To any and all new subscribers, welcome! As a brief bit of background on FNF, I write about something new every week, followed by 10-20 of the best things I find around the internet for you to read. As always, skip ahead to the "Interesting Links" section if you're here for that. If you know anyone that might enjoy this type of thing, forward this note along to them.
There are three types of sports fandoms: Blood (born into it), Convenience (a team or superfan you live near), and Choice (you just decide on something because it's fun or it fits). For me, Liverpool is the latter. Today's email is a love letter to them, and while long, there's a lot that I owe them for all the joy they've given me the last couple years.
Honestly, my timing couldn't have been better. I describe myself as post-Coutinho fan, in that I started cheering for them during their phenomenal Champions League run in 2017-18. Yes, this is right as they transitioned into a great team, and only moments before they won trophies (plural) and became a powerhouse. I grabbed one of the very last spots on the bandwagon.
I only knew a couple things about them going in. I had seen Jurgen Klopp, fist-pumping and flashing his extremely fake teeth for the cameras. I had read about Mo Salah, the silky winger from Egypt that had captured the hearts of the city and fans around the world during his redemption tour, back in England after being deemed not good enough to play there two years before. But that was about it.
I watched them handle Porto, smash the best team in the world in Manchester City, make a certain victory way-too-nervous against Roma, then go down in agonizing fashion in the final, their dreams dashed by an illegal act from violent supervillain Sergio Ramos and two hilariously bad errors from probably concussed goalkeeper Loris Karius. There was so much hope. It was horrible to watch it all go away in seconds. My former co-worker (thanks, Rob) invited me into a great group of Liverpool fans that lived and died with every moment of the season, and I found a bar (pre-pandemic) full of folks that wore red at 6 AM on Saturday mornings. I was hooked.
Last season, they were incredible, relentless, and they basically never lost, but couldn't end their 29 year title drought, losing out to Man City by one point, all but decided by a ball that hit the post, was kicked into a goalkeeper's face, then cleared centimeters from going over the line and inexplicably past Salah's outstretched legs. Their season was defined by a Shermanesque march back to the Champions League Final, capped off by one of the greatest games and greatest goals in the history of the tournament. There was no cheating Spaniard, no concussions, and they ended the day lifting the trophy. This season, they came back as a pure machine, winning the league with a month to go, on-pace to set the record for most wins in a single season. While I love them for what they do on the field most of all, as an ancestral fan of small market teams, their location far from the capital in a city others write off and the fact that they've spent less than 14 of the 20 teams in the Premier League bringing in players over the last five years had a ton of appeal to me, too.
The fans of Liverpool were also a massive draw for me, given their politics, outlook on the world, and sense of history. Bill Shankly, their famous manager who won the league 3 times, chose their famous red-on-red jersey and shorts combo because it looked intimidating. Shankly has one of my favorite quotes about sports and politics: "I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day. That might be asking a lot, but it’s the way I see football and the way I see life.” The team's fans are incredibly connected to their local community, and were victims of vicious smears by England's right wing press after the most tragic day in their history, when 96 fans died at a match due to faulty safety protocols. Because of those smears, the people of Liverpool stopped carrying, buying, or reading the Sun newspaper, which has led to them having a much healthier culture than many other places where the right wing press has run rampant. Margaret Thatcher tried to run the city into the ground, essentially arguing that it wasn't worth saving. Today, the people of Liverpool have grown their city in their image – nobody there reads the Sun and Liverpool took Thatcher's "managed decline" and turned it into a resurgent, vibrant town that loves each of its residents and rejects people that want to divide and feed on the weakest among us like she did. Before each game, the fans sing You'll Never Walk Alone, and they mean it.
These fans deserve a championship more than just about anyone. And I, a long suffering Minnesota sports fan, deserve one too. But this one really wasn't mine to cherish. I loved every moment of it, and the team brought me a great deal of joy, but I'm still new to the neighborhood. They haven't broken my heart yet – far from it. I got one of the last seats on the bandwagon, and while watching them has genuinely led to hundreds of happy moments for me the past two years, I can't pretend like I felt like I get to own a big part of this. At every ream’s championship celebration, there are the sheepish guys in the back that were technically on the roster but didn't play any minutes, sipping on their beer, careful not to splash or get splashed when they really, truly didn't do much to earn the trophy. That's me. I guess that makes me the Matt Steigenga of Liverpool fandom.
It really made me think about the contours of fandom a lot more closely. I've loved this team with everything I have, and watched nearly every minute of their season. But I didn't feel the kind of joy that I expected to feel when they won. I wasn't there for the almost title in 2013, I wasn't there for the years of terrible ownership, and bad managers, and the years of Gerrard not getting enough help to put them over the top. This is a fandom of Choice, and in the moment that it mattered most, I felt it more than ever. I cried for 10 minutes straight at the Metrodome the day Gary Anderson missed the kick. I still yell about how Phil Cuzzi needs glasses and things would’ve been different if Liriano didn’t hurt his arm in 2006. The euphoria that will come when one of my Minnesota sports teams eventually gets over the top will be different. Blood fandoms, and watching Your Team actually get over the top, won't be able to be matched by anything else. Watching this team and these incredible fans that really deserve this reminded me of that.
It's a great sport, and an incredible league. The Premier League and the NBA are head and shoulders above any other sports leagues. If you're not watching the Premier League on Saturday mornings (or right now, basically every day around lunch), you're really missing out on the best that sports has to offer. There are good things to be said about pretty much all of them (except Tottenham), so pick your team, pledge your allegiance, and dive in.
Interesting Links
The crazy story of the boss that turned the NYC’s lifeguard program into an organized crime family, Peter Stein.
Peter Stamets wants to use mushrooms to save us from nuclear disasters, oil spills, and more.
Medicaid provides affordable, government-run health care to Americans with low incomes. In the past four years, voters in Oklahoma, Maine, Utah, Idaho, and Nebraska have voted to expand it. No states have voted against it.
How Apple and Facebook are actually one another’s best friends.
U.S. pediatricians are calling for schools to go back in session this Fall, COVID or not, so kids don’t get thrown too far off their developmental paths.
If you want to fight for racial justice, you need to focus on segregation and wealth inequality.
A 14 year-old from Atlanta created one of the most popular dances on the internet, and barely anyone knows it.
Radio producers use what people ate for breakfast to check their sound level. Someone turned a bunch of those clips into a fun video.
Black Lives Matter protests didn’t spread the virus. Wear a mask and stay outside, away from crowded, indoor spaces, and you’ll probably be safe.
Could Wigan Athletic’s terrible situation in the Championship be the result of an international gambling scandal?
Dollar General’s are multiplying like crazy in economically depressed parts of the country, and with them comes a trail of violence and neglect.
Tales from our broken health care system – two people in Texas took COVID tests at the same location. One cost $199, the other cost $6,408.