And here we go...

A few months ago, my brother Jared started writing a sports blog based on issues he felt were important and centered around topics that should be brought up and discussed as he saw fit. As I read his posts on various topics, I felt my opinion needed to be shared as well (as any other self-indulgent American feels¸ wanting his own opinion to be heard), thus the origination of this blog. You will not agree with everything (or possibly anything) I mention here, but that’s the beauty of opinion: it cannot be wrong.

Topic #1: The conundrum of “us” and “we” in regards to sports teams.

We have all heard it before and will continue to hear it regardless of how hard it grinds the gears: “we had a great game today,” “we’re going to be awesome this year,” “I think we’re really under the radar this year.”

The phrases listed above and many very similar are said every day by sports fans around the world but most people don’t bat an eye. In my opinion, the only reason for anyone to refer to themselves as a part of a team are for the following reasons: 1) you are a current or former member of said team, 2) you are an owner or shareholder of the team, 3) you are an employee of the team (and even the janitorial staff are a part of this category), and 4) you are a spouse, family member, current student or alumnus of the team. Any other reason (of course I may be missing some sort of connection) does not give you the right to refer to yourself as a part of the team you claim as your favorite. You may have been rooting for this team since you were a child and have the paraphernalia to prove it¸ or your mood may swing as far as a menopausal woman depending on the win/loss ratio, but that does not give you a right to say you are a part of the team. It is completely fine to openly root for a team, but you cannot be considered part of the team, and thus cannot refer to the team as “us” or “we” unless you possess an actual connection aside from merely being a fan.

It is my goal in this specific post to debunk a few myths regarding this connection many feel they have to their favorite team.

Myth #1: Without my money/support, the team would not exist as it does today.

To an extent, you are correct. Money and fan support are the driving forces of any organized team. However, the #1 reason for anyone to own a major league team (and for all intents and purposes, I will be focusing on the NFL and NBA since those are the only sports that matter to me) is to make an ungodly amount of money legally. Most of the money in any professional sport comes from a variety of different places. I haven’t done any research on this but my assumptions would provide the following in no particular order: ticket sales/parking at venue, concession sales, and merchandise sales. As you probably noticed, all three of those are fan based which gives you a valid point in your “us” and “we” fan point of view. However, what you may fail to realize is you are only one person and only one fan. Without your specific support, the team would not notice any drop in sales in any of the three major categories. If you suddenly stopped supporting your team financially (i.e. buying tickets/merchandise/concessions/parking), would they miss your few hundred dollars a year? I’m no financial analyst, but I’m guessing they wouldn’t know if you dropped off the face of the earth. The only way for these teams to feel any real financial hurt is if hundreds of thousands of fans stopped caring and stopped buying their stuff. Ask the Detroit Lions how it was last year when they literally couldn’t give away tickets to home games. I read a story in a newspaper about a bar in Detroit that had a special promotion during the NFL season that went like this: buy a beer (yes, one single beer for $2.50) and you get a free ticket (worth upwards to $30) to a home Lions game of your choice for that season. The owner of the bar said sales during that promotion were an all time low in the history of the bar. He literally could not give away tickets to one of the worst franchises in the NFL during that season. This is how fans can affect a team. Mind you, not one specific fan but an entire grouping of fans decided enough was enough and just gave up. I think of it like the presidential election: one specific vote does not matter in the whole scheme of things. However, if everyone who supported one candidate decided to just not show up and stop supporting him/her and not vote when it mattered, what would happen? The candidate would go up in flames, similar to the Lions last year. The bottom line is this: YOU DO NOT MATTER TO YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS. Without your individual support, another fan is lining up to take your place. Without your support and his/her support, another is lining up and one behind them and so on and so forth. The moral of the story is fans in general do not matter to owners or players for the most part because there are always going to be others to fill in the empty spaces. The question becomes, why do fans put so much energy into entities that don’t care about them?

The reason is because fans want and need to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves and attach themselves to a favorite team. They are putting so much time, energy and money into being attached to the team it becomes natural to feel a real connection besides just fandom. Since they are already attached to the team, why not take the extra step and make themselves a part of the team by referring to it as “my team?” This is where the problem lies and also the reason people will never stop. There really is no answer to give because it has become an epidemic in the sports community. More and more people are starting and continuing this behavior and passing it on to future generations so it has become the norm for people to say “hey, we may not make the playoffs this year, but we always have next year.” No, sir, YOU will not make the playoffs next year, but your favorite team just may. They won’t care if you show up or buy that shiny new playoff shirt, but your friends might be impressed by the story. Just remember to save your receipt.

I have no myth #2, I just like making lists…maybe next time