A lot of people won't understand the sentiments of this column.
After all, being a sports fan is not for everyone. Only the bravest souls undertake the roller-coaster ride that comes with choosing favorite teams and giving your heart and soul to them, even though there is nothing you can do to affect their fortunes.
I was one of those children. One of my earliest memories relates to sports: At the age of seven, I watched as some guy named David Gordon drilled a 41-yard field goal to destroy Notre Dame's national championship hopes in 1993.
Ever since, I've been completely addicted.
I'll freely admit that being a fan affects our lives far more than it should. For the most die-hard of the faithful, moods can be completely ruined by the outcome of a game played by millionaires hours away.
When Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee fractured his wrist last week on a fluke play against the L.A. Dodgers, it felt like a family member had just been kept from coming home for Christmas.
When the Chicago Bulls blew a 2-0 series lead last year in the first round of the playoffs against the Washington Wizards, I was bitter for days - an especially impressive feat considering I had just completed my first year of college.
And yet, for many, there is no cure once you have allowed sports to become part of your life. There are literally hundreds of testimonies from baseball fans who tried to disassociate themselves from the sport after the reprehensible 1994 strike, but they found themselves left with a void that wasn't filled until many of them came back in 1998 for the Sosa-McGwire home run chase.
The story is the same for basketball fans who tried to leave the sport during the 1998 lockout - once a fan, you simply can't stop being one. It's like a drug the federal government hasn't yet made illegal, except it's more addictive.
But one question is often on the lips of the uninitiated: Why?
Why do we pour so much of ourselves into an enterprise that, let's be honest, doesn't care that much about us?
Why do we spend hundreds of dollars on apparel, books, videos, video games, satellite dish packages and all manner of other goods, just because they have a logo or a team name slapped on it?
Most of us just don't know how to answer. What can a devout Christian say to an agnostic when asked why she believes so fervently in a God whose existence she cannot prove? What can a father say to a bachelor when asked what it was like when his first child was born?
There is no simple answer to determine those things, and it is the same for sports fans talking to those who are not.
All you can do is try to describe the feeling. But how do you put into words the feelings of Boston Red Sox fans after the 2004 season?
How can you possibly describe the emotions of Texas football fans after they won the championship last year?
There's no way to explain the emotions we feel when our teams defy the odds, overcome obstacles, come back late and win key games or step up at the exact moments necessary to deliver those huge plays.
But those are the very reasons we love them.
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