When I was a kid, I was never into sports. I understood them, the basic principles of the game, but they never appealed to me. I was more into my science fiction and comic books. I’d prefer to curl up to a sack of New Teen Titans comics than watch some guys trying to hit a ball “around a diamond.” Given how big the Colts were in Baltimore, I’m kinds shocked I wasn’t a fan. I went to a few games at Memorial Stadium and it was fun. Had my Star Wars figures mimic the action on the field, but I wasn’t into it like everyone else. When the Colts left, I didn’t understand how the same people that got on me for being so involved and upset about Vader being Luke’s father (I knew he was going to say it, still it hurt…), were now suddenly crying over a team leaving.
But like any good citizen of Baltimore, I disliked anything Colt related that was post “moving day.” My “favorite team” became the Seattle Seahawks. Not because I ever seen them play, they just had the logo I liked the most. I watched some Superbowls, the one I remember the most was the Chicago Bears win over the New England Patriots. Kinda annoyed me when they didn’t sing that “shuffle song,” but it was cool. The Orioles were always around, but I was never into baseball. The theory of not having a “father figure” to throw a ball around with could be a factor. I just was never into the sport in general. Something about catching a ball that could hit you in the face or hitting a ball being thrown at high speeds (that could HIT YOU IN THE FACE!!!) just didn’t move me.
I did like pro wrestling, mostly WWF (now WWE). I stayed up to watch “Saturday Night Main Event” and wrestling on Saturday afternoon. The kids in the neighborhood had their favorites; mine were Macho Man Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat. I’d work on their impressions and when we started “wrestling,” I was the “Intercontinental Champion.” Now we weren’t really beating the crap out of each other, well the older kids would rush our “ring” aka an abandoned house’s porch, and go all “Four Horsemen” on our candy asses. But we had to be physically active to play and lazy action wasn’t allowed with us. At one point I did win my friend’s Heavyweight Championship belt from him. Not fully grasping how much that cardboard, aluminum foil, shoe string, and color marker belt meant to him, I gloated too much after the bout and agreed to a rematch. Now William was my best friend, and where ever you are William, I pray you are well, but Boo (his nickname) beat the living Hulk-a-mania out me. It wasn’t a match for William, it was payback. . In the best wrestling tradition, he taught me a lesson. The lesson was “don’t take his belt;” ever. I went home a broken & battered boy, but the next day we were cool like nothing happened. Like Macho Man and Hulk Hogan I suppose.
My sport of choice came from a basic need, a need to defend myself from constant ass whuppings. I started taking karate (Ed Parker’s Kenpo Karate) after finding myself the victim of a string of fights. I made it easy for them, I was on this “non-violence” kick. Now I’m not knocking that as a means to an end, however when going to a corner store or visiting your friend across the street became a reenactment of your favorite martial art flick (before the lead character got kung-fu or bo staff skills), something had to change. I was good, not “Daniel goes to Japan and beats down a guy who studied his whole life when Daniel only studied for a few months” good, but I was pretty good. I enjoyed the principles of the art and how it directly impacted everything outside the dojo. My love of philosophy and Eastern Arts came from that studio, and I’m always thankful. And the fighting slowed down to a crawl when I not only fought back, but “won” some. “Won” because that kind of violence only goes in a revolution, aka “they got their cousins, damn!”
In middle and into high school, karate was what I did; I didn’t have any need for anything else. I played basketball, but my attempts to be Jordan on the court ended with the other kids getting mad at me missing the easiest shots in the universe. I knew who Jordan, Bird, Magic were, but ask me anything else and I’d shoot a brick. When Starter jackets came into play in the 80′s, I thought The Celtics were the name of the jacket. When it came to playing football, I was no good. The idea of having something thrown a ball AT me and I’m suppose to catch it made no sense (again, it could hit me in the face). I spent years ducking and dodging people throwing damn rocks at me, I need to keep that skill up to good use!! And I’m not going to let someone tackle me and get me dirty for “fun.” My Mom spent $60 bucks a month so Mr. Palanzo could teach me to NOT get tackled….
Youth….
In high school I gave thought of joining the football team. Moms sacked that idea, fast. She was spending “good money” (Question, is there ever “bad money?” If so, I’ve never seen it and wouldn’t turn it down…) to keep me safe, how am I going to mess that up by getting killed by some goons? Besides the fact that most of those “goons” were some of the people in school that actually left my crazy ass alone, as a bit of a loner, any idea I had of ever going into a team sport should seem like a good thing. Sure there is the chance I could get banged up, but it’s not like teens all over the world was just dropping out because of injuries. In hindsight, I should have stood my ground on it. At that moment, football was calling, and just let it go.
