The Sporting Life

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 Decemberists