The Sporting Life - The Decemberists

I fell on the playing field

The work of an errant heel

The din of the crowd and the loud commotion

Went deafening silence and stopped emotion

The season was almost done

We managed it 12 to 1

So far I had known no humiliation

In front of my friends and close relations

There’s my father looking on

And there’s my girlfriend arm in arm

With the captain of the other team

And all of this is clear to me

They condescend and fix on me a frown

How they love the sporting life

And father had had such hopes

For a son who would take the ropes

And fulfill all his old athletic aspirations

But apparently now there’s some complications

But while I am lying here

Trying to fight the tears

I’ll prove to the crowd that I come out stronger

Though I think I might lie here a little longer

There’s my coach he’s looking down

The disappointment in his knitted brow

«I should’ve known»

He thinks again

«I never should have put him in»

He turns and loads the lemonade away

And breathes in deep

The sporting life

The sporting life

The sporting life

How he loves…

There’s my father looking on

And there’s my girlfriend arm in arm

With the captain of the other team

And all of this is clear to me

They condescend and fix on me a frown

How they love the sporting life

The sporting life

The sporting life

The sporting life

How they love