However the coach at the school I was attending did want me to try out for the wrestling team. Between me getting into fights and I was a bit of nut, I suppose he thought I could do well. I said I’d come down for a meet to see what it was like. Seeing a friend run around with a trash bag on didn’t make the best first impression. Later I found out that’s what you had to do to lose weight to meet your weight class. Then came to the actual sport, I had serious problems with it, not that I stuck around to see the more technical parts of the sport. First, letting someone “mount me” wasn’t flying well with a teenage Kofi. Then the uniforms, no; just no. I can’t do it. Sorry, no. What if I see a girl I like and… Well, nature takes its course and that would be hella awkward. Then it was the letting someone get the drop on me by letting them get in a position to get a pin. At least that’s how I saw it back then, I just couldn’t do it. I’d stick with pro wrestling (irony at its best) and remember how I was the reigning Intercontinental Champion of Park Heights (circa 1984-1986).
I was on the track team, for the quickest of minutes. Just for the girls. Hell, at least I’m honest. But running around a circle, when you are use to running to escape seemed uninteresting after I got my fill of looking at the ladies.
My last year in high school I had teacher who didn’t allow me to slack off or allow me to get away with reading comics or drawing in gym. He pushed and didn’t budge when it came to me getting involved. And as a senior who “didn’t need” the class, I figured I’d ace an A or at least a B in the class. Wrong. First quarter report card I was an A average student. Save gym, I had a C. No typo, C in gym. My Mom was livid, how the hell I can “karate it up” and get a C in gym? Not changing into shorts and playing with the other kids is a start… I planned on going up to coach and ask, no DEMAND to know why I got a C. So the next day I walked up to him and said, “I got a C in gym.” ”Yup.” and he kept on going. I was shook, completely stuckonstupid. And he was right. I did earn a C and no, he wasn’t going to back down. In that moment I learned a lesson I keep to this day and now find myself repeating the young people I work with now. In sports, you get what you earn. In life, you get what you earn. Sometimes things happen, but for the most part, the work you put in will net you the result you get. And had I not got this lesson, a sports related “life lesson,” I may have learned it another way.
After high school I started to watch more basketball, but not much else. I found I like boxing for years, but having cable suddenly made it more accessible. I found myself drawn to the Heavyweight division, but that’s because that’s where most of the action was. How have times changed…. I also began to read and study about a man who would be a key inspiration for me. Not so much for what he did in the ring, but out the ring. Muhammad Ali. But still, sports were a back burner thing for me.
Nothing I was really into. That is until I moved.
I spent 3 years in Pittsburgh, three amazing, great, and sometimes stressful years. It was a time that I really found I didn’t have to be what others said I was going to be and was able to grow. One of those areas was in sports. Now I went to an art school. There were no sports teams and perhaps if I had people who went to bigger schools acting as guides/role models, I might have been swayed to go to a school with sports. But all around me were sports fans. And hanging out with them, made me a sports fan, even if I didn’t know it.
First off, the year I went to college was the year the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and the Ravens were born. Now I didn’t really get into that, I wasn’t a fan of the sport like that. I’d support the home team, but I wasn’t jumping up and down for joy over it. So imagine when most of the people I met and became friends with in college were from….
You guessed right, Cleveland. Yeah, that was fun. The looks I’d get when I said I’m from Charm City were classic. I should have just thrown poop on their shoes; I got everything from dirty looks to “You stole our team,” and everything else under the sun. Thankfully people moved on from that very fast, but it was a source of jokes and conversation for the whole time I was there.
Although we are rivals and division opponents, I have a warm spot for Pittsburgh. It’s where my love of football started (weird, yes it is) and where I actually learned about the sport. Buying and playing Madden or whatever random football game didn’t count. You can’t live in Pittsburgh and not get caught up in football in one way, shape, form or other. Its life up there, it’s not like they could count on the Pirates for entertainment (and before you Pirate fans cry in your soup, it’s not like Baltimore has a good team either). I found that doing my job (blueprint carrier) was made boring by not knowing anything about the sport or the team. There were no conversations to be had unless it was the Steelers or the Penguins. Not just during the season, all year long.
I remember the first time (?) the Ravens came to play at Three Rivers Stadium. Some friends and I thought it would be a good idea to hang a Browns towel out an apartment as the Steeler faithful left from a loss. I just thought it would be funny, but damn was it funny. People were honking their horns, cursing at us, threatening our lives. “It’s just a game, shit’s not that deep.” Wrong. It was and more than I thought. The Browns and Steelers had a rivalry (nothing I knew about) and the idea that the “Baltimore Browns” (I hated when people said that) came and beat the Steelers was tough for a lot of people. But we had fun and it was good for a laugh; however it was not the first time we ran foul across a Steeler fan.
