Live Sports

I’ve gone on at length about my concert experience – mainly because it’s extensive enough to discuss at length.  Here it’s the opposite:  I can address this issue because of my relative lack of experience.  I don’t consider myself a sports fan, although I do watch the NFL and the Super Bowl. 

Football.   I grew up in Maryland in the 1970s, though never became a Redskins or Colts fan.   This was when the Vikings were doing fairly well, going to three Super Bowls with Fran Tarkenton – I’m too young to remember their first Super Bowl against the Chiefs, but in any case that was with Joe Kapp, as Tarkenton was playing with the NY Giants at the time.

I’ve seen several concerts at RFK Stadium, but no Redskins games.   My only visit to M&T Bank Stadium was a recent Metallica show, which I enjoyed. 

College.  I went to University of Maryland, College Park, from 1986 to 1990.  Byrd Stadium is large and conveniently located, and us students were given good deals on tickets to ensure a stadium packed with a loyal home audience.   Moreover, the QB at the time was Neil O’Donnell, who later went on to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, continuing UM’s  tradition of providing the NFL with halfway decent quarterbacks like Boomer Esiason.

University of Maryland vs. ?, Byrd Stadium.  Probably freshman year.   I can’t remember the ACC rival or the outcome.  I did enjoy the atmosphere.  I was up in the stands, behind the endzone.  I was probably NOT drinking.

NFL.     Washington Redskins vs ?, FedEx Field.   I went with my brother.   We were up high on the sides, perhaps accompanied by his son, my nephew, Ian.  I can’t remember the outcome.  Even though the Vikings are in a different division than the Redskins, occasionally they come here to play during the regular season, e.g. week 10 of last year – I can’t recall why I didn’t bother to go to that game. 

Baseball.   I’m not a big fan of baseball, hardly ever watch it – even the World Series – and virtually never attend in person.  I could scarcely drum up enthusiasm for the Orioles or the Nationals.  I’ve been past Camden Yards dozens of times without ever going inside it.  But I have seen two games, both of which I enjoyed.

Nationals vs. Phillies, Nationals Stadium.   Philadelphia is close enough so that the audience was 50% visiting team fans.  The Phillies won.  Matt took me with Ian.  A good time overall.

Yankees vs. Orioles, Yankee Stadium.   I went with Dave, who is a Yankees fan and we enjoyed it, notwithstanding the loud PA system.  The Yankees crushed the Orioles 16-3.  

Basketball.   Not a basketball fan at all, and I’ve never seen an NBA game.  Nor do I plan on it.

Georgetown, UM.   In the 70s, we went to a Georgetown game with our friends, the O’Connells.  I don’t know why (maybe a birthday party event).  What I recall was spending the game making fun of the players.

Later on, I went to one Terps game at Cole Field House.  Not bad, but not compelling either.   The Terps won the NCAA Final Four in 2002, which I paid attention to at the time, but I generally do not follow them.  Generally I went to Cole Field House to jog around the concourse for exercise.

Hockey.   Guess what, not a hockey fan, of the Caps or otherwise.   However, I have been to a few games.

Capitals vs. Rockies, Cap Center.   Late 70s, a group of us kids went and enjoyed it. 

Ottawa ‘67s vs. Sudbury Wolves.  In 1991 I visited my buddy Sean, ASP class of ’86 like me, who lives in Ottawa.   He felt (correctly) the visit wouldn’t be complete without a hockey game.  At that time the Ottawa Senators did not yet exist (coming online the following season), so we went to a minor league game.  I enjoyed it.

Soccer.  Despite growing up in Paris, and visiting London several times back then, I resisted the call until a Brazilian (former) girlfriend, a proud carioca, infected me with this damn virus, in 2000.  Since then I’ve seen a few soccer games.

DC United vs. LA Galaxy; DC United vs. Bayer Leverkusen (exhibition); Barcelona vs. AC Milan (exhibition).  All were at RFK, the only times I caught sporting events at what used to be the Redskins’ home stadium.   All were enjoyable, if only marginally memorable.  We have yet to develop sufficient enthusiasm and passion for the game to produce any hooligans – as The Simpsons have noted (Groundskeeper Willie: "You call this a soccer riot???") - so our soccer experience is fairly tame by international standards.

Flamengo vs. Fluminense, Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  While this wasn’t a final, it was a regular season game between Rio de Janeiro’s archrivals, at the famous stadium in Rio.  We were in the lower tier (tourists) while the die hard fans were up in the second tier.  One half was red and black, chanting MEN-GO!  (Flamengo), the opposite side, in dark green and maroon, responding NEN-SE (Fluminense).  This traditional rivalry is called “FLA-FLU”.   Now-retired soccer star Romario, previously linked to Flamengo, was actually playing for Fluminense.  Flamengo scored an early goal, responded by 3 from Flumimense, so apparently it was game over for the Mengão.  NOPE.  They wound up scoring three more goals, ending up in 4-3.   Those of us familiar with 0-0 being an acceptable result for a non-final game will remark at this, as did the headlines of the local papers afterwards. 

