Sportsmanship

It’s the middle of September, and the UAAP season is in full swing. Now, I personally don’t care about the games (unlike some people I know), and whoever wins, wins. I never understood the allure of the spirit of this competition, much less the fervor fans have for their respective teams, that they bring themselves to the brink of very ungentlemanly behavior, as can be seen on the comments of this article.

Now, I won’t make it a secret that I was born and raised a Lasalista. Schooled by the FSC since kindergarten, I think I really learned quite a lot from that school – although the most important art the brothers taught me was to bullshit with a straight face, and then deliver on that bullshit afterwards (please don’t kill me, Brothers in my social circle). But for the love of the school that I’ve always had, I could never, for the life of me, get why people would start hurting each other, either physically or verbally, because of these games.

I guess you could say that I never got into the spirit because I was never really into the UAAP games. My circle of friends are the same, although if you make them watch an MMA game, they would always have something to say (which, again, I still don’t understand). I watch sports now and then, and appreciate it, but the allure isn’t the same for me.

Sometimes, I wonder if it’s because I was no sportsman. I could swim well enough, and I had enough basic martial arts training that I wouldn’t say I was completely helpless in a fight, but I never in a million years wished to pursue what Gray Fox would call the clashing of bone and sinew. Or, as in the case of chess, the clash of mental acuity. Because, you know, chess is still a sport, despite what you purists say about it.

In a way, I’m glad I was never like that. I’m glad I would never resort to calling people stupid or bobo or tanga out in the open just because they fought for a different cause than I did. I would never assault a fan of the opposing team because we lost. And I would never call people out on technicalities that shouldn’t even be there just because I was called out on one myself in the first place. (if that last part happened, I’d focus on defending myself first, get it over with, and THEN call them out on technicalities, so I guess that last bit doesn’t count).

I still do enjoy watching the UAAP games sometimes. And coming from a mixed extended family of Lasalistas and Ateneans always makes this season exciting. But all these controversies cheapen the whole experience, and its times like these that I can truly say that I’m glad I never took sides. I’d be hard-put to be objective if I did.