I learned an important lesson at my first Chattanooga Football Club game

I have a confession to make: I am not a sports person. While I enjoy the camaraderie, crazy customs and adrenaline, I don’t know much about the rules, players or plays. (In fact, I was surprised to see the clock counting up instead of down at Finley when I went to my first Chattanooga Football Club match for this column.)

So I hope I don’t get booed off the playing field for my next confession: At that first home game for the CFC on May 18, I left “early,” just before the two 15-minute overtimes – which led to the only points scored. Yes, our team ended up bringing home the win 4-1 in the second-round match of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup game against Reading United A.C., and I missed it. But I learned an important lesson: Never call it over till the final buzzer rings.

Growing up, the only time we watched sports was if the Steelers were playing in the Super Bowl. These days, dating a die-hard Tennessee Titans fan, my sports experience has grown a little bit, while my knowledge has stayed essentially nil. But I have had enough other types of exposure to know that the game that is America’s bread and butter – the last three Super Bowls hold the top spots for most-watched events in U.S. television history – is not what the rest of the world thinks of when they think football.

While in college, I studied abroad in Murcia, Spain, for several months. The day we arrived, we found the city in an all-out uproar. It just so happened that the local soccer team had just finished a match against their main rival – and won. It was a Sunday, a day when most things would normally be closed, but every door was flung open and people spilled onto the streets. So many people! The streets were overtaken by them, and on every corner was a stand offering food, drinks, whatever you needed to complete your celebration. The joyous mood was inescapable. A nearby fountain had been turned into a raucous dance club complete with air horns and drums. Children soaked up all the excitement as they ran freely, laughing and playing as the adults became children themselves in their own unabashed revelry. Someone had poured dish detergent into the fountain and people were splashing about in the growing froth of foam, sending bubbles floating over the square like a magical cloud.