I believe I'm in the majority here in that I can get worked up during important games. My question to Tidefan at large is, what is your method for staying calm during the games (and calming down after games)?
For me, I'll exercise during commercials -- 10 all-the-way-to-the-ground pushups. With as many commercial breaks as I assume we'll have tonight, I'll probably end up physically exhausted with 1 half of the game left.
PS I searched for an existing thread on this, and didn't find anything. If I missed one, my bad.
For me it's just realizing that the game in absolutely no way affects my quality of life.
Now, that is in no way intended to demean or diminish the intensity or magnitude of the game, but I constantly remind myself that if Alabama wins or loses, I'm still who I am in the same spot in life with the same family in the same home working my job. Nothing they do changes anything about my life unless I allow it to change my disposition which THEN CAN CAHNGE MY LIFE.
So yah I still get irritated with bad calls or mental errors and even excellent plays from the other team, but it's a much more tolerable experience than when I was in college or even PLAYING sports where I was hyper competitive. I'm much less competitive now. It was always unhealthy anyways because I have a naturally laid-back temperament and it was hard to reconcile those 2 parts of me.
I will say, even in the games we have lost or are close, if the other team is just playing legitimately well, i's easier for me to enjoy the game. Even though we were making mistakes in the SECCG, it wasn't AS painful because I had to respect how well GA was playing at the time. I'm enough of a fan of the sport that I can give credit where it is due - which made it all the more hilarious when they wet the bed.
I risk getting REALLY worked up in games like we lose to Ole Miss or Auburn last year where it just more of us beating ourselves and not executing. But I still just remind myself of those things I talked about earlier and it goes over about as well as a loss to an arch-rival can go possibly go.