This is Just Sad

One of Bill Shankly's more colorful if not likely misquoted lines goes something like: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Here's the thing about that: it's wrong. It really is just a game. In yesterday's Champions League semi-final there was a place in the final at stake. And outside of a large pile of money and and even larger trophy, not much else.

That's what makes the following story so hard to fathom:

[Suleiman Alphonso Omondi], an Arsenal fan in soccer-mad Kenya hanged himself following his team's 4-1 aggregate drubbing by arch-rivals Manchester United in the Champions League semifinal, police said on Wednesday.

According to one of his friends, they had been watching the match at a local pub, and after the final whistle Omondi left crying. Police said he had hanged himself in his Arsenal shirt.

This is just really, really sad. No other word for it.

We live and die with our teams at UF, but thankfully only do so in a figurative sense. Yesterday was rough for the Gunner-loving contingent over here (and obviously across the world) but our "death" ends at the disappointment of watching your rival have its way with you while you kind of lay there and take it.

So yeah, this is sobering. Maybe the guy had other things going on in his life. Let's hope that an Arsenal loss wasn't the sole reason for his hanging himself. Not that that would make it less sad. There's another season starting up less than four months and, unfortunately, Omondi won't be around to witness it.