Lessons Learned in San Antonio

I spent the past week in San Antonio for a business trip. It was the first time that I had ever spent an extended period of time in the Lone Star State. And anytime I go anywhere over a big sports weekend, I get nervous that I might miss a game that I want to watch, but I figured with Texas being a big sports state, I wouldn't really have a problem. I was both right and wrong about this. Below are the a few of the lessons that I learned while attempting to watch the games that I wanted to watch in Texas.

Friday night I was faced with a big dilemma: tickets to the Spurs-Rockets game or watching the Cincinnati Bearcats-Louisville Cardinals game at a local sports bar. This was a tough one. I love NBA basketball, but haven't always been a big fan of either the Spurs or the Rockets. The Bearcats, on the other hand, I love them and it was the big Louisville rivalry. (And just so you all know, I am not a Bearcats bandwagon fan that jumped on once Brian Kelly jumpstarted the program. I have been attending Bearcat games since I was a little girl, and I'm a UC alum). After much deliberation, I took the tickets to the Spurs game, and even though I did miss a great Bearcat victory, it was well worth it. Watching a Spurs game in San Antonio was almost as much fun as watching the Cavs play at the Q. It wasn't quite as exciting since both Manu and Tony Parker were benched with injuries, but there is something magical about watching Tim Duncan play live. As I was sitting there, cheering for them to win, I almost forgot that I really prefer the Phoenix Suns over them. The environment and the fans made me feel like I was part of them, that I was a San Antonio fan. It was really a great environment. It wasn't Lebron at the Q, but Duncan at the AT&T Center may just be a close second.

That brought me to Saturday, when it came time to watch some college football. I know that it is sacrilegious to be an Ohioan and say this, but I'm just not a big Ohio State fan. I don't hate them and I don't usually root for them to lose or anything like that, but I don't follow them religiously either. There are, however, three OSU games that I always look forward to watching - Michigan, Penn State, and Illinois. Of course I always want them to beat Michigan, the Penn State game is always a little iffy (I just love Joe Pa), and with Illinois, there is just something recently about the fighting Illini that draws me in. (I think it might go back to the basketball seasons with Dee Brown and Deron Williams). So I was excited to watch the game. I figured that I wouldn't have a problem finding a sports bar to watch the game seeing as it was a Big 10 conference rivalry, but I was wrong. You get out of Big 10 territory and people hate the Big 10. They had just about every game on, except the OSU-Illinois game. When I asked if they could switch to the OSU game, they looked at me like I was crazy. So I finally had to settle for the hotel bar, where I was pretty much the only person in there and had to put up with the bartender trying to make small talk, not understanding that I really just wanted to eat my quesadilla and watch the game.

Then we had NFL Sunday. Luckily the Browns had the MNF game, so I knew that I wouldn't have to fight people to get that game on a television and the Cowboys had the Sunday night game, so I wouldn't have to put up with the Romo jersey wearing obsessed Cowboy fans. I figured I'd be able to go to a place that would have plenty of televisions on various games so that I could monitor the performances of my fantasy players. There were two games I was really interested in - Arizona (I have to support my new hero, Kurt Warner) and Houston (I had to make sure that benching Kevin Walter was the right decision). This time, I had no problem having all these games at my disposal, but I was surprised by something - the lack of Texan fans. The Cowboys didn't even play until the evening, but there were Romo jersey everywhere. What did I not see - one Texan jersey. Not a single jersey. No one watching them on the big screen. No one cheering for them. I felt sorry for them. No love in their own state. I'm sure that if I was in Houston, the story would be different, but it was still quite sad.

The best experience, however, came during MNF. I had contacted the San Antonio Brown Backers, thinking that I would watch the game with them, but it wasn't close to my hotel and I had a meeting first thing in the morning, so I figured I would just try one of the sports bar along the San Antonio River Walk. I walked in, wearing my Eric Metcalf throwback, thinking that I would get all sorts of odd stares, but was amazed. There were nearly as many Browns jersey on Monday night as there had been Cowboy jerseys on Sunday night. It was beautiful. There really are Browns fans everywhere.