It comes as no surprise that I enjoy watching football. For me, football is like chess on steroids. It isn’t the big hits, camaraderie, or cheerleaders. For me it’s all about the chess match happening between the coaches and players. I’m more interested in pre-snap reads than the actual play. Strategy is the name of the game.

In 2009, I watched the New Orleans Saints go all the way to the Super Bowl and win it. I had supported these lovable losers throughout my adolescents and teen-years before they finally won the big game. I learned some important lessons about what it means to be real fan that year.

Growing up in Turlock, California(central valley) wasn’t the best place to be a Saints fan. Oh did I mention I grew up during 80′s and 90′s? Those were the years the SF 49ers were in their hay-day. I was the only student at Turlock High School who was a Saints fan. I remember thinking (if they can just do good one year then I can finally stick it to those 49er fans)……It never happened. In 2000, one year after I graduated high school they FINALLY won their first, yes let me repeat that, their FIRST playoff game. They got blown out in the very next round. They didn’t see the playoffs again for another 6 years (2006). And finally, in 2009, they won their first ever Super Bowl.

I had a lot of pent up anger inside me of that I wanted to explode upon 49er, Cowboy, Rams, Steelers, and Raider fans. I thought to myself, “this is my time to shine, let me give them crap for all those years of bashing the Saints.” Sometimes I did. Sometimes I went back and gloated but this caused me to learn an important lesson that year.

When your arrogant(not to be mistaken for confident) about your team winning then you turn others off to your fandom. I think it is good to jest and poke fun but there is an ethic. Here are some guidelines I follow in determining my own health as a sports fan:

1. What am I more excited about? My team winning or another team losing? If it is another team losing than I think I’ve lost the ball somewhere and committed some sort of ethical penalty. Support your team because you like your team not because your excited about another team losing.

2. Do I ever use personal put downs during banter? “you’re an idiot” “you’re a loser” These are the worst because it becomes personal whether we admit it or not. Our words are important and it is easy to let the wrong thing slip out during gesturing.

3. Do I ever create unhealthy personal friction by rubbing a loss in someones face? Does the other person I’m dealing with enjoy the banter or am I just creating unhealthy space?

4. Does my support for a football team limit my ability to share what God has done in my life with others? This is the last question but I think it is the most important for me – I am a Pastor, as I think all of us are ministers but it is entirely different for me as I aspire to be a long-term preacher. The day when my support for the Saints blocks someone from hearing what I have to say about the Lord Jesus is the day that my fandom has become a devil.

I want to enjoy the strategy of the game and talk strategy with my friends. This will mean that I have to temper how I talk about the Saints so that I can engage in healthy conversation.

PS. If your team has been losing for a really really long time, just remember it was CS Lewis who said: “the pain NOW is part of the joy THEN.” All those years of losing made the 2009 Super Bowl that much better.