I am not your average sports fan.

I’m one of those nerdy sports fans. One of those guys who knows all the stats, all the numbers of the players, all their colleges, their former teams, their favorite breakfast cereal (okay that one is a lie). I was born and raised in Michigan, and am proudly a fan of the Spartans, the Tigers, the Pistons, and...well...because of nurture--a fan of the Green Bay Packers

I grew up watching whatever sport was on. I lived and died with every pass. Every strikeout left me on the edge of my seat, and every dunk caused cheering from the front row of my living room.

This week was a special week for me. My favorite player growing up, Brett Favre, was elected to the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Favre was not a perfect person, nor a perfect player. He made many mistakes both on and off the field that left me shaking my head. I didn’t want to write an article glorifying him as a hero among the rest--he simply isn’t. He’s just a man who can throw a football pretty well.

However, if there was one thing that made Brett Favre into Brett Favre and not some other quarterback was his love for the game. He loved to compete. Even after all the money, he still loved playing football.

As a kid and now a man who loves sports, Farve’s continued admiration for the game helps justify my own.

March 18th, 2016 marked a painful day as a Spartan fan. A promising Michigan State basketball team was knocked off by the fearless Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. I cried, screamed, hurt as I watched players I had learned to love over the past 4 years had the dream of a championship slip away slowly. In that moment, a dear friend asked me, “What’s the point? Why get so worked up over some game?”

I still can’t answer it. I don’t know if it’s watching players I love succeed. I don’t know if it’s because I love the game. I don’t know if it’s because somehow my team winning makes me feel as if I’m better. I don’t know. Regardless, if it’s virtue or vice, I still love it.

Tears still stream down my face when I think of the night of October 14th, 2006 when Magglio Ordonez hit the walk-off home run to send the Tigers to the World Series. That year my grandfather, one of the biggest Tiger fans I had known, passed away. The sound of Dan Dickerson’s radio call still bring the smell of his jacket to my nose.

Something about the highlights of Michigan State’s 2014 Rose Bowl run brings me back to my high school friends and the memories we will forever share. It makes me taste crisp fall air and makes me stretch my toes in comfort. Maybe the greatest, which is not the flashiest, was Jeremy Langford’s scamper up the middle to put a dagger in Ohio State’s National Championship Run.

There are numerous heartbreaks as well. The most recent being the Middle Tennessee Upset, closely followed by the recent heartbreak of MSU football against Alabama. Not forgetting the Packers’ duel against Arizona in the Wild Card playoffs this last year which ended in a wild disappointment. Though it is painful to remember the loses, they make the wins that much sweeter.

I don’t know what God thinks of sports. But I can tell you this; Champions never die. They are felt forever. I am forever indebted to the great athletes that gave me something to cheer for, something to dream about, something to be nerdy about, and something to give me hope when I was growing up. Their impact on me was much more than their stats could ever show.