Life is hard, and it's not for me to decry simple escapism--sometimes we need to escape--but I notice among the people who share my passion for sports that the sporting event doesn't end when the event ends, not if it matters. We remember it. We talk about it. Our relationship with it, the way we carry it inside us, becomes a piece of our very identity.
To the non-fan, of course, this seems insane. But we know better.