In my office, at the end of a long and a lively conversation with the worldly Moroccan journalist/guitarist Reda Allali...
Allali: "There is football in the city?"
Me: "Yes."
Allali: "But it is not really football." (Skeptical eyebrows beneath backward cap.) "You know what I mean?"
Me: "50,000 fans. The city loves the sport. I'm not kidding you. It's really football."
Allali: "No, it can't be. You know. It's not the same. With me, if my team loses it really hurts. Do you understand that? I feel pain." (A look of misery on his face.) "That is what football means to me. You telling people in Seattle feel that kind of pain? Sounder people feel like that?"
Not sure about the pain part but if you read this week's Police Beat, you will see some Sounder fans who certainly have very strong (indeed violent) feelings about their team.
