Follow the Portland Timbers, and you’ll figure this out pretty quickly: There is the Portland Timbers, and then there is the Timbers Army.
The Timbers are a soccer team. The Army is so much more.
This morning on Oregon Sports News, an article was published that wasn’t so much malicious as it was painfully ignorant. And as there is from every mistake, an opportunity to educate arises.
My education began three years ago. I discovered soccer through the intensity, dynamism and breath-taking spectacle of the World Cup in 2006, and eventually fell feet-first into the European game. I dabbled in MLS affairs, but it wasn’t until the Timbers were elevated into the top flight from the minor league USL in 2011 that I jumped in.
It wasn’t until I discovered the Timbers Army that I fell in love.
Over the last three years, the Army has reeled me in.
I have watched with wonder as this group of football supporters has grown themselves up and transformed into an entity that represents the best of the city of Portland, and is a wonderful force for good.
The more time I have spent with the Army, in the Army, and as the Army, the more I have realized how unique and how special this organization is.
At its best, you wouldn’t even know that the Timbers Army has anything to do with soccer. Explore the culture, and that’s the conclusion you’ll come to.
Jason Davis, a writer for ESPNFC.com did, and he wrote an article that entitled, For the Portland Timbers, winning isn’t everything. While Davis’ angle was another misguided attempt at explaining this Army, he came to the right conclusion in a roundabout way: The Timbers Army shatters Vince Lombardi’s old saying, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
So many things matter so much more than the games.
One of the reasons the article this morning was so galling was because it minimized the beliefs of the Army.
Ideology and activism is what makes the organization.
I took a shot at an explanation in this column about the matriarch of the Army, Gisele Currier, in October.
Attending a game in the North End at Jeld-Wen Field has been described as going to church with 5,000 best friends. There is a communal feel. I felt it when I attended a game in Columbus with the travelling Army this summer. Fans who I talked to from West Virginia became Timbers fans just through watching the Army at Jeld-Wen on television.
The Timbers lost to the Crew 1-0 that day, one of the team’s only losses of a magical 2013. But I doubt those fans remember the score. I barely do. What I remember vividly was staying after the game and saluting the Timbers players, just as the Army does after every game – win, lose or draw.
I feel pride every time I see the Timbers Army taking a stand. The Army’s relentless activism led the Portland Timbers to become the first professional sports organization in the United States to endorse gay marriage.
You can see the diversity in the stadium through the various songs and traditions taken from other cultures.
Through tifos, marching in parades, raising money for local organizations, volunteering time and effort to worthy causes, the Army makes its mark. Talk to the members who run the 107ist, the philanthropic wing of the Timbers Army, and that’s what they’ll tell you they’re most proud of.
On the outside, the Army may look scary. You have to really spend time with the people that make the Army what it is to understand that it is not.
Taking its culture from Italy and South America, using capos and smoke bombs and general admission seating, my guess is supporters in England would be floored if they attended a game in Portland.
And Portland can be proud that they have a supporters’ section that makes crowds in the most hallowed stadiums look pedestrian.
The Timbers Army isn’t perfect. They’ve made mistakes, and they’ve had some unruly moments.
But these moments are rare and getting rarer. There is absolutely no racism, fascism, or homophobia – and part of the reason the Army is so aggressive in striking down threats to this ideology is because it is so strongly believed in. I’d invite anyone to sit in the Army. You’ll be welcomed with open arms.
Remember that at its tear-jerking, romantic best, sports aren’t about sports.
Sports are about community, about family, about love, about kindness, compassion, and about doing what’s right. Sports can lift you off your feet, but the power sports have to do good, and to make people happy can make you fly.
That’s why I bother. It’s for that moment when sports is transcended by what sports can do.
Yes, ask people in Boston right about now. Ask people in New Orleans what the Saints did after Hurricane Katrina. But all over the world, there are smaller, less dramatic examples of what sports can do for community.
The Army gets it. It’s about the experiences and the ability to change things for the better. The TA is a cultural phenomenon, a social movement. As Portlanders, it’s something we all can and should be proud of.
There are only so many agents of good in the world. The Timbers Army is one of those agents.
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