Pot Meets Kettle!
by:  Sande Hamilton

So much has been said over the years in so many nasty ways about the "waste" of time
and the "obsessive fans" that soaps create. What is not said however, is that there is a national
pastime that not only creates zealot fans, but has many glued to their sets or shelling out big
bucks to watch. I am talking of course about football. Now, I am not one to suggest that football
could be done away with (heavens no). Instead I am merely suggesting that there is a strong
parallel between the world of soaps and the world of the pigskin. Don't believe me? Consider
the following facts:

1. Keeping Score- Ask any soap fan who is who and then can rattle off the family chains
and backstabbing pasts of any of their favorite soap characters. Ask any football fan who is who
and they can rattle of what position the player plays, where he went to college, what year he was
drafted and who once played on the team but is now retired.

2. Team Loyalty- For what ever reason be it location on the planet, family history, clear
reception on the TV, both soap and football fans stand by one team no matter what the outcome
is. Your soap gone bad? Maybe you caught a minute or two of another but face it your always
going to go back to the same one. Football fans are no different. They will whether a bad year or
two or twenty after all it's their team right?

3. Fantasy Games- Soap fans write fan fiction, create web sites and fill up the message
boards with who they think should be doing what to whom. Football fans create web sites, argue
over who should be let go and who should have made the big play. They also create fantasy
football leagues kind of like their version of live action fan fiction.
 
4. Armchair Quarterback- Lets face it we all know what our soap characters should be
doing and we never hesitate to tell them ,weather they can hear us or not. Football fans are equal
in the zest for yelling out what should have happened and how they saw it all coming.

See we are not all so different. So the next time someone throws up the age old smirk
and comment about "soap fans" remind them that while we enjoy wasting a few hours coasting
through the messy lives of our favorite characters WE never put on costumes (i.e. uniforms) and
reenact the acts in OUR backyards. We leave that to them.