Funny enough, this was on the same day as the Patriots-Panthers Super Bowl – yes, the Janet Jackson Bowl.  We had the bus drop us off close to Ipanema, because the Super Bowl was NOT – shock horror, I know – being televised on local TV, so we had to watch at the Lord Jim Pub.  I wound up getting drunk on hard cider, spending all my cab money on that (cider being three times as expensive as draft beer, but much less filling) so I walked from this pub, on the border of Ipanema and Leblon, all the way to Leme, which is at the other end of Copacabana.  [Much like the time I walked home from the New 9:30 Club after a Monster Magnet show, the Metro had closed, so I went down 14^th Street, across M Street to Key Bridge, and home to Rosslyn, though nowhere near as drunk as I had been in Rio].  

Flamengo

Time for a sports blog.  I’m not really much of a sports fan, but I do follow the NFL and professional soccer.  With the Super Bowl done, now the NFL season is over (Pro Bowl? ZZZZ) so I can focus on soccer again, particularly the Rio State Championships (Campeonata Carioca) going on in Brazil.  So I’ll devote this entry to my favorite Brazilian soccer team, Flamengo.

 Flamengo is from the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is within the state of Rio Janeiro; these are two separate entities, likewise there is the city of São Paulo and the state of São Paulo.  It originally formed in the neighborhood of the same name, which is northeast of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon.  Later they moved to Gavea/Leblon (kind of straddling both neighborhoods) and have a large, modern complex there which faces onto the lagoon.  My friend Leila lived in Leblon from 2004-2007 and was close enough to hear the games – we even visited the complex when I went to visit her in 2005.  However, the field there only holds 8,000 and is pretty much a joke, which is not a big deal as the team plays most of its home games at Maracana Stadium, which holds 95,000 as currently set up, though the original capacity was closer to 200,000.  The team is not only the most popular in Rio de Janeiro itself, but also in Brazil, making them pretty much the Dallas Cowboys of Brazilian soccer – always popular no matter how badly they suck.  Their main rivals are the other three teams in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Fluminense, Botafogo, and Vasco da Gama.  In fact, the club began in 1895, though as a rowing club at that time.  They only started playing soccer in 1911, stealing players from Fluminense to start off.  The classic “Fla-Flu” (Flamengo vs. Fluminense) game is one of Brazil’s top rivalries, and I was lucky enough to see the game at Maracana in February 2004, won by Flamengo 4-3, on the same day as the Patriots-Panthers Super Bowl.  Romario was actually playing in this game – for Fluminense. 

 While the team has a wide fan base, its most notorious core are the favelados (slum dwellers) and traficantes (drug dealers), whereas Fluminense is more closely associated with the “playboys”, as the richer segment of Rio de Janeiro is disparagingly referred to by the favelados. 

 The team uniform is black & red horizontal stripes, thus the nickname “rubro-negro”, as well as “Mengão”.  Popular chants in Maracana are “MEN-GO!” (the reply to “NEN-SE!!” from the Fluminense crowd) and “uma vez Flamengo, Flamengo ate morrer!” (one time Flamengo, Flamengo until death!).  The current jersey is made by Nike, the away jersey is white, and the current sponsor is Petrobras, the state-owned oil company of Brazil.  I have a 2000 season red/black home jersey from Umbro – the first soccer jersey I ever bought, on my first trip to Rio de Janeiro in June 2000 - and a later 2004 season white away jersey from Nike; I also  got my brother and his son each a home jersey, and his older daughter a skirt. 

 Its most memorable player was Zico (Arthur Antunes Coimbra), who holds the club record for goals, 508, more than twice the next runner up.  He played with them from 1971-83, then again from 1985-89 after two seasons with Udinese in Italy – almost 18 years. More recently, Zico was the coach of the Japanese national team in the 2006 World Cup and now coaches CSKA Moscow. Romario played for the team briefly – off and on between 1995 and 1999, scoring 204 goals for the team. 

 Flamengo’s best era was 1978-1983.  As much as the national championship, now known as the Campeonato Brasileiro (aka “Brasileirão”), the Brazilian teams also compete strenuously in the state championships, which for Flamengo is the Campaneato Carioca, split up into two phases, the Taça Guanabara, and the Taça Rio.  After 1978 they won this three times in a row, and won the national championship in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1987, and 1992.  They also compete against the other Latin American teams in the Copa Libertadores, which is the Western Hemisphere’s equivalent of Europe’s Champions League – in fact, the winners of each play each other in a sort of soccer Super Bowl, the World Club Championship.  In 1981 Flamengo won not only the Copa Libertadores, but also beat Liverpool in this championship.

 An odd thing about Flamengo is that the “franchise”, if you could call it that, also plays other sports.  There are Flamengo teams for rowing (obviously), basketball (mens & womens – I have a Flamengo basketball tank top), swimming, volleyball (men & women’s), gymnastics and fencing. 

 Unfortunately I can’t watch any of the games.  I don’t have TV Globo, as my condo faces the wrong way to mount the correct DishNetwork satellite, and Brazilian games are rarely shown on Fox Sports World or GolTV; the latter seems to be showing Paulista (São Paulo state) games when I’m at work.