For I am Costanza, lord of the idiots

It's a somewhat busy day with another writing gig, so posting might be light.

Anyway, this must be shared. A couple years ago, in the wake of the World Cup, I set himself to finding an English Premier League team. Aston Villa seemed like a good prospect, but it never took.

Creating a rooting interest out of whole cloth might appeal on some contrarian level, but people's sports-viewing habits tend to become entrenched after 20-plus years of wasting your life watching games. Footy fans also have to get up at ungodly hours, like before noon on Saturdays and Sundays. A Minnesota Vikings, Toronto Raptors and Kingston Frontenacs fan can only belong to so many championship-starved fanbases, ultimately.

Well, that was mid to late 2006. In between, good friend Neil Acharya, over a few Innis & Gunns, welcomed yours truly into the fold of Liverpool fans. Liverpool is neck-and-neck with Manchester United for the EPL title, which is awesome.

Meantime, Villa under Martin O'Neill is rocking the claret and blue all the way to a Champions League bid. Thing is, they're something of an underdog team, while Liverpool is "famous for being good," to quote the Colin Firth version of Fever Pitch, which when combined with the Nick Hornby book furnished 75% of my understanding of how to be a footy fan.

Liverpool winning would be good, but it's so mainstream. Then again, so is Hornby. Ultimately, maybe it was good to ignore the inital appeal to cheer for Villa and go with The Opposite, knowing you'll never walk alone.

Related:
Champions League football is Aston Villa's to lose (Stuart James, The Sport Blog)