Wavy Hair and Coleman Ranahan

I’ve been to plenty of sports events. Football, baseball, bowling, golf, and basketball, but the one that never really came to my mind was soccer (or football, shut it). Most of my life actually the only time I really ended up kicking a soccer ball was when I was at home and my siblings and I were absolutely bored. And then that actually ended up turning into kickball (Where, like dodgeball, my talents are more suited for).

I was offered the chance to go see a Chicago Fire game, and thought, “Well, one game couldn’t hurt could it?” Well little did I know that I was going to be eating those words as soon as I got to the stadium. No sooner had I sat down in the incredibly nice stadium with my nachos in a cardboard cup (sing it Patinkin!) then my head was nearly leveled by an incoming soccer ball from the practicing players on the field. Now if that doesn’t immediately get your adrenaline pumping then you have no soul, or no adrenaline glands. My friend didn’t offer words of, “Look out!” or “Heads up!” He simply slid over and let Wilson’s tougher cousin scream three inches past my ear and slam into the bleachers with a loud, “BAM!”

At first I was just ready for a nice, interesting game of soccer. But now my interest was peaked as soccer balls came screaming past our section like they were Nerf footballs with the annoying whistles attached to them (Every mother’s favorite Christmas gift to her child). Now I had to pay attention. Especially as I noticed the band section slowly attaching themselves to the bleachers across from me. I looked over and asked, “The Chicago Fire have a band?” His reply, “Nope, those are fans.” Hold on, those are fans? Now I know fans from different sports will get together and start chants at games, but having percussion to back them was something I hadn’t seen before.

My interest was higher on the rise. The game hadn’t even started yet. Now, two men, not even in their late 20’s, climb a red scaffold in front of our section of the field and began shouting. Now I was in for it. I absolutely love getting crazy with fans at a game. No matter what sport it is. I thought simply we were going to get a few chants in before the game and sit down. Nope…the chants kept coming, and we kept singing them, for the entire course of the game. Even while the men on the scaffold would change out with other fans to lead the charge they were still going. Even being at the north (north, south, who gives a flying ****) end of the field our section got the entire stadium involved at chants at one point. The only time we stopped was during intermission to recharge and mostly for more people to grab more booze. I needed to rest my old man legs and hope to Joe Pesci that my voice wouldn’t give out before the end of the game.

The end of the game came, and even though the Fire left with a tie, the chants were still going. How in the bloody hell do these people have the energy for this? They honored CJ Brown, an assistant coach from the opposing team who had played for the Chicago Fire AND ONLY for the Chicago Fire for 13 years, and the Fire fans gladly cheered him on. Not an ounce of bad blood for the guy and he came over to the super fans section for hugs and even danced when the fans called for it. My time at the stadium ended on an emotional high.

Live hockey is my favorite sport to view live, especially since my first hockey game had a brutal fight and a blowout by the Rockford IceHogs with a special appearance by the guitarist from Cheap Trick all in the same night, but my first experience at a major league soccer game easily jumped up to rival that.

I’m not the biggest fan of watching soccer myself, if there’s a huge game on I’ll certainly watch but if you give me a good fan experience I’m more likely to care about the game and give it a few more passing thoughts than I normally would. The camaraderie between the Fire fans was something I never experienced before. Nothing like hockey, football, or basketball. They’re fucking crazy. If you can do that to a newcomer on the first go round and get them hooked like they did my friend, then you have something good going for you. And for that, I thank them, because not only did I wake up with the chants in my head, now I want to go back.

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Coleman knows he’s not writing anything new, but just thought he would share his fan experience. You can also find new things on his Twitter page.