Premier League football fans can be enemies, but close friends after the game
As summer draws to a close, kids go back to school, and election season heats up, you could be missing another important development:
The return of Premier League football.
If you’ve never been to OKC’s most popular football bar, let me paint a picture for you: In north Bricktown, nestled between the Deep Deuce Bridge and a police station, sits Skinny Slims. It’s a tiny space, and every weekend during football season, it’s packed.
It’s not packed with supporters of a particular team, like you might find in a football pub in a larger city, where each fan base has its own space. No, it’s packed with fans of the opposing teams, and you’re standing shoulder to shoulder with people who desperately want your team to lose.
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We all watch the same game, and when a team scores a goal, half the crowd cheers while the other half shouts unprintable obscenities.
Even more remarkable, however, is what happens after the final whistle. As the athletes on screen greet each other and shake hands, at the bar, enemies become friends again as we discuss what the winners did right and what the losers can do to do better next time.
It is, in my opinion, the opposite of what has become all too normal during and after election season.
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As we approach the final stretch of the 2024 elections, I would like to ask you all to behave a little more like crazy football fans:
Watch the same game. Don’t adopt “alternative facts” if the actual ones don’t reflect what you want.
Support your team and candidates with passion and value the enthusiasm and commitment of others.
Understand that after the final whistle, it’s time to come back together. If a bunch of beer-addled football hooligans can do it, so can you.
Representative Forrest Bennett is a Nottingham Forest soccer fan and state representative for Oklahoma City’s 92nd congressional district, which includes midtown, downtown and parts of southern Oklahoma City.
