The REAL. BIG. Blog

Last night, Duke beat Butler for its fourth NCAA Championship, making Duke the most frequent NCAA Champion of the last twenty years.

In the past, this would have killed me.  Duke, North Carolina, the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, the Los Angeles Lakers — the teams that consistently won, and the teams with national appeal — these were teams I despised.  And why wouldn’t I?  They had rained on my parade so many times by beating my lowly teams that I believed I was justified in disliking them.

Additionally, I questioned how a team could have national appeal.  Shouldn’t you always support your hometown team, even if you move away from your hometown?  All those Yankees fans in Iowa surely were not born in New York City.

As I’ve matured, however, I have grown a greater understanding of people and their team loyalties.  Many started like mine, born out of proximity to the team’s home field/stadium/arena.  I am a Detroit Tigers fan because they were based closer than any other MLB team to the house in which I was raised.

But my parents were also Detroit Tigers fans.  What if they were Red Sox fans?  Would I be following Boston?  Or what if my first baseball game experience was at Wrigley Field?  Would the Cubs have a special enough place in my heart that I could be a Chicago fan?  I now understand that there are many reasons behind people’s fanship. 

Further, I’ve also realized that every game is better because of these relentlessly winning franchises.  Without dominant teams like Duke, we would never have wonderful David vs. Goliath stories like we had last night when Butler faced Duke.  Sure, last night, Goliath won.  But without Goliaths, we would be stuck with a lot of David vs. David stories, which, I think we all can agree, would be so much less fun.

Yes, I used to be a hater.  But now I’ve grown to appreciate the big, dominant, national teams.  I might never root for one (outside of my hometown Red Wings), but I can respect them and their fans.  And I believe that every game is better because of them.

Curious about what to get your fanatic Valentine this February 14^th? Here’s a list of the top 3 from a girl who knows (and works at Fathead):

3. Sports mags – What could be better than the gift that keeps on giving for 12 issues? A subscription to SI should be right up his alley. I know we have a stack of them that always seems to migrate to the bathroom. Is that really the best place for reading?!

 2. Tickets to a college basketball game in your area – Even if your local college team makes it hard to cheer for them on a consistent basis, it’s still a great way for male bonding. Or go along with him and talk about how much you’ve always wanted to be on one of those dance teams.

 1. A Fathead of course – Really? Like you didn’t see that one coming??

I’m sure you can imagine how much time we spend here at Fathead talking about the sports, players, and entertainers we represent and the ones we’d love to bring on board. Provided they’re Fathead worthy that is. March Madness has us speculating about which basketball players we expect to make the Fathead roster once they turn pro. We can’t do a Fathead of a college athlete no matter how good they are so let’s not even go there. Still, we’ve been throwing some names around here at Fathead Central and we thought we’d open up the forum to all of you out there in Fathead Nation. Tell us which players you’ve been watching this past week that you think are Fathead worthy and why. You never know what might sway us.

Dear friends,

Today we are rolling out  free 2nd day air shipping on our latest addition to the Fathead collection - the erasable bracket!

This offer is good until Tuesday, March 17th 2009.

Make sure you are ready for the madness!

Fathead NCAA Tournament Bracket