match and for the time being it was all that mattered. I saw the excitement in Jason's eyes and I began to get fired up.

At 8:45 PM, Jason gets a phone call from two people in his squad. They have 2 extra tickets and want to know if we'd like to go to the game. Uh, yeah? We're about a mile from the stadium and sprint the whole way to meet them. I was full of sausage and potatoes but I ran faster than I have in a long time. We make it into the stadium as the National Anthem is ending and the players take the field. The atmosphere is surreal, I can't even begin to describe it, but the emotions of the 3 soldiers I was with struck me more than anything. All I could think about was the war and their jobs and how great it was that they were given this break from the "real world".

Everyone already knows how the game ended. The Nats played their hearts out and earned an incredible tie despite playing 9 on 10 for the entire second half. It was by far the greatest sporting event that I've ever been to and I've been to a lot of them. The Super Bowl this year, The NFC Championship game, Game 3 of the 2004 World Series; none of them come close to what I experienced today. I had tears in my eyes for the last 15 minutes of the game, watching these true American heroes root for our National team to hold off the Italians. It took everything I had to hold back from bursting into tears as we left the stadium chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" with the thousands of other fans and soldiers and Americans. It was definitely one of the greatest feelings of my life.

We beat Italy. We didn't win the game but anyone who watched that game knows we beat their ass. Supposedly, there are no moral victories in sports; Only the results matter. But, if you try to tell me that, try to tell Jason that, try to tell the thousands of Italians who left with hung heads, you'll get a very different answer. We beat Italy and for tonight, for Jason and the groups of soldiers on the streets, it was the most important thing in their lives.

That is why I love sports. Sports have an incredible ability to take our minds off of the stresses of everyday life. Sure, most games aren't as extreme as the World Cup and most stresses aren't as difficult as war, but the moral remains. Tomorrow, when Jason and his friends go back to work they'll be back in the war, but the memories of today will stay with them and make things a little easier. That's why the games matter and that's why I love sports.