If you can't beat them, watch them - background pt I

One, of several, personality flaws I have is the inability to enjoy things in moderation. This has been evident in many areas in my life.

For example, in music; If I discover a band I like, I have to buy every album they've ever made, ditto with authors, and last but not least with sports.

Let me start from the beginning.

I grew up in Sweden, spending my time trying out as many sports as I could, including ice hockey, football (the european kind), table tennis and various other sports. Unfortunately, and to my dismay, I was never better than average in most of them. However, except a small decrease of interest during the late teens, strangely coinciding with the discovery of alcohol and the effects such drinks have on the social interaction with the other sex, I've maintained a fervant passion for several sports.

Ice hockey and football competed for many years for the title of "my no.1 favourite sport to watch", and Tipsextra was a must every Saturday at 3PM during football season. However, then one day in my teens I discovered a strange sport called "american football". My life has never been the same since...

After watching brief highlights on terrestrial TV showing Joe "Cool" Montana dismantle the Bengals' defense in less than 3 minutes to win Super Bowl XXIII , I was hooked on football, and also a 49er fan for life. Although my first exposure to football had been almost a decade earlier, NFL's presence in Sweden in the 80's was limited to say the least.

My interest increased in 1991 when at university I not only had cable tv with a weekly NFL show and the odd live game, but also tried to play it. I was pummeled for a few years while playing for Västerås Roedeers, but ultimately, like in previous sports, I was half decent, but not a natural.

The introduction of the internet to mainstream society in the early 90's (ok, so I'm an "early adopter", to use marketing speak), meant the discovery of ESPN.com and an almost endless supply of information about football. During this period I also travelled the US for the first time as an adult, and although I watched a few baseball games in person, they were more about drinking and eating for 3-4 hours than anything else. (Little did I know...literally!)

Late nineties and a move from Sweden to the UK later, and I bloomed from a soccer fan to a full on fanatic. Sure, I'd supported Liverpool since I could stand up, but now I was surrounded by Premiership football day and night! My passion for sports continued to grow exponentially...