In order to get to school, we who lived in Allegany Center Seven (school apartments), had to cross the Seventh Street Bridge. Now before you got to the bridge, you’d pass the parking for the Stadium. And EVERY Sunday the team played, we were greeted with the wonderful smells of cooking food. Seeing people of all races, creeds, backgrounds hanging out and talking the universal language of NFL Football was so awesome to see. And yes, you ran the risk of getting called every single name under the sun if they saw you wearing anything other than Steelers clothing. My dude always wore his Browns jacket and I picked up a Ravens cap from home. Needless to say, we engaged with the locals and gave as well as we got. Well, sometimes they’d get too worked up. But that taught me one thing, if you are going to support your team, you need to stand tall. Nevermind I didn’t watch any games, but I was from Baltimore. And PROUD to be from Baltimore, I can’t rock anything other than Baltimore.
Now I was given a Steelers hat from an old boss, but after a few wears it found it’s way into a bag of clothes I didn’t wear. Maybe I gave it away, I’m not sure. In the end I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t wear it. Just felt wrong and I didn’t know at the time that was “home loyalty” kicking in.
Living in Pittsburgh, I knew all about the team, saw how loyal the fans were. But I also saw how they didn’t take any junk. Cordell Steward was THE toast of town. He was all over the papers and people LOVED this man. He could dropkick the mayor and people would just shrug their shoulders. When his play dropped, he became the most hated man in the city. Now I wasn’t digging that too much. How can you just go 180 on someone like that? Just didn’t seem right. What I got out of that, people who praise you will be the quickest to call for your head. Not comparing Steward to Jesus, but the story is as old as the Bible. And yeah, I’ve been guilty of this, but you have to have a commitment of excellence in being a screw up for me to feel that strongly. Not just in sports, but in life in general. I don’t know if Steward actually deserve that, but that’s how it was up there. Do right or bounce, no half stepping….
Up north we played on Sunday morning, but that was more for the students who followed the sport and knew they were going to spend their day in computer labs. Being a good sport, I attempted to play like everyone else. I sucked on offense skills positions and wasn’t big enough to be an effective offensive lineman. So when I played defense, I’d chase people down the best I could and found it wasn’t good enough, so to rattle them enough to get an edge, I’d growl or something. Yes, I’m laughing at myself so you can laugh too. Like a badger, I’d gun toward some dude and lunge as if they had the last slice of Pizza Outlet on the face of the planet. “Did he just fucking growl?” And I’m laughing on the field; I’m having fun and releasing stress. I wasn’t good or anything, but for an hour or two, I could be a part of group. A group I never fit in before and wanted to be like. I was one of the guys. During this time and when AiP would have YMCA days; but I learned quickly my “Jordan skills” in basketball were no match to people’s real life skills. But it was cool, I wasn’t there to be an athlete, I was there to be an artist. And no one judged me on my sports talents. Thankfully. I was just one of the guys.
After Pittsburgh, I came back to Baltimore (after a few months in Punxsutawney, PA, that’s a whole other story). And Sundays became a time I could sit back and enjoy football. I started to watch the game with a keen eye and learn about the history of the sport. I researched and decided this would be my sport, like it should have been years ago. Then we won the Superbowl. “We,” as if I was on the field too. I wasn’t, but I was a part of something bigger than myself. And for a moment, everything I wanted as a kid, everything I wanted over the years, I felt it. Being a part of something that had more universal appeal than my comics or sci-fi stuff had with other people; something that connected me with the world. I was like everyone else.
Now I’m a football nut. I like basketball, and that mostly comes from (again) my friends from Pittsburgh. But football is where it’s at. Having a home team plays a huge part, I can’t claim the Wizards, and I’m not from Washington. My “football season” doesn’t end. I’m reading up on my team, other teams, anything in-between. I don’t know all the details and find points, but I’m a huge fan. Had you ask the young Kofi would he be following football, I think he’d give you that look and say no. And if I could, I’d tell a young Kofi to get involve earlier and do more. That you can balance your fantasy stuff and get out there and get dirty, get banged, experience getting a win with people instead of just for you. How the concept of working with a team isn’t just for the classroom or work, but the elements and life lessons sports can give you translate into the real world.
No, I don’t know if I could do it. Because if I did, then the journey I had wouldn’t have happened. And the “now” wouldn’t feel so good.
Go Ravens. ALL DAY, EVERYDAY.
Posted by kofijamal 
