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SPORTS
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Photo by TIM MANDELL
Owen County senior Aaron Sutherland takes a jumper over Carroll
County’s Bobby Riley Friday night at Owen County High School.
Sutherland scored 16 points and Owen County won 64-50.
Basketball
Boys
nab district win
Girls
lose district game
Green
breaks record
Owning
a team is tough
On
the Sidelines
Tim
Mandell
Ownership is an odd entity when it applies to something you don’t
actually have in your possession.
Sometimes ownership is nothing more than complete familiarity
with something.
Or it’s an idea.
Or a way of living.
I own clothes and a car and a bunch of other junk that fills an
apartment that I don’t own.
But I rent the apartment, so during the course of my lease, I
sort of own it, as long as I pay my rent and keep out of trouble.
Everything in it is mine while I’m living there, but some
of it has to stay when I move out.
People get familiar with places — schools, restaurants,
offices — and feel a certain ownership while they’re
there, and sometimes, they feel a continued ownership once they
move on.
Like a high school graduate who keeps returning to the school
even though their time has past, or a regular at a restaurant
who feels they’ve earned the right to walk behind the counter
and enter employee-only zones, or a former employee who thinks
nothing of meandering through an office that no longer employs
them.
I’ve never really felt that way, maybe because I have a
hard time feeling comfortable in those places to begin with.
But it’s like that in professional sports.
Fans feel a certain ownership to their team — whether they
live in the same town, the same state, a nearby state, or they
just found an affinity to the team some time during their lives.
When people ask me to name my favorite teams, I usually don’t
know how to answer, because I don’t really have any favorite
teams.
I grew up in a state without any major sports teams.
When I lived in areas with teams, I liked those teams while living
there, but had a hard time continuing that kinship once I moved
on.
I’d like to root for the Bengals and Reds, but haven’t
found myself drawn to either team, even though the Bengals are
easy to rally behind, since they had one of their best seasons
ever.
I think it’s easy to feel ownership to a college team, especially
if you or someone in your family attended the school.
I only went to New Mexico State University for three semesters,
but I feel like I’ll always be a part of that institution,
even though I didn’t graduate and I may never return to
the area.
I don’t feel the same way about the teams in places I used
to live.
Those were just places I once lived.
I know people may answer that they buy tickets and souvenirs and
jerseys, so they’ve earned the right to ownership of a team,
because they’ve invested so much money into that team.
I don’t believe that.
I believe that ownership comes from within.
It’s like a religion — people feel an ownership to
their team, because they have faith in their team, and will always
have faith in their team, no matter what happens.
I realized this while watching the last two weeks of the regular
season of the NFL, when Baltimore hosted Minnesota and Seattle
played at Green Bay.
Baltimore and Green Bay had terrible seasons and both were far
removed from any chance of reaching the playoffs, but both stadiums
were packed and the fans went nuts every time their team did something
good.
It didn’t matter that their seasons were a bust —
at least on paper.
What mattered to those fans was that those guys playing out there
were on their team.
And they were going to support their team no matter what.
Because they owned those teams.
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