Watching the softball team today made me circle back to this post because I am a casual fan of all Longhorn sports until they play for something that matters. I watched most of this weeks super regional and a good bit of last weeks regional just to see if we can make the WCWS.
If it is televised and the Longhorns are going for a trophy I am dialed in and watching every minute.
I pay more attention to Texas Football than is healthy, or for sure more than they deserve over the last decade. But I show up here at least a few times a week to see what the latest is. I will almost always tune in to watch, but they have made me not care by the end of most of the last 12 seasons. I didn’t watch any portion of the last 4 games. The first 8 were pathetic enough to completely disgust me.
Longhorn Basketball / Baseball are 2nd place. And I will watch as many of their games as I can (Good riddance LHN).
I live in Florida, got a degree from UF, married a Gator, have a daughter that is a Gator (no pics) and have best friends that are Gators. So I pull for UF, but it never seems as euphoric when they win or stings the way it does when the Horns lose.
Pro sports started killing my interest with the 1994 baseball strike and dealt the death blow with the Oilers leaving in 96. I will root for my favorite Longhorns in the league but have very little loyalty to pro sports, aside from the Astros since I grew up going to games and rooting for Nolan and Jose Cruz. I actually started liking them more when they went back to the historic uniform after those late 90s abominations.
Like most said, getting older puts things in perspective. I still love sports but it isn’t the same mania I had when I was younger. I actually root for the players a lot more than the logo. Stories like Dolcini making it to the WCWS make me as happy as seeing the Longhorns in the WCWS. Probably because I now have kids her age.