Is it just a game of football?

[The Great Mass Debater]

How does football work for you as a fan? How much of it is the Saturday buzz and that's it, or is it more than that?

When people write on here about their feelings, is it a mode they put themselves into, that like a coat can be put on and off? Or is it deeper than that?

When the club goes through varying fortunes, how much does it affect you? If you feel despair at the football, does this stay with you during the week? Does it make you down away from football? Or do most people see it as just a game of football?

How much does what goes on on the pitch and at the club you support affect your mood and your life? Is it intertwined? Or is supporting Norwich a persona you don optionally, only at appropriate and controllable times?

 

[eatonparkboy]

When I left Jarrolds Printers in 1974 to go to NZ, I did an interview for the works magazine. I still have the copy with me. When asked what I would miss most of all I replied, apart from family, watching and supporting NCFC. That is how important it is to me. I would have watched any football in those days, maybe because of the rareness of live matches but now I am more selective and slightly disenchanted. But my love and affection for City will accompany me to me grave.

It is just football and as I mellow and age, the bad results don't stick in my craw quite so much. My eldest son only lived in Norwich for 10 months but he is in his mid forties and still agitated at bad results as I used to be. So that means it passes through the genes and blood. And my wife's uncle and great uncles both played for City so it is in both chromosones.

 

[Fenway Frank]

I hate it when people say it's only a game, it's so much more than that

 

[morty]

Its a way of life, every aspect of my life is connected to it. I go to games with my two boys, we are all season ticket holders, and get to as many away games as we can. I have met a lot of lovely people through attending home and away games that I count as friends.

I work away a lot, and wherever I am in the world I am following Norwich City somehow.

When we lose I am best avoided for at least 12 hours.

 

[Safri15]

As Eatonparkboy said above, its in my genes and a part of who I am. My journey to Carrow Road on a Saturday starts at 10am and I typically get home at about 9pm paying the train company £60 for the privilege. That only gives me time for a quick couple of drinks before the game. People think I'm mad for doing it, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a "fair weather fan" and be able to forget about a loss shortly after the event. But then surely the flip side of that coin is a win is also just as fleeting...

I must admit my love for the 'beautiful game' is starting to falter and think football as a sport has been destroyed by the money, and unfortunately believe it is only going to get worse. However I'll stand by Norwich through it all!

 

[eatonparkboy]

As Eatonparkboy said above, its in my genes and a part of who I am. My journey to Carrow Road on a Saturday starts at 10am and I typically get home at about 9pm paying the train company £60 for the privilege. That only gives me time for a quick couple of drinks before the game. People think I'm mad for doing it, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a "fair weather fan" and be able to forget about a loss shortly after the event. But then surely the flip side of that coin is a win is also just as fleeting...

I must admit my love for the 'beautiful game' is starting to falter and think football as a sport has been destroyed by the money, and unfortunately believe it is only going to get worse. However I'll stand by Norwich through it all!

Nicely put

 

[morty]

As Eatonparkboy said above, its in my genes and a part of who I am. My journey to Carrow Road on a Saturday starts at 10am and I typically get home at about 9pm paying the train company £60 for the privilege. That only gives me time for a quick couple of drinks before the game. People think I'm mad for doing it, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a "fair weather fan" and be able to forget about a loss shortly after the event. But then surely the flip side of that coin is a win is also just as fleeting...

I must admit my love for the 'beautiful game' is starting to falter and think football as a sport has been destroyed by the money, and unfortunately believe it is only going to get worse. However I'll stand by Norwich through it all!

The last point is the the very crux of being a supporter, through thick and thin. There seems to be a large group of people right now (both online and at Carrow road) who have forgotten that.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

For those that were season ticket holders during the recent really dire period Grant-Roeder, where we seemed to not really be about anything other than trying to keep our heads above water - how often was going to the match an enjoyable experience? Or could you now say that you paid however much it was to feel misery every week?

In that way, is football more like an addiction? Turning to it every week, knowing we might come away feeling worse in the desperate hope that the gamble may come off and it might lift us?

if football fans are addicts, might that also explain why there is addiction to other things in the sport and indeed the addictiveness of Football Manager the game? Does football attract people with addictive personalities?

