As February rolls in I am anticipating a fun exciting month. My school’s winter dance is the second Saturday, Valentine’s Day is on the 14th, a few school days are off for President’s Day and teacher meetings, and now that the second quarter is over there isn’t a rush to cram lessons and grades in. Oh yeah I almost forgot, the Super Bowl is on February 6th. You may think, “Gosh, how did you forget the Super bowl?” it’s easy to forget because I hate football.

Now, with that statement I have already isolated myself from 99% of those I talk to and those reading this. Every time I say I hate football I am given queer looks, sometimes dirty looks, and scoffs. “How can you hate football?” They ask. I say, well how can you like it? I think it’s boring. “But you live in Pittsburgh, hello the Steelers are in the Super Bowl!” Oh that reminds me I don’t like the Steelers at all. By now 99.9% of you wonder if I was dropped on my head or if I am truly American born, if not my birth certificate is lying, and half of the .1% want to give me a high five for not liking the Steelers, the other half of the .1% are in agreeance with me. People don’t understand why I don’t like football and there are many reasons why I don’t, and why you won’t see me watching the game on Sunday.

The game starts and stops too much for me. A normal game lasts four hours, who has time to watch football for four hours? I’d rather finish an essay on mitosis than sit through that. I understand the rules and the plays but I find no enjoyment watching. Then From what I see the players are self absorbed, arrogant, and ready to blame their teammates when something goes wrong in a game. I see players like Vick, who is and was paid more than the average Joe would ever see, and he used it in a viscous, horrific, heartless dog fighting ring. He served his time, but I’ll never look at him the same, every time he’s mentioned my stomach churns. I think of the poor dogs. They weren’t given a second chance and now he’s back playing football.

The player I detest the most is Ben Roethlisberger. The news is full of his exploits with charges of sexual assault. No one knows for sure if he committed these crimes, he’s charged with two separate occasions, but a role model, a team leader, should not be involved in those situations. I could list a plethora of other miscellaneous charges brought to players, but I will say for the sake of the good, honest players won’t. There are role models and good men in football. Some run charity event s and I tip my hat to them. I think of Jerome Bettis who lives with Asthma, a disease I have as well, who started the “Bus Stops Here” Foundation to help inner-city children rise above and make the best out of themselves. He is an inspiration. I’m not saying all players are “jerks”, I’ve seen my far share of them. Other sports have them as well. I just notice it more with football.

What I can’t stand most, not the game, nor the players, but the fans. I have had people curse me, people cut me off midsentence to yell at me, mocked, and other degrading words said to me, simply because I am not a fan of their game. Whenever someone talks to me about football and I mention my distaste for it, they usually get angry and tell me my opinion doesn’t matter or I can take my hate somewhere else. I debate football calmly, I always have. It’s the fans who get so obsessed and angry when someone disagrees that they raise their voices and point in my face and tell me to keep my opinions to myself. Well if you can voice your love about the game and challenge me, I’m going to debate back in a calm manner. Politics doesn’t even get as heated as football. I find that terribly sad.

I wasn’t born in Pittsburgh but I moved here, so Pittsburgh really isn’t my hometown. So I’m off the hook for them being “my team”. I live in cutthroat Steelers country. I use the word cutthroat because if you don’t like the Steelers here, you WILL get your throat cut. It’s not just the game with which I have a quarrel, but also the insane football fans like I said earlier. But some fans don’t just yell, In 2002 a diner near the city was witness to a murder brought upon by disagreements with football sports teams. Three men were in a bathroom when the brawl took place and two Steelers fans beat a man so severely he later died.

I was around eight or nine when that happened and it still stuck with me. A man lost his life because he didn’t like the Steelers? And I am aware that there are the occasional aggressive fans everywhere, but that started my dislike for the Steelers. It’s just a game! It’s supposed to stand for fun and getting together for friendly competition. Why has it become a religion? I’ll never understand that, nor ever partake in the religious duties of obsessing over a sports team, especially football. I’m in a small minority skipping the Super Bowl, I may read instead.