In football/soccer, the most popular teams tend to ebb and flow with their success. The crowd of front-runners and bandwagon jumpers is most likely not going anywhere. It is just too intoxicating to be “a winner”. Historically speaking, the team that you were bound to support depended heavily upon your geography. The local team was the one that people supported because they were an extension or a representation of you and your community. Since we now live in a more global community, you can choose to support any team because local is basically everywhere. Whether or not the true locals embrace you as an equal or anyone knows about your fandom is immaterial. Being a fan is a series of choices. My terms for these choices would be PICK, STICK, SUFFER and CELEBRATE.
The first step is to PICK a team. Depending on who you are, this may include picking a name out of a hat, detailed spreadsheets with statistical data or in my case, a desire to make a video game more challenging. The reason you choose a team is less important than what you do from then on.
Probably the most important step is to STICK. Once you’ve picked a team, you need to stick with them, regardless of results, personnel changes or other inconveniences. Front runners and bandwagon jumpers struggle with this step and it is what precludes them from being true fans regardless of the number of jerseys or scarves they might own. Being a fan is similar to being in a committed relationship, sure breakups happen but moving around too much says something.
SUFFER might seem like an undesirable step to go through but it is necessary to be a true fan. Anyone can go through the motions of fandom. Buy some merchandise, watch a few games and you’re acting like a fan. The true test for whether you’re invested is that you hurt when your team hurts. If you feel nothing in the moments of disappointment, then most likely you’re a tourist. Taking pleasure in success is also far too easy for anyone to do. I take pleasure in different teams success all of the time. As my team needs points toward the end of the season, I will celebrate almost any team’s success that helps my team’s cause. It’s pragmatism, not fandom. If you’re only in it for the good times, you’re not really in it at all.
Finally, you can CELEBRATE! You’re no longer a nomadic loner. You have a tribe! A group of people to share experience with. This may be relegated to online or through other means but that is largely irrelevant. You’re a part of something bigger than yourself. People have been doing this type of thing for millennia. Clans, cliques, clubs, tribes, guilds, unions, etc. fill a human need for connection. Now you’ve got one!
Now that you know the steps for being a fan, I would be remiss if I didn’t suggest my favorite club as a possibility. Peterborough United Football Club, known as “The POSH,” are small club located about an hour outside of London. After 17+ years of supporting the club, I’d say that I’m committed or maybe I should be. They play in the EFL Championship and typically are among the top scoring teams in English Football. CHECK THEM OUT!
Be a fan!
Pete
It was many years ago but I’ve still not encountered a better example. I was the field marshal at a youth tournament in Pennsylvania. The players were under twelve years old and engaged in a very back and forth game. One team was extremely adept at the offside trap. Late in the game, there was a corner kick. The cross was cleared out of the penalty box and the defense pushed up. The ball fell to the foot of a offensive player about 30 yards from goal. He shot. The ball rocketed toward the goal and hit the post. The rebound fell to a forward who was slow getting back onside and he scored. The referee instantly called offside and awarded a free kick to the defense. The coach of the team that had the goal disallowed went ballistic. He screamed about how “ridiculous” the call was and asked about the referees sight, etc. As the field marshal I felt that it was my job to diffuse the situation in order to avoid it interfering with the game. I said, “Coach, if you’d like, I can explain to you why that was the right call.” He responded, “I know it was the right call! I’m just blowing off some steam.”
I’ve been extremely fortunate through the years to have won some medals and trophies, either individually or as part of a collective. Most of them are in a box in my basement or in a display case that I don’t have direct access to. Medals and trophies are all pretty similar. They usually have a name of an individual or group, a year and the indication of some accomplishment. As I was thinking about the trophies that teams and individuals are going to reach for this season, I realized that trophies are the tombstones of our past accomplishments.
We live in a modern world but humans are prehistoric creatures. Obviously we have acquired skills and knowledge that our ancestors did not have. So I am not suggesting that we are on their level in that respect but I do want to point out that we are using the same hardware. The same brain structure that caused us to run from saber-toothed tigers is now tasked with managing a world that moves faster than we were intended to go. We’re overwhelmed and stressed because we created an environment that stresses and overwhelms our prehistoric brains. This is not a blog to suggest that we go back to living in caves. Rather it is intended to point out the fact that there are limits on our bandwidth, therefore we must manage ourselves so the prehistoric brain does not go into overload.
George Costanza would not accept it! Upon being dumped by a significant other, she tried to employ the most common of breakup cushioning. “It’s not you! It’s me!” This is an age old ploy to deflect a super direct hit to the ego of the person being dumped. Rather than telling the person the real reasons that they no longer want to be with you, the softener is used. While it may cushion the short term blow, it does nothing for the long term development of the person as a viable mate. Costanza, as usual, is an outlier in his stance on “It’s not you! It’s me!” He doesn’t want to hear it. He wants to know that it is his fault that the relationship is falling apart. While a little aggressive in his approach, maybe it’s time to learn from George.
During my sophomore year of college, my two younger brothers were in high school together. One was a senior and the other was a freshman. At one point during the school year, there were “Drug sniffing” dogs brought in to do a search of the school. Students stayed in their classes while the school was swept. If your locker was tagged, you were supposed to report to the office in order to have your locker searched. My freshman brother’s locker had a tag on it. Completely panicked, he went and found his senior brother. One question from the senior brother, “Do you have any drugs in your locker?” The response was “no”. The senior brother went straight to the office and reported that his locker had been tagged. He brought the officials to the locker for it to be searched. The school officials questioned whether this was really his locker or not because it was in a freshman hallway. My brother was adamant! This is my locker! Upon being opened and searched, the locker did not contain any drugs. There was however a half eaten box of crackers at the bottom which the dog must have smelled. I wasn’t there and no one has discussed that incident for years but I still get choked up when thinking about it.
This line is from the quite ridiculous but still entertaining Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. And it was co-opted by the band The Get Up Kids as a song title in the 90’s. The song outlines one perspective of a short term love affair where the singer refuses to give the relationship a chance. In his own words, “because I’m afraid to try.” It’s an old story that probably precedes Danny Zuko in Grease. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girls. Boy wants to leave while things are still fun and casual because a relationship is just too much work.
In high school, I ran track and field. High jump and long jump were my specialties but I also won points for the team in some of the sprints. Track is a completely different animal than most other sports. Although it’s a team competition, most of the events are competed as individuals. Much of a track meet is spent waiting around for your event to take place. So they end up being long affairs because all of the races are run on the same surface.
They are everywhere at the moment. With the explosion of the Marvel movies, Silicon Valley startups and overnight superstars plucked from the internet; origin stories are all around us. All of them, to a certain extent, are made up. The comic book authors crafted those of the super heroes. The others that exist in the real world cannot tell the story of every little thing that happened. So they have to delete and adjust to a narrative that aligns with how they want to be seen by the outside world or by themselves. Since all origin stories are created in one fashion or another, it may be helpful for your daily life to fashion your own. Not pluck it out of thin air but rather weave some real events of your life in with a narrative that propels you forward.
Marvel and DC have had a long term duopoly on the Super Hero. They’ve got teenagers bitten by radioactive spiders all the way to a billionaire orphan vigilante. These characters have been cultural mainstays for decades with their popularity reaching a crescendo at the moment with big budget movies. These heroes capture the imagination because of their exceptional abilities. Each has their personal foibles but in the end the world depends on them to put things right in extreme situations.
Huryk Unlimited 