Why we love Sport

You can watch the top 10 movies of all time and they won’t give you that feeling. You can watch one hundred great shows at the theatre compared to one hundred football matches in the Premier League and on average the theatre shows will move you more often, But that isn’t why we watch football. We watch football for moments like today, that brief second when beyond all expectation, beyond all logic and belief the simply miraculous happens. That brief moment when all the money, talent, technology and preparation flies out the window. That brief moment when we think good things do happen and dreams come true.
When the ball hit the back of the net after Cheik Tiote’s wonder strike it sent 50 000 Geordies into ecstasy, it tripled the bar tabs of numerous pubs in Newcastle and nobody who witnessed it will forget it…ever. Tiote especially. He will always remember what he was thinking as the ball dropped down onto his foot. He will always remember what the ball felt like when it struck his foot. He will always remember what he was thinking as the ball flew towards the bottom left corner. And he will always remember that he had absolutely nothing in his head as he ran like a mad man screaming his head off. He might not even have heard the packed stadium erupt. And for a few brief moments he had given thousands of people another reason why they love the beautiful game. All the bills they have to pay, all their pressures at work, all their doubts about themselves or life in general. All forgotten. They all shared a brief moment of the purest, uninhibited utter joy and that, my friends, is why millions of people around the world watch hundreds of utterly boring football games year in year out. For that one moment of perfection that nothing else can possibly give.