Why fans hate their teams

In college I had a roommate from India. He did not understand why people rooted for pro teams. He was under the impression that all the Detroit athletes went to Michigan or Michigan State. When he found out the players were drafted from all over the country and sometimes the world, he was baffled.

 

I always avoided the question when it popped into my mind, because I knew once I really looked at it rationally my days as a "fan" were over. No more stomach churning just before kickoff. No more having the day ruined because your team lost. No more scheduling the day around watching the team or recording games to enjoy later.

Held off as long as I could. Finally happened a few years ago. Just do not really care anymore. Victory now is, "Oh, that's nice." Defeat is, "Oh, pity."

After awhile it all just blends together. The seasons. The quotes. The fanbois. God bless those who somehow retained a passion for watching strangers play games in their favorite laundry.

I'll still attack silly statements ("Serena shows class when the loses" . . . "Peyton sucks" (Hi, BYH) because, well, a former sports fan has to stay engaged somehow --- just in case that passion ever comes back.

 

Just go to Philly and ask the first 10 people wearing Eagles logo items. They love to hate their team.

 

Thanks for all of the insight. I never thought about why people feel they need to root for the home team.

 

Parents and friends as fans of a local team indoctrinate children when they are young before their minds are capable of choosing for themselves.

 

Mustang, back away from the shotgun....

It's just a football team. It's lower on the should-care scale than any local government you can think of. Sports are like the weather. Everyone complains about them, no one does much about them. Don't like it, don't buy the ticket. But don't waste time being morally offended. Spend the time walking my dog.

Seriously. He needs to go outside.

As in now.

 

Sounds like religion.

I shouldn't even put a smiley there because there are many similarities. Both can provide strong emotions. They both can inspire, enrage, comfort and confound us. As slytiger suggests about sports, faith and fandom both normally gain their hold over us when we are very young and due to the influence of those around us.

I can only speak for myself. There is no logic to why the success or failure of the Pittsburgh Steelers matters to me, yet I am happy when they win and I am ticked off when they lose. It isn't the individuals. I have never looked up to any Steeler as a role model. I think James Harrison is a thug and Santonio Holmes is an idiot. I root for their success, but I can't say I'd want to sit down with either of them at a bar and buy the guy a beer.

I just have this vague recollection of my first perceptions of the Steelers in the '70s. I was only seven years old when that particular dynasty won its fourth Super Bowl. To my thinking then, I didn't know how to differentiate between the Steelers and the superheroes I watched on TV or read about in comics. They were they good guys and they always won. That's all my 7-year-old brain knew.

Now I know they aren't all good guys and they don't always win, but I'm stuck with this fandom. I love watching the games even when they piss me off. It warms my heart that my 6-year-old sleeps while snuggling up with a Terrible Towel (her idea, not mine).

I don't really understand people who buy tickets to go to games just so they can boo. I get the theory that their love turns to hate. I guess my brain doesn't work that way. My love for the Pirates turned to more to disinterest and disgust. I don't care enough to hate them.

Somebody page BYH. He used to be a Mets fan, right?

 

This is how I am. I enjoy being a fan of my teams, and my sports. Maybe the games shouldn't be as meaningful to me, but the fact is -- they are. And I make no apologies for that.

 

There are three kinds of Cowboys fans: bandwagon-jumpers, lifers to whom the star can never do wrong, and the ones who aren't happy unless they have something to bitch about.

 

Born and raised outside of Boston, I was always a Red Sox fan. But then in 2004, something happened. The idiotic idea of "Red Sox Nation" was formed. Maybe it's my insatiable desire to be the non-conformist, or just my hatred of pink hats, but I can no longer stand the Red Sox.

Sure, I root for them to win in the privacy of my own home, but you'll never again see me at Fenway decked out in my new $200 official Josh Beckett jersey.

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but this whole Red Sox Nation thing can't die soon enough. In all honesty, I'd like it to go back the way it was, when we were a small clique of misable people but one that always persevered.

 

Because fuck the so-called Browns.

 

Nah... he was always a Jay Horwitz guy...