Thoughts on Being a Spurs Fan
After the recent 4-1 EPL loss to Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, I found myself reflecting on just what it means to me to support Tottenham, because honestly, I wasn’t that upset, and that seems quite bizarre after a 4-1 home loss to your loathed rivals. For a bit of background, I became a Tottenham fan in 2012. I was visiting a friend in London and wanted to go to a Premier League match when I was in town. At that point, I already hated Chelsea because of John Terry and Roman Abramovich, so I wasn’t going to a Chelsea match. Spurs had a home match that week and they had signed Clint Dempsey in the summer, which, in addition to Brad Friedel already being on the roster, was the clincher for me as a USMNT fan. Tickers were hard to come by as the match was against West Ham, so I got some off of Craigslist. It was a little dodgy, but they were the only tickets I could find, and I didn’t really pay attention to where they were. I was just happy to get tickets. So imagine my surprise when we walked into White Hart Lane and realized that we were sitting in the second row from the pitch. Suddenly, there was Gareth Bale having a quick word with Jan Vertonghen in front of me, or Dempsey taking a throw in about fifteen feet away. Spurs won 3-1 off a goal from Bale and a brace from Jermain Defoe. It was a magical night, everything I wanted out of a football match, and I was in love with Spurs from that day on.
I was aware from that first moment that Spurs hadn’t won much in recent years, and honestly, that appealed to me. I didn’t want to be another American glory hunter who calls themself a “winner” simply because they put on a Man U jersey. When I did a bit of research after that match, I was really taken with Spurs motto “To Dare is to Do,” and Bill Nicholson’s famous quote, “It is better to fail aiming high, than to succeed aiming low. At Spurs, we set our sights very high, so that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.”
Which brings us to this Monday’s match. Yes, Spurs lost 4-1 to the team that I hate the most. But that failure certainly had an echo of glory in it. Basically everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Two major injuries to key players. Two players sent off, and with huge amounts of time left. But the nine guys that finished gave everything. Vicario’s heroics in goal, Hojberg’s goal line clearance, Dier playing his first minutes of the season and almost getting that equalizer. I finished that match inspired, and I realized that that’s all that I’m actually looking for in sports. Inspiration. I hope to face adversity in my life with the courage, optimism, and determination of those nine players. Often, winning and inspiration do go hand in hand, but not exclusively. And that match proved it to me. Someday Spurs will win a trophy, and that one trophy will probably mean so much more to me because it will have been built on the back of results like Monday.
