Its been said to me on more than one occasion by fellow Wolves fans and Americans alike. "You cant really support the Wolves because your not from there."
I hate this statement and I disagree with it whole heatedly. As it has been stated I am from Detroit, MI USA which is Southeast of Wolverhampton by thousands of miles. From what I can ascertain Detroit and Wolverhampton are very similar in some regards. We were both at one time strong engineering and industrial towns and now suffer the same rough economic times. The Wolves at one time made it to the 4th division while the Detroit Lions have not been close to decent since the 1950's. These are just some examples of the likenesses our cities share.
However it is easy to see why an English person would feel this way as almost every town has some sort of team and the travel time to a game is 20 minutes for most people . But in America some of our states are as large as all of England and we as people have adapted to this way of life and how we follow a team and choose a team has many different factors. For example in Michigan, it takes me 35 minutes to get to a game in Detroit, yet if you live in Sandusky, MI it could take you near two hours to make it to the game, further North you may find people that follow the Dallas Cowboys because they never get to a game and Dallas is always on tv, further North of that and your closer to the Greenbay Packers than you are to Detroit. Now I work with one such man who grew up in Michigan's upper peninsula and follows the Greenbay Packers from Wisconsin, a rival state. I am not about to tell this guy that he is less passionate about his team because he isn't from there and has seen them more on tv, but not in person.
I wake up everyday and the first thing I do is check my Wolves news feed, then I visit their website, then I talk about them with my boss, there on my screen saver, and their the first thing I scan for on youtube. Do I share the same history as the guys growing up in Wolverhampton, No, but I do share the passion, and we see the same game unfold on the pitch, and we read the same articles in the news, and when we bleed, it is old gold that flows. I am up watching the games live at 7:30am on a Saturday and Sunday, I am at home watching the Monday games I ve recorded at work.
We may be from two different cities, but when our hearts beat, no matter how far apart, they beat for the Wolves.
I'm also from abroad, though I was raised in Wolverhampton I now live in Holland(please prove to me you're not the stereotypical American by stating you know where Holland is). Just like you I follow the Wolves daily, given I do get to go to a few games a year.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can get more Americans to give Football a chance. BTW are you that Larry something the third?