“In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. You work for everything you have.”
As a five year-old in 2003, there were three people I remember being talked about: Jim Tressel, Scooby-Doo, and LeBron James...and also God. Him, too. In America, sports are a vital source of entertainment, of fandom, of economy, but growing up in the Canton/Massillon area, sports, more specifically football, were the glue of community. Rivalries defined my local fandom of my sports teams. Whether it was the unification of an entire state every Thanksgiving weekend for The Game, or the neighboring cities where I grew up in going into a week-long blood feud every October for Massillon versus McKinley depending on which side of Perry Drive you lived, sports ruled all.