Humility is a tough lesson to learn.
Just ask Lewis Hamilton, my favourite driver in Formula One. After a stellar rookie year finishing up second to Kimi Raikkonen he became world champion last year with an awesome car, a dedicated team and real steadfast dedication. i love him because of his fearless style, lack of reserve and his fire and optimism- two things that seem to have been extinguished with Raikkonen.
This year it mclaren isn't doing so well and neither is ferrari for that matter. Although it is my favourite sport of all time I am no seasoned fan. Yet watching my favourite team and favourite driver discintergrate within the matter of a quarter of a season into a mediocre second tier team is quite the painful. Worse yet there was even a moment to define it- where this morning at circuit de catalunya with a few laps to go button's brawn lapped hamilton. Lapped him. I feel ashamed and incompetent when I get lapped by Boris on mariokart. To say this sentiment is magnified somewhat is only an understatement.
However, if I was there when he won the races last year, there when he won the championship, screaming and cheering and jeering at Ferrari in an Irish pub in barcelona (for the fear of being egged elsewhere for going for anyone other than Alonso), I need to be here now when they are not doing so well, struggling to define the problem plaguing the Mclaren car. I have noticed many fans have now reverted to Brawn, which in all fairness, what's not to like? Everything is spick and span new- the chassis is like a beautiful blank piece of paper- there's the oomph factor with Richard Branson, the suits are spiffy and everytime they pit in their black and white I have Daft Punk's aerodynamic riff playing in my head.
Brad Spurgeon pointed out the world's sudden infatuation with Brawn on IHT. Take the British Press for one, who up till March this year had Hamilton as their darling, hanging on to his every move and word. When
Hamilton was on Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson made jokes at Button's expense (and that was before he won the championship). They hardly mention him now, reverting attention onto their other forgotten Briton, Button, who now has a lead over his teammate by bloody fourteen points. Media is fickle and inevitably the Brits are even worse.
The moral of the story is that if you are a fan of something- whatever you are sticking up for, you're only a real fan if you're there for them when they are the underdog, when they're struggling for air, when the pit babes have forgotten them, when they get lapped when they were the ones lapping the year before.
Here are some underdogs apart from Lewis & Co. I hope will get a move on and return to its former glory (some, after being humbled so they can come back with more humility):
- Oliver Theyskens
- Grey's Anatomy
- Various Economies
- Iceland
- The Mets (this one's for you Marie)
