Thomas Muller: Why do people watch sports?

Why do people watch sports? Look, sports fans will tell you all kinds of things. One thing they'll all agree about though — there are few things in life that will give you the same feeling that just sitting around name-dropping players from decades ago will give you.

What am I talking about? I was watching Germany vs England at the 2010 World Cup. This was some of the sexiest ballers I've seen — Özil, Müller, Lahm, Klose, Podolski — vs Glen Johnson, David James and Matthew Upson. Then, around the 35 min mark, the commentator goes:

“Muller… what a good prospect this boy looks, he’s only 20 is Thomas Muller…”

Dude. You have no idea…

I heard that and I felt like I was back in High school. Thomas Muller, 20 years old? Forget about it. We’re talking about the future all time top scorer for Germany: a guy so good, so unique, they had to choose one of the most German words ever (“Ramdeuter” is exactly that, don’t tell me it’s not) to come up with a new role just to capture the things this man would go on to do.

Now when I think of that quote, I’m smiling. Why am I smiling? I’m not close to any kind of Bayern fan or Germany fan. But when I think of a 20 year old Thomas Muller, I feel a number of things, like:

  1. Those were the good days.
  2. Man, this guy is going to kill my team (Arsenal - yeah 2nd place etc etc. I’m used to 4th, get over it). So many times, and so painful each time. I dunno, there’s something strangely nostalgic and cool about those big CL defeats. It was epic in its own way. Maybe following Arsenal for so long has conditioned me to deal with trauma in this psychotic way.
  3. Take me back to a world where that kind of potential is bursting at the seams. That seems like an exciting time to be alive. I want to experience that again.

Then I start thinking - who is the 20 year old Thomas Muller of today? Then I just feel so excited for the season ahead. And I start to project potential onto today’s young stars. I draw parallels to the greats of the past - and in doing so, I paint a very rosy picture of the past (they had no flaws, this is Muller we’re talking about! Those were the good days!). And it’s this virtuous cycle of just painting over the cracks of the past and reliving the highs that feeds into a beautiful projection of today, where I imagine potential using the rosy prior art of the past - that creates this aura around the game that probably doesn’t actually exist at all.

I mean, objectively, it’s just some super fit guys running around, with a couple of them near a ball. For 90 minutes. Sometimes they kick it nice. But that’s about it.

But in my head, I’m floating. I’m dreaming. And that feeling is definitely a top 10 feeling I can have. And I can have it any time for free. Life doesn’t give you many deals like that.