JLB, USA

Brand new Spurs supporter from Cincinnati, OH, USA. 31 years of age.

I apologize right away for being new, for being a yank and for my use of American English.

I played football growing up until my knees were in too poor of shape to continue. I’ve always had love for the game, but until recently my circumstances had made it difficult to follow anything beyond international competitions and MLS. Thankfully all of that has changed. American television networks are making an increased commitment to football, and now I can get pretty much any game that matters on TV at home. That’s important in this part of the country, since inquiring at a pub about watching Premier League football on a Saturday or Sunday morning (especially in the fall during American football season) will draw a look of either confusion or disdain. It also helps that I have a job these days that allows me to not have to work during the majority of matches.

Because of all of those factors, I decided at the start of this season to make an earnest effort to follow the Premier League and start supporting a team. I’m not the kind of person that can observe dispassionately, I have to have an allegiance of some kind. I went in search of Brad Friedel, my all-time favorite player, and that’s how I found Spurs.

While I have become a Spurs supporter because of Brad Friedel, I will remain one after he is gone because I’ve developed a love for the shirt. It’s weird to say that as somebody who has not been a supporter before this season. It’s weird to say that as somebody who has never been to England, let alone WHL. I’ve been trying to take in everything I can though, and the more I come across, the more I love it all. When I watch the games, listen to the podcast, the blogs and this forum I come to know more and more that THFC is something I will not be able to go without in my life from here on out.

(And if I may take a moment to do some asskissing, I want to say thank you to all the people who put on the podcast and this forum. While this is just my second post here, I have been reading and listening for a while now. It is an oasis for somebody like me who wants to be connected to THFC but lives in an area that is bereft of other supporters or supporters’ clubs. Thank you for what you do.)

I post this story humbly. I’ve taken in enough to this point to realize that it’s different for me. I’ve been supporting Spurs for just part of one good season. While everybody was in their first season as a supporter at one time, most people don’t come into it at this age or in this way. I wasn’t born into this. I’m no glory hunter, but I also haven’t been around for any of the down times – and I’ve learned enough to know that there surely will be down times. I’m learning as much as I can, but I don’t yet understand it the way many others do. I can tell though that being Spurs means something, and that’s what continues to draw me further and further into it.

Like Big Sky Spur, I too am undertaking something of a 5-year plan to get to a Spurs home match. In the meantime though, I’m excited that the club will be stateside this summer, and will be doing whatever I can to make the 9-hour drive to Baltimore to see the team live for the first time.