A Little Too Much Vicarious Living

In another sad story highlighting people who take sports a little bit too seriously, a Nigerian man killed four people when he ran over a group of Barcelona fans who were celebrating Barca's win over Manchester United.

Many of these soccer fans are absolutely nuts. I mean, you can say what you want about Oakland Raider fans and people who sit on the upper level at Philadelphia Eagles games, but there's nothing that stirs up fan passion the way that soccer does. In fact, it's true that soccer was key part of the backdrop of a war, though not the underlying cause as some misunderstand. But still, nothing makes me think about the modern day analog for the frenzy of the Roman Coliseum than a soccer match.

I'm a sports fan, and I confess that I've celebrated great victories and have lamented over tough defeats. Someone pointed out to me that one of the ways that sports fans illustrate unhealthy fandom is the use of the plural first person, such as "Man, we were doing so well until the fourth quarter" or "We need to play better defense." We? Unless you're somehow an owner, employee or player on the team, how exactly are we staking a claim to be part of the team?

Of course I know why fans (and I) do it. We live vicariously through our sports teams because the thrill of victory feels good. Which is usually just fine until you decide to commit vehicular homicide when your team loses.