So I grew up surrounded by boys who loved football, so I sort of get how it works. The sport isn't just a sport. It's life. Watching your team play is an emotional experience. And watching how other teams you don't support play each other matters because how they do inevitably effects how they'll do when they play your team. Got it. And fans watch these games on various days of the week at home, friends' homes, (sometimes at work, as I've witnessed), and bars.... right?
Right??
That's what I used to think. Then Kevin, who doesn't even watch his own favorite football team play, and I went shopping at the mall this week. We had wandered from one side of the mall to the other, in and out of stores, without incident. After Kevin grabbed some food, it was time to wander on back to the side of the mall that we had originally entered. This time, however, something very strange happened. Something I've never witnessed before.
A crowd of 20 men were standing outside of Victoria's Secret, staring, not in the store, but in my direction. I've had a lot of attention from the gentlemen lately, so naturally, I thought, "Oh, I've got this," handed my purse to Kevin and swayed my hips up towards the men to give them what they wanted. Ha, okay, not really. But they were grouped together at a Qwest stand, staring in our direction and I didn't know what could possibly be that intriguing that all these men had to stop at the stand and stare.
I had seen something similar to this once before. It was at the St. Louis Zoo in the penguin exhibit. One penguin would find a random spot and just stand there with it's wings spread back. Then two more penguins would join it and stare off in the same direction and spread their wings back. Then another penguin would join... and two more... and another.... until the space was filled and they were all staring at the same space.
But we're people. We don't often just gather with strangers and stare at nothing. So when Kevin and I passed them, we casually looked at what they were gaping their mouths at and it turned out that there was a television on the stand and on the television was a football playoff game. Some bird team against some mythological Greek thing. Apparently, only seconds were left in the game and they were tied. This was enough to stop nearly two dozen men in the middle of the mall... even my husband who doesn't even watch his fish team at home. I didn't know what to do. They were so into this, I felt like running down to the food court and getting nachos and soda for everyone. There was "OOOH"-ing and "AH!!"-ing. It just seemed so out-of-place. You do that in your cozy basement or at the bar. Not at a Qwest stand.
The moment the tie was broken and the seconds of the clock ticked away, everyone wandered away, as if these strangers hadn't just spent several minutes of their lives bonding over the bird team and the mythological greek guy tackling each other. It was as if they truly didn't see the oddity of the situation. I stared at my husband in quiet awe for five minutes afterwards, expecting an explanation.
Why doesn't he watch his "favorite team" at home or with buddies, but he was moved to join the strangers to watch two teams he doesn't care about, as though he were a penguin joining other penguins as they stared off in space??
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