What happens when the manager of West Ham’s soccer team calls a heckling fan’s bluff and invites him onto the field?
From NPR’s Snap Judgement podcast comes the true story of one soccer fan’s dream come true. Steve Davies was your prototypical English soccer fan. As we know from the New York Times’ excellent study of when people form lasting fan-team relationships, many of us, especially boys, become fans of a team that wins a championship when they are between 8 and 12 years old. When the British soccer team, West Ham, won the championship in 1975 it began a “massive love affair” for Davies. He attends as many games as he can and has a “West Ham ’till I die” tattoo on his arm.
One day, when Davies was 22, he and some friends went to a West Ham pre-season game. Even though it was only a pre-season game, Davies and his friends had high hopes and high standards for their team. Davies in particular didn’t think the team’s striker (forward most attacker) was trying hard enough, and like die-hard fans everywhere, was vocal and colorful in telling him so. The venting and exhorting went on into the second half but the striker did not. He got injured and was substituted out. At this point, something truly remarkable happened. The team’s manager, Harry Redknapp, turned towards the stands and asked the most belligerent fan there if he thought he could really do better than the striker.
That fan was Steve Davies and the rest was history. You’ve got to hear this one:
Snap Judgement is a wonderful collection of stories collected by host Glynn Washington. I enjoy it quite a bit and I suspect you would too. Check it out on npr.org and snapjudgement.org or subscribe on your favorite podcasting machine.