A Striking Symbol of Support
Daniel Wise
March Madness is the second best time to be a sports fan while the top spot belongs to the World Cup. I will gladly admit bias in making this sweeping, authoritative statement; however, I do have some solid reasoning for my ranking. While the top college hoops tournament is a grand event, it's still an intrinsically American product. Soccer, on the other hand, is a world-wide sport. While America as a whole is fickle about its interest in the World Cup, the immigrants and international visitors will still pack our bars and go wild for their home countries. The nature of one's support for their country is level with one's support for their alma mater. For this small school South Dakota boy, I don't exhibit such a fervor during this time as I do when the US Men's and Women's National Teams compete for gold. But I do recognize and appreciate the similarities. Anyway this blog post has nothing to do with any of those topics. Or does it? Like college grads who preserve artifacts and mementos from their years of studying and extracurriculars of official and unofficial merit, soccer fans do likewise. They sport the colors of their favorite team. They memorize the songs and chants that have been passed down through generations. And, a most curious fact, they collect an uncomfortable amount of scarves even if they live in tropical climates or in my case, a swamp which has yet to be drained and actually has become far worse for wear in recent times. But before I lose myself deeper into an unrelated tangent, let's discuss...
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