We love our teams.We love our sports heroes. We follow them through the ups and downs. It’s like life. We celebrate winning years and cry over loss in the troubling years. Sports inspires and motivates some people to take action in their own lives to be a better person, more active or healthier.
Many people look at individual players as gods and they even gamble on these sports, which is not really healthy, so looking treatments for compulsive gamblers is useful as well. Unfortunately, sports athletes are real people with flaws. Over time they will disappoint and fade. That is why I like to look at players through the lens of caricature artists.
Caricature artists have a way of dissecting a person and pull out the imperfections in a comical or exaggerated way. If the artist really knows the athlete they will ad elements to the images about the players strengths and weaknesses. These portraits help me to understand players and their personalities. Maybe, it’s just me.
There are many ways to remember our heroes. Caricatures are just one way.
I know of people who have rooms dedicated to their favor team or players. They line the walls with posters, ticket stubs and memorabilia.
Sometimes an entire nation rallies around a sports team. In Argentina, Reuters reported, a “weary nation” was able to find “rare joy” in the achievements of its World Cup team.
The World Cup and other major sporting events, like the Olympics or LeBron James returning home all affect people lives. Sports exercises a lot of power over some people.
Bill Simmons, one of the most influential American sportswriters, once wrote after his team lost the Super Bowl, “I have never been able to answer the question, ‘Why does this matter to me so much?’ That’s just the way it’s always been. Ever since I can remember.”
Sports affects people emotionally. When your team wins there is a high that lasts for days. If your team loses depression can run your live for days or weeks.
How about when you are ready to celebrate. Your team fought a hard fight and now you’re planning which celebration party to attend the following evening. And this happens….
After that amazing play the punter received death threats. Sad. Unfortunately, that is not the first time a game took a turn for the opposing team in the last seconds. It will not be the last and there will always be idiots who put so much emotion into a game that they can’t control their temper.
The above mentioned Bill Simmons wrote a piece on being a fan. You can find the full version here. I’ve shared some of his thoughts below.
Fan Behavior
Be very careful when using the word “We” with your favorite team. Use it judiciously. Just remember, you don’t wear a uniform, you don’t play any minutes, and you’re not on the team. And yes, this was an extremely tough line for me to straddle during the Patriots’ Super Bowl run.8. No hopping on and off the bandwagon during the season with the flip-flop, “I knew we were going to self-destruct! … All right, we won six straight! … I knew we wouldn’t keep playing this well. … I knew we would bounce back!” routine as the season drags along. Just for the record, this is probably my biggest fault as a sports fan — I overreact to everything. I’ve already written off the Celtics three different times this season, and I’ve given up on Antoine Walker roughly 435 times over the past six years. Can I get some medication for this?It’s OK to root against your team, if they’re hopelessly out of the playoff race and you want them to keep losing so A) they’ll get a better draft pick, or B) you’re hoping the coach and/or GM will get fired. Don’t feel bad about it.(Note: It’s also OK to wager against your team, if they’re hopelessly out of the playoff race. But only then. And only if you don’t make it a habit.)
If one of your fantasy guys is lighting it up against your favorite team (scoring goals, rushing for big yards, making jumpers, etc.), you can’t pump your fist, high-five anyone or refer to the player in a “That’s one of my guys!” sense, especially if it’s a crucial game or a crucial juncture of the game.(That’s maybe the No. 1 problem for sports fans these days: When to draw the line between fantasy and real life. It’s an ongoing battle. Even if you can’t help getting secretly excited about your fantasy guys when they’re thriving against your favorite team, at least make sure you feel guilty, too. Don’t you hate that enthralled/guilty feeling? Is there anything worse? I’m babbling …) You can forgive Knicks fan for booing their brutal team this season.
Don’t boo your team unless it’s absolutely warranted — like with the brutal Knicks situation this season, or if you’re hoping to get a coach fired or a specific player traded or something. When you think about it, what’s the purpose of booing your team? If you’re trying to inspire them, usually you end up sending them into a deeper funk — odds are, your team already knows it’s struggling. And if you’re trying to light a fire under a specific player, usually you end up making him even more nervous and tentative. So why boo in the first place? Trust me, dead silence sends a bigger message than anything. And it’s not potentially destructive.
(There’s only one circumstance where booing doesn’t cause more harm than good: If you have a great team that seems to be going through the motions. For instance, the Lakers have a tendency to sleepwalk against inferior teams at home; As soon as the fans get a little restless, Shaq and company seem to wake up. Unfortunately for the Lakers, their fans aren’t paying attention that closely because they’re busy either trying to get on the Jumbotron, averting their eyes from Dyan Cannon, or trying to figure out things like “How many points do you get if you shoot one from half court?” or “How come that clock on the backboard keeps counting down backward from 24?”)
After your team wins a championship, they immediately get a five-year grace period: You can’t complain about anything that happens with your team (trades, draft picks, salary-cap cuts, coaching moves) for five years. There are no exceptions. For instance, the Pats could finish 0-80 over the next five years and I wouldn’t say a peep. That’s just the way it is. You win the Super Bowl, you go on cruise control for five years. Everything else is gravy.
You can follow specific players from other teams, but only as long as they aren’t facing your team. For instance, it’s fine to enjoy the Brett Favre Experience if you’re a Jaguars fan … just don’t get carried away and start making a scrapbook, collecting all his football cards and so on. That’s a little sketchy. And you can’t purchase his jersey under any circumstances. Patriots fans aren’t allowed to complain about their team for at least five years.
Just because you supported a team that won a championship, it doesn’t give you the right to turn into a pompous, insufferable schmuck. Remember this.
Good advice. It is amazing what people will do to support their team. Is it bacause they have no life. Yeah, I went there. No goals and dreams of their own. Maybe it’s an escape. Sports happens.
Maybe you have the answer. Share you thoughts in the comments.
Source of note: http://www.cjr.org/full_court_press/science_sportswriting.php
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