The Boston Red Sox. The NY Yankees. The San Antonio Spurs. The North Carolina Tar Heels. The New England Patriots. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The USC Trojans.
As I reel off these names, can you hear it? Can you hear that faint rumbling?
It seems more and more supposed 'fans' can hear the call. It is the call of the bandwagon and it seems that it is blowing its horn more loudly than ever. Even here, in the NW corner of Minnesota, I see Bo Sox hats and Irish caps. (Don't ask me why.)
These fans go around blowing their own horn about their 'favorite' team, but can't name a single historic player. You ask them to name someone who stood out over 10 years ago and they just stare into space until drool runs down or they glare at you for questioning their fanhood.
It just pains me to see so many people just jump freely from team to team. I mean, players do it enough, fans shouldn't have to too.
What has happened to loyalty? To pride? To honor?
All I have to ask you wagontrain fans is this: Who will be your favorite team 2 years down the road? 5 years? In fact, I'll just come by and see after the next championship game. And don't hide your new hat.
Note: To all you loyal fans out there, if you know anyone like this inspire them to be like you. They are in obvious need of guidance.
This is something that has been burning on me for a while. I needed to get rid of this so I don't blow up on the kid who has liked Boston for the past 3 months.
I feel your pain! But I think it varies from person to person. I, for one, will never turn my back on the Jaguars, Magic, and Gators...but being a Tracy McGrady fan, once he got traded to Houston, I silently started rooting for the Rockets. Likewise with Shaq. You hate to see your favorite players fail (unless of course they left your team on a sour note, or performed better on their new team, like Grant Hill) I hate him since leaving the Magic injury-prone, now he seems to be 100% the past two years!
Bottom line is, successful teams will always have bandwagon riders, especially if they support teams that are traditionally bad, year after year.
Well i'm slightly older than you,lol. Just turnrd 50. I went to my 1st Lakers game in 1967 when i was 9 yrs old. I've been a Lakers fan thru the good yrs and the bad. And it is amazing that you have these so called bandwagon fans. They will root for one team this year and if things dont go well next year they will find another to jump on.
Kal, great rant! Out here, you hardly see any 49er gear now that they're sorry. You see some from the hardcore Niner fans who stick with them through thick and thin. Last year, you saw Colts gear. This year, you see Giants gear.
I've been a Dodgers fan in baseball since 1971, when I was 7. That was when I went to a Dodgers-Giants game at Candlestick Park and the Dodgers won. Three years later, I went to Dodger Stadium for the first time and saw the Dodgers beat the Giants on Old Timer's Day. You see a LOT of Yankees and Red Sox gear out here. All I have to do is ask them to name the current Sox lineup and they look at me flummoxed. They might identify Big Papi or Manny Ramirez, but that's about it.
Yeah man great blog. I have seen it already this year with a few of my friends. I watch quite a bit of basketball and a couple of my friends started liking the Celtics, after the trades of course. I asked them to name the fifth starter after KG, Pierce, Allen, and Rondo. They looked at me and didn't know what to say.
Life story right there. I can not stand people who jump on the bandwagon. Im from Florida and when the gators were making their run in football and basketball and few years i have never seen so many jumpers. I am an Ohio State fan so it got to me like crazy. The worst part about it all is when they start talking trash about your team yet that can even name the quarterback of their own team (that they supposedly like). I am not sure how it feels to be a fan of the team and people jump on the bandwagon (im a cubs fan) but i could only imagine.
There are hardcore fans, casual fans, and bandwagon fans.
Hardcore fans can quote stats and recite by heart the names and numbers of every player for years. They MUST have their team's "gear." They plan their week's activities around their team's TV schedule. They suffer agony and despair when their team loses and euphoria when they win a championship.
The casual fan usually knows the current top players. They can discuss intelligently this seasons success and failures. They watch the games, but would not miss their best friend's wedding for anything less than a championship. But they have been this same casual fan for years. They support the team, but do not become emotionally involved.
Bandwagon fans are the ones that jump on because of the team's success. People become outraged at the idea of bandwagon fans. I have never figured out why. People become fans of a team for various reasons. I suspect that team success is the most common.
It has never really bothered me. I figure there is plenty of room on the bandwagon. The more the merrier. And what the heck, if the team's success fades, most of those people will jump off, but some of them will hang on and become real fans.
I laughed at a poster one time who was venting about bandwagon fans and was bragging about how long he had been a fan. Seemed he became a fan when the team was successful back in the 80s. This guy did not see that he was once a bandwagon fan himself.
Of course the bandwagon fan that becomes obnoxious can be annