Who dey? We dey

I decided today would be a good day to just forget about cross-country for awhile and focus a little more of the other things going on in my life. First priority: Steelers vs. Bengals game. To my fellow Cincinnatians, don't hate me: I'm a Steelers fan. I can't help it. I've always been a Steelers fan. My mother grew up in Pittsburgh, my Dad grew up in the Nati. And for some reason, years ago I decided to become a Steelers fan. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

I've noticed how this season people haven't been giving me as much grief about being a Steelers fan as they have in the past. I have a two theories to this reason: 1) They've accepted that I'm a Steelers fan and are finally mature enough to handle that 2) The Bengals are doing really bad this season (especially compared to the Steelers) so they have nothing to say to bring me down. I'm siding with numero dos. After the crap I have been getting for the past 3 years, especially when Palmer got injured, I've come to the realization that when it comes to sports, no matter what people say, they are fair weathered fans. Not just Bengals fans though. I'm sure you can find in any city, in any sport, fans who choose to cheer when the scoreboard is in their favor, but all of a sudden hush up if a season is going downhill. This year, the perfect example are the Bengals fans in Cincinnati.

At least they get along.

Who can blame them though? Who wants to cheer for a team that is always doing terrible? Who wants to support a team that never wins? But do they understand how vital supporting a team is? I can say from first experience I know what it's like to have a "fair weathered fan" support me.

I know, I promised I wasn't going to talk about cross-country but I can't stop myself. This example is perfect for this post. When I first joined the cross-country team my freshman year, I had two coaches: Showman and Gerstner. Showman was the girl's coach, Gerstner the head coach and guy's coach. For the first two years of having Showman and Gerstner, Showman was the only one to really care about the girl's team. She designed the work-outs, gave us the pep talks, etc. Then during track season of my sophomore year, she quit because we sucked. We weren't competitive, our times weren't fast enough, and in her own words we were "lazy and didn't work hard". While the last part of that is complete bull crap, it was true that we were not a successful team. So Showman quit, and Gerstner didn't care because he was in charge of the guys, and they were doing pretty well. Until my junior year came and everything changed.

So the Wicked Witch was dead, and Glenda the good witch had arrived. Meiser came and changed everything. Even with our fabulous record of loses and negative comments, Meiser came in to give it a try and see if he could take this team and turn it around. And within only two years we went from coming in last at Districts to coming in third and qualifying to regionals. And now Showman regrets quitting, or at least saying everything she did, and Gerstner all of a sudden took a deep interest in the girl's team this season. He never coached us before, never encouraged us before, barely even acknowledged us before, but as soon as we started doing well he was right there on the sidelines cheering us on. It makes me sick.

But now that it's all said and done, do we give credit to the man who has been there for four years but only started to try and coach us this year? No. We give credit to the one who believed in us right from the start, who decided to overlook the negativities and approach it with hope that one day we could be as successful as we had only dreamed we could be. Well, our dream came true. And you can bet we can discern the true fan from the fair weathered fan.

So who's to say that professional athletes don't know who the fair weathered fans are from the real ones? After my own personal experience, even though I'm not there physically to cheer on my team all the time, I will always support my Steelers. And look at that. They won.

So here's to the "Who dey" and the "We dey" as both Pittsburghers and Cincinnatians alike should always continue to support their teams. May the best fans win :)

Me being the geeky Steelers fan who thinks she's so cool :P