Why The Madness Keeps Us Sane

Whenever I turn on the news, check a website, or look through a paper, I am constantly reminded by so many people that "THESE ARE TRYING TIMES", "IT'S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE", and "JUST GIVE IN NOW TO THE INEVITABLE DOOM". The economy is fighting to come back, people hate people, we are fighting loosing battles everywhere in defense of freedom (something that too many of us take for granted), and most of those in power can only seem to resort to petty arguments over inconsequential things.


It should not surprise us, then, that we live and breathe for our teams - especially those who are making fairy-tale-like runs to best the proverbial Goliaths of their sport.  This fight, this struggle, this battle which we every-day Joe's feel like we are waging by proxy, is one of the last tangible things we have to motivate us to face the next day's earthly and all-too-real issues.


I'm a Kansas Jayhawk, born and bred.  I have rooted for the 'Hawks for as long as I can remember, and too have memories of the ups and the downs.  That famous buzzer-beating-shot? I was jumping up and down, screaming in joy.  The loss to VCU? I was standing, still and quiet, heartbroken.  The oddity of being a Kansas fan is that, in both situations, you are never surprised.  We simultaneously expect both the best and the worst to happen.  Being a Jayhawk fan isn't just liking a team, it is a completely different state of mind.  We expect our team to do their best, play their hardest, and leave everything they can on the court.  And when they don't?  We are bitterly disappointed in them, and have to constantly remind ourselves that there will be another team and another season.


I think that it is the similarities between this and our lives that make March, and sports in general, so important to us. During the regular season (non-conference play included) approximately 293,400 individual tickets were sold for the Men's Basketball games at Allen Fieldhouse.  Last Thursday night, on CBS alone (not counting cable networks showing other games), viewing topped out at 7.01 million.  Saturday night? 10.24 million viewers. Watching a game. On TV.


Sports are important. Basketball is important. March is VERY important.  There is a sense of connection that we have with the teams we root for, whether they are life-long commitments or Cinderella picks. We live through the player's trials.  When Darnell Jackson's mom died, the Jayhawk ranks closed quickly for support.  When Thomas Robinson's mother died, the Lawrence community, Jayhawks everywhere, and college basketball fans around the country lent their support in any way they could.  These players, mere boys, fight for us, bleed for us, struggle for us, and we are grateful.


We are grateful for the moments in the sun. We are grateful for the moments of joyful escape.  We are even grateful for the moments of failure, because it just proves that they are human, just like we are. We are grateful, and we look forward to the next season, the next game, the next flight or fall, because it gives another day to look forward to.