‘C’mon Arsenal, c’mon, please hold on’ I said it for the umpteenth time. ‘Please.’ And Arsenal held on, we won 1-0. As the referee blew the whistle and ended the match, I exhaled deeply and a big smile drew over my face, showing a mixed feeling of victory, relief, love and ecstasy.
I go into the room, remove my Arsenal jersey, fold it immaculately, making sure there are no creases, and carefully place it on top of the heap of my un-ironed t-shirts which were thrown into my cupboard. ‘Forget it, who am I kidding? My jersey would become like one of them and I’m no ways allowing that to happen,’ I tell myself.
Then I very cautiously lift the jersey off the pile, I open my closet but see no empty hangers. No empty hangers in daddy’s closet as well. I pull out a hanger from his closet which already had daddy’s 3 freshly ironed and folded shirts. I remove them all and throw them untidily on the bed, spoiling the 3 shirts’ crease completely, and neatly and carefully hang my Arsenal jersey in my closet. ‘My Arsenal jersey looks so neat,’ I say as I leave the bedroom, with an innocent smile on my face.
I check my phone; see my dear friend Shreya’s 3 missed calls and 37 ‘PING!!!’s sent 55 minutes ago. I call back. “Where on Earth were you Chirag?” is what I hear instead of a “Hello” or a sweet little “Hi Chirag” with which she usually greets me. “Arsenal. Match. Was Busy. Sorry sorry” was all I could say as a clearly pissed Shreya snapped back at me.“Fine! I really don’t understand. You guys are crazy, why do you’ll love football so much?” and the line went dead.
I’m very sure I’m not the only guy who has faced this awkward situation at least once in their life, as several of my ardent football fans would agree with this statement - The moment when someone (99.99% a female) just doesn’t understand how can someone love a game so much? ‘I mean it’s just 20 people running around kicking one ball, it’s really stupid!’ – That’s what girls see in football, that’s how a girl’s mind functions. And they say that guys are mean and rude.
But think about it, frankly speaking, I don’t think we can hold it against girls for not feeling what we guys feel. I mean imagine a girl going crazy and kissing the television screen like how we guys do when Robin van Persie scores a goal for Arsenal. I simply cannot picture that, it won’t happen. It’s not meant to be, and it still remains an impossible dream of every football fan to date a girl who loves Arsenal, or rather football for that matter. Again I reiterate, it’s an impossible dream. Reason - ‘I mean it’s just 20 people running around kicking one ball, it’s really stupid!’
Anyways coming back, I think about what Shreya is thinking. She simply is not able to understand the thing we guys share with football. But I don’t think it’s her fault. This is a feeling which is absent in all girls’ DNA. It’s not only her, but all the girls. They cannot feel the same way about football how we feel. Hence, the abrupt conversation with Shreya has got me thinking…why do we love football so much?
What is it in this sport that makes or breaks our day? Even though we have had a horrible day, watching Arsenal win at night makes our day totally worth it? Even though we have had an awesome day, we still end up crying if Arsenal loses at the end of the day? Why is this? Indeed, why do we love football so much?
Not only watching, playing football too. No matter how many ever times you’ve hurt yourself playing football, you just cannot wait to heal completely and get back out there, and you become restless and cranky and feel uneasy if you do not play for a few days. No matter how tough your examination is the next day or how unprepared you are, you simply cannot say ‘no’ to a football plan today. No matter how ever sad or low you are feeling one particular morning, your day magically becomes super awesome in a matter of seconds when your friend calls you and says that there is a football plan in the evening. The entire afternoon becomes restless, lively and happy in anticipation of a great match of football with your friends. What brings this behaviour? Why and how does football bring such a paradigm shift in our day? Why does it play such an integral part of our lives? Why do we love football so much?
Why is it that we can talk for hours and hours about football, but when it comes to other matters, we hardly have anything to chip in? Many-a-times, in a social gathering, guys are at times lost amongst female company, and feel out of sorts, but when they are with fellow football fans, they are lively and buzzing. What brings about this change? And more importantly, why? Why do we love football so much?
When Arsenal loses, the tears that an Arsenal fan like me sheds, shows how big a deal Arsenal is for us. Those tears are genuine. Our hearts ache. We are hurt. Why is that? And when Arsenal wins after playing beautifully, seeing fans of Manchester United and Chelsea applaud Arsenal’s performance as well makes us feel so proud of our Arsenal. We cry again, this time in love, happiness and pride. Those are one of the moments when we are proud not only of Arsenal, but of football in entirety. Why is that? Why do we love football so much?
When we talk about Arsenal, we refer to it as ‘our’ club. When we discuss football, we say ‘’we’ played beautifully’ today. What does the ‘we’ signify? Does it show unity? A Bond? Love? What are we, a family? What is it? Why does this happen? Why do we love football so much?
I believe I have provided some food for thought for all the guys reading this. Think about it. Why do we love football so much? As for the girls, please, try to see it from a guy’s point of view, just try to see what we guys see, just try to feel what we guys feel. Just try to understand – why do we love football so much?
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