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When They Hate What You Love

When They Hate What You Love

Last updated on: September 2, 2015 at 11:44 pm by Jason Mankey

When They Hate What You Love 2015-09-02T23:44:56-06:00 Jason Mankey

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Last September I made my first pilgrimage to Stonehenge. It cost an ungodly amount of money and involved waking up at 3:00 AM, but I got to live a dream for a good solid hour. As good tourists my wife and I took dozens of pictures of Stonehenge; including pictures of just her amongst the stones, pics of us, and of course snapshots of just the stones. A lot of people travel with special or sacred items and like to get their picture taken near historic sites with them. I brought an item like that, but it wasn’t an altar tool or a precious family heirloom. It was a terrible towel, something some of us wave at football games, and it’s only sacred to fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Out of everything I own, the thing I most wanted a picture of me with at Stonehenge (other than my wife of course) was a yellow dish cloth, to many of my friends that was down right odd. But I love football in a way I love few other things in this life. If I was ever forced to make some sort of grand choice, football or Witchcraft, I’d probably stick with the Craft, but I can’t say that with absolute certainty. I might very well pick football, I don’t know. Thankfully that’s a choice I’ll never have to make because the world doesn’t present us with stupid ultimatums like that and my friends are generally smart enough to leave me alone during football season.

I do sometimes re-arrange my ritual life around football season, but only a little bit. Next weekend I’ll be cutting out of a Mabon Halig ritual after-party a little earlier than some might like to catch the Michigan State (Spartans) vs Oregon (blucks) game. Other Saturdays this Fall will probably find me checking my phone incessantly during certain match-ups, but I usually manage to get through my Pagan commitments relatively unscathed. And don’t tell me to “DVR the game” or whatever, in the text heavy/social media world we live in there are no surprises anymore, nor would I expect my friends to preserve a score from me.

For Those of You Waiting for Jason’s Absolutely Useless and Meaningless NFL Predictions . . . .

NFC Division Winners: Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, Carolina Panthers
Wild Card Teams: Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals
NFC Winer: Green Bay Packers

AFC Division Winners: New England Cheatriots Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos
Wild Card Teams: Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills
AFC Winner: Indianapolis Colts

Super Bowl Winner: Green Bay Packers
League MVP: Aaron “Discount Doublecheck” Rogers

Spartans! What is your profession!?!

If you are like most Pagans out there you probably hate football, and if I had my life to do over again I’d probably join you. Football (both the college and pro versions) is violent and really only has the best interests of a few people at the top in mind. College is a little bit better when it comes to the latter, but the decisions made about the game are generally done with money in mind.

Of course most of the entertainments we partake in only have the best interests of a few people in mind. Hasbro doesn’t release new versions of Dungeons and Dragons as a public service, they do it to make money. Some movies are made with good intentions (I’m thinking of things like 12 Years a Slave and not Ant-Man), but they only get made because someone at the top envisions making money off of them. Few things are as exploitive as the NFL, but unless you are completely off the grid you probably visit some places that are nearly as bad professional football. (You don’t shop at Amazon? Wal-Mart? I promise not to judge anyone for where they shop, don’t judge me for what I watch.)

I’d love to quit watching football because I know it’s a huge waste of time and emotion. Nothing makes me happier than my team winning a football game, and few things make me sadder. It’s an emotional roller coaster I don’t control, and it plays to my adrenaline like a drug; the highs are exquisite and the lows are the lowest . . . . I’d love to quit football, but I’m not sure that I can. I can quit football no more than I can quit reading about Pagan history. Both things are more than wants at this point, they’ve become needs.

Jason’s Most Likely Wrong College Football Playoff Predicitions-Now With Whining!

Last year was the inaugural of the College Football Playoff and it was awesome. It’ll soon expand to eight teams due to its amazingness, but sadly we’ll be stuck with just four this year, and it’s a crying shame. There are probably eight or so teams good enough to get in the playoffs, but because of the shark infested waters of the SEC West and the top heavy Big Ten East some of the most deserving teams won’t make the playoff. On the plus side, that means Big 12 fans will see one of their teams get in.

In: Ohio State, Baylor, Auburn, Oregon

The winner of the SEC West (who will also win the SEC of course) will most likely get in, but if that winner has more than two losses they end up on the outside looking in (and three losses is a very real possibility). A two-loss SEC team will probably get in over one loss TCU and Michigan State squads, though it’s complete crap and it shouldn’t happen. In a dream scenario Michigan State beats Oregon by at least ten points and narrowly looses to an undefeated Ohio State and somehow sneaks into the playoff. My Spartans were screwed out of a National Title in 2013 and they’ll be screwed out of a playoff game this year too. (It’ll be insane to see MSU beat Oregon, and then for the Ducks to get into the playoff while my Spartans sit on the sidelines. I’m already mad, I’ll stop now, I promise, OK, maybe I won’t.)

National Champ: Ohio State The Buckeyes are just that good, this team is stacked. A new era of Big 10 Football is beginning, one where the Big 10 is once again the best conference in college football.

As football season approaches I have one request for all of you who hate the game or don’t care about it: don’t be an asshole about it. There are dozens of things my friends like to do or watch that I don’t care about. I’m not a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but I’ve never posted a meme stating “This is me not giving a shit about Buffy.” You like Buffy, awesome! It’s probably what my wife will be watching during her impending football widow-hood. In January I’ll be a Downtown Abbey widower and I’m cool with that. Dame Maggie Smith makes her happy, much like Connor Cook makes my Saturday’s worth getting up early for. (Cook is the quarterback at Michigan State University.)

Sometimes people hate what you love, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However there’s no need to ridicule the things we don’t like or don’t understand. (For those of you who use the term sportsball, you know damn good and well it’s called football or basketball or whatever.) I don’t understand Anime, but I have a lot of friends who love it. No problem, and many of them spend just as much money and time on it as I do on football. And yet no one I know has ever posted a picture of Julie Andrews not giving two shits about anime, and hopefully it’ll never happen. As long as no laws or personal boundaries are being broken we should support the things that make our friends happy even if we think they suck.

We aren’t going to all like the same stuff, and we should be fine with that. I promise not to make fun of your stuff if you don’t make fun of my stuff. For many of us football is a necessary evil in our lives. And it’s really on a problem if you follow me on Facebook.

Jason Mankey is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Michigan State Spartans, and Tennessee Volunteers (and probably in that order, but it can change). He doesn’t think the Steeler D is good enough to win this year’s Super Bowl and believes that his beloved Spartans will get screwed in a bad way in December. He thinks Butch Jones has the Vols on the right track and that they will will beat Florida later this month.

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