 

[morty]

As  I said earlier though Mr Debater, its not just about the 90 minutes. Its everything else that surrounds the football itself, spending time with good friends and family pre and post game. Looking forward to the game, analysing it afterwards, offering opinion and discussing on places like this. The excitement of looking forward to the new season, the expectations and hopes.

Some of the best days for me have been away days, and whether we won or not made little difference to the peripheral enjoyment.

 

[Din]

Of course it's just not a game of football. You don't pay hundreds, some of us thousands of pounds a year just to watch a game every week, as well as travel hundreds of miles some people just to watch it. As Morty said, it's a way of life. You plan other events in your life around football, it's a main talking point amongst your friends, and it creates some incredible memories. For example, I will never forget the feeling I got when Simeon Jackson somehow bundled the ball over the line against Derby, or when I was sat in the away end of Portman Road singing 'We Want Six!'. And the thing is as well, because it is so heavily publicised by the media there is always something to talk about when it comes to football. I love my football club, and if Norwich City ever went out of business then I would probably cry like a 7 year old girl, and no matter what happens in my life, I know for a fact that football will always be something that I can turn to.

Anyway I'm getting emotional now so I'm going to go and have a lie down and listen to some Coldplay

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

As  I said earlier though Mr Debater, its not just about the 90 minutes. Its everything else that surrounds the football itself, spending time with good friends and family pre and post game. Looking forward to the game, analysing it afterwards, offering opinion and discussing on places like this. The excitement of looking forward to the new season, the expectations and hopes.

Some of the best days for me have been away days, and whether we won or not made little difference to the peripheral enjoyment.

So were you still able to enjoy the dire era, despite the clubs performance, because all those other things existed?

 

[Yellow Fever]

So were you still able to enjoy the dire era, despite the clubs performance, because all those other things existed?

I think different people see different things in football. During a 'dire era', I see it as a challenge for the club (like war time, perhaps). The Lambert years were good, but not as comfortable as many on here think, looking back. Having supported City since 1972, I still feel every game personally; genuinely happy if we win, even more so if we win well or beat a big team. If we lose though, it's depressing, especially if we play as badly as we did against Brentford. That was embarrassingly bad and made worse because it took any chance of automatic promotion with it. 

No, it isn't just a game (no matter how many times my wife says that to me!).

 

[morty]

So were you still able to enjoy the dire era, despite the clubs performance, because all those other things existed?

Well clearly not every single game was dire though, was it? There were good games too, maybe you just forgot about them.

If it was that dire then clearly there was some kind of mass hypnosis that kept us going.

 

[bloodwagon]

For me its , in my blood. Been watching City since 1957. Being lifted up over people and being passed down front of river end, as thats where my father stood.

When we win its brill, when we lose its hell. Sorry im a City fan first and foremost. Told my 3 ex`s that city comes first with me, and theres no more to be said.

( Maybe thats why there ex`s lmao )

Here I am in my 60`s and there still my only true love. Sad maybe, but with city, you never know what you are going to get. Win draw or lose, they will always have my support

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Well clearly not every single game was dire though, was it? There were good games too, maybe you just forgot about them.

If it was that dire then clearly there was some kind of mass hypnosis that kept us going.

My point is kind of that during a dire era, its hard to be enthused. The Lambert era was uplifting because you could see the progress, you could see there was a plan - the club had a theory, a direction, the team was about somthing and had a philosophy.

Under Roeder there was little more than despertation, few pros of our own, constant chopping and changing of loan players that werent really ours to champion, each knew player coming in felt like a desperate throw of the dice until we finally limped to relegation. You might get the odd game, but the general state of the club was desperate, directionless (well down) and we seemed to be about nothing more than trying not to get relegated with whatever we could lay our hands on.

Thats depressing. So did it depress you? Or did you still find being part of it enjoyable because of the other things you mentioned? or did it suck you in and deflate you?

 

[bloodwagon]

Its called football, City will always be up and down. If you live as long as me, you will know its not always highs, we are not one of the big 6 ? we will always get promoted and then go down as we just dont have the money and never will.

Get used to it as i remember being in Div THREE in the 50`s then div two for so many years. when we went up to Div one it was all our christmas`s put together. We know we would come down, but it was nice to be up there playing all them teams who mostly made there home in Div one.

I always hope we will get up there and stay but know in my heart we will not. But that dont stop me supporting City. As I say its in my blood. Now its in my sons and grand daughters.