Jason Kidd and Jurgen Klopp beware!
Over the course of the last two plus days I’ve experienced wildly swing emotions around sports. Truth? I am unable to enjoy or even manage my emotions around sports. I get emotional.
My ability and inability to watch some and not others fascinate me. Makes me wonder. MUCH!
When “my side” prevails I soak in the highs. Even when I can’t get myself mentally stable enough to watch, I awake and go straight to my phone and the Bleacher Report app to gobble up everything in sight.
Then yesterday happens. Champions League final. The two most prolific sides in the long history of European Cup competitions were the combatants – Liverpool v. Real Madrid. Between them they have won nearly 1/3 of all such Cups awarded. Liverpools history is complicated. On the pitch, the Reds have not always been their current “Mentality Monster” best. AND off the pitch, few sides have experienced their heartache. 1989 Hillsborough Disaster! (I encourage you to read the history.) For those of you old enough (I think that is most of our demographic) to remember the 1979 Who Concert Disaster, Hillsborough was 8 times worse! Yes 8 times!! AND to make it all worse, it took nearly 30 years for the “truth” to emerge. For those 30 years “officials” had asserted it was the fault of the Reds fans. The “TRUTH”? ALL of the responsibility lay at the feet of the “officials”. Yesterday? Less than an hour before kickoff, troubles with Reds fans entering Parc Des Princes. Then UEFA (“officials”) issued a statement that said, and I paraphrase, troubles are emerging due to late arriving LFC fans. Hmmmm? Then an official 15 minute delay to kickoff. Then another 15 minute delay. The match finally kicked off 30 minutes after the originally scheduled time. LFC could not have been unaffected by this. Impossible. The essence of who they are includes Hillsborough. There would be no YNWA without Hillsborough. AND if you’ve ever been to Anfield (Reds home pitch) like I have, you can begin to understand YNWA.
I forced myself to go on Bleacher Report this morning. It wasn’t just the disappointment of the loss. How could anyone truly be disappointed by a season of 63 matches with 4 defeats. A measly 4. It was the reminder of Hillsborough and UEFA’s apparent pivot to now saying that it was caused by Reds fans that held fake tickets. UEFA laying blame at Red’s feet. This AGAIN? It is way too early to fully understand what happened. To be UNTANGLED. AND it is revealing to see that UEFA isn’t taking a neutral position while this settles.
NOISE comes in multiple formats. Surely it is audible. And it is so much more. I consumed two articles during my last two mornings. Both were about the “losers” (Dallas and Liverpool). Both specifically quoted the managers using the term “noise” focusing on the failure. How would anyone with a healthy perspective describe as such. IMPOSSIBLE. Both of the JKs made their attempt to beware the noise that would surely exist. Hell, already existed, largely on the seemingly unending supply of social media.
I’m getting somewhere! Me personally, not this blog post (never ending?). I mostly thrive on the audible noise. My essence enjoys most chaos. I mostly love making sense out of a seeming senseless world. NOISE to others, is often quite soothing to me.
Then there is social media. Make no mistake, it is my NOISE!
Can We? Will We? 