Being a fan of multiple sports and a staunch supporter of more than one club or team will undoubtedly have it’s strains and stresses attached as an unwelcome accompaniment. It is indeed extremely rare (some say it’s nothing more than a mythical notion or fantasy) that both or even all of your keenly-followed teams are performing well enough to make you happy at the same time.
The sporting ‘love of my life’ is, without even the slightest hint of doubt, West Bromwich Albion. I had no choice in the matter as they were, and always will be, my dad’s team. Not once did I complain or even dream of asking about any of the other local clubs. If they were good enough for my dad, then that’d do for me. As it turns out, any perceived sporting insubordination would simply have led to a life lived in and out of various foster homes and hostels. In short, there was no choice to make and by the time I was old enough to realise, I had already been to the Hawthorns to see my new beloved and was also decked out in the gear too.
In terms of American Football and the NFL, the choice was mine to make and I chose the first home team that I ever saw on TV, back in the early 90’s. The Dallas Cowboys. Now back then I had no clue of who was the best team or who had the most history, most Superbowl trophies or any of the other superfluous aspects of fan-dom but when I saw Troy Aikman throwing the ball, Michael Irvin and Jay Novacek catching it and Emmitt Smith dancing his way through opposing lines, my choice was made.
Ever since, the fortunes of both clubs have caused me pain, anguish, heartbreak and of course occasional cheer. Bringing this tale up to the present day and thus conveniently skipping the unsightly years of horror between Aikman and Romo, not to mention the dreadful years of despair as Albion plummeted to the lowest point in their history (2 seasons in the third tier of English football) and the inter-twined roller-coaster rides continue to torment. As the Cowboys recorded a win against the Giants on the opening day, this cancelled out a little bit of my earlier grump about Albion not turning up in their defeat at home to Swansea the week before. The next weekend served up a spirited second half display by Albion to snatch a point in injury time away at Fulham but then a letdown by Dallas as they lost by the odd point in noisy Kansas City. Week 3 in the NFL was a rare weekend of double joy with a rampant Albion ripping Sunderland apart on the Saturday before Demarco Murray and the Cowboys did similar to St Luis on the Sunday.
Unfortunately, the last two weeks have seen a couple of agonising defeats for Dallas, firstly to a rejuvenated Philip Rivers-led San Diego Chargers and also to the phenomenal Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in a gut-wrenching 3 point loss which saw Tony Romo show just how well he can play the QB position before giving his ridiculously high number of detractors opportunity to pour scorn on what was, in all honesty, an absolutely unbelievable performance.
During those two losses, I had been otherwise jubilant following a first win at Old Trafford since 1978 in a fantastic 2-1 performance (not to mention a first win at the home of the reigning champions since the 1960’s) prior to the San Diego defeat and latterly a very well-deserved point at home to away-day specialists Arsenal just hours before the Denver devastation. In a way, this may be viewed as a good thing as I’m not quite sure that my heart would’ve coped with wins across the board and indeed I may well have burst a blood vessel or two in my manic state of celebration and elation. As it was, the losses merely served to calm my emotional waves and in a way remind me of the famous Kipling verse telling us to:
“Meet with Triumph and Disaster,
And treat those two impostors just the same”.
That said however, and all things considered (for an entire nanosecond) I would much prefer the ‘problem’ of how best to control my heart rate as celebrations reign left, right and centre as both Dallas and West Brom serve up entertainment and victories to get me through the late nights and early mornings, glued to my NFL Game Pass subscription. If the joint winning streak could be timed to coincide with the last half dozen NFL matches from late November until the end of December then Christmas in the Farr household will be an extremely happy one. Especially if recent back, ankle, laptop and wi-fi problems don’t resurface to supply a bit of emotional equilibrium.
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