Fierce fan mode

It's basketball season again so I figured it's time for some apologies. Just get it out there right now so I'm covered.

Although I've improved a ton over the years, that sports rage monster buried deep inside me sometimes rears its ugly head and the calm and cool woman sitting peacefully in the stands, can have these sudden bursts of raving lunatic that are just unexplainable. I'll refer to it as Fierce Fan Mode.

So, first I will apologize to the poor refs. Trust me, I know you're not getting paid enough to run that much while also getting yelled at by parents, coaches and sometimes even players. And I know some of you aren't even getting paid, period, just helping out so the kids can play their game. Reffing is a thankless job and one that I was not blessed with the ability to do, so first and foremost, thank you and secondly, I'm sorry.

If I haven't already yelled at you or said a smart remark when you ran by my seat, I probably will at some point in the next few months, so I'm going to go ahead and apologize for my know-it-all comments. Ya see, when I'm watching a game, suddenly I believe I know everything about it, as far as who is traveling, who is hand checking or setting moving screens and you and your crew apparently are missing those calls and weirdly, I suddenly feel like I need to announce it to you, quite loudly. Therefore, I'm sorry! I do not have a black and white striped shirt nor do I have a whistle so forgive me. It's just a temporary loss of control on my part and I'm glad you showed up to ref or else my daughter wouldn't get to play her game.

Secondly, I want to apologize to the coaches. Like the refs, I know for a fact you are absolutely and in no way shape or form, getting paid enough for all the time and effort you put into coaching a sport. I promise to never yell at you during a game or even after for that matter, but I want to say sorry if you happen to look up and see me shaking my head or perhaps glaring, just a tad.

I know you have a million things on your mind as to what play to run and who, where and when, and all I have to do is sit my behind in my comfy bleacher chair and point the finger while eating my fresh bag of popcorn. So, anyway, forgive me for my temporary judgement calls from high up in the bleachers. I do respect your efforts and without you, my girls wouldn't get to play a game they love.

And thirdly, I need to say a quick sorry to the opposing team's fans. I consider myself a genuinely nice person but for some reason, when you all walk in with your opposing team's gear and start cheering for your team but screaming at mine, I get overly irritated and feel viciously protective of my home team. I'm sure most of you are all very nice people, deep down, as am I, but for some reason, our kids' sports brings out the worse in us. So....before I flip out and decide, beyond better judgement, to give one of you a good "talking to", I'll say sorry, it's not the real me. (But if you could pipe down a bit, that may help us both out. They're just kids out there on the floor, ya know!)

Anyway, I don't know what happens to me? I don't know how a composed, happy person can switch so suddenly once the buzzer signals game time, but some button gets pushed and I go in to fierce fan mode. Therefore, I'm getting these apologies out of the way now and hopefully that will get me through the season and I won't get kicked out of any games or lose any close friends or make some new enemies.

So I send a mass I'm sorry to everyone and we'll see how the season goes......