The Steelers' victory over the Broncos last Sunday brought back memories of a different football game -- a quarterfinal match of the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan. I remember staying up all night playing Snood awaiting the 4 a.m. PST kick-off, only to watch my beloved U.S. team, after coming so far against all odds, lose one-zip to Germany.
That was OK though. If I was going to be a fan of the U.S. team, I would have to get used to defeat. But being a soccer fan in the U.S., I would also have to get used to waiting -- four more years until my team would have another go.
Somewhere in those four years, I had to turn elsewhere for my sports-watching pastime -- so I chose the Steelers. Having by chance about 35 friends at Penn from Pittsburgh, the Steelers became a Sunday afternoon staple, and since L.A. doesn't have a football team, adopting them seemed natural. Plus, the Steelers were like my old U.S. team -- a ragtag underdog squad who would beat higher-ranked teams against all predictions, only to lose when it really mattered. Last year it was against the Patriots, this year, either the Colts or Broncos.
But, with Sunday's win, football picked up where futbol failed -- the Steelers, my team, actually won. All day I was so worked up, not from disappointment, but from victory. That's what college should be about: finding something new that you like, sticking with it and having it surprise you. For me, a cynical kid from Southern California whose first association with O.J. Simpson was The Naked Gun, it was finding football.
If I leave college with anything, it will be a love for football, at least how the Steelers play it. But who knows, the next World Cup begins in Germany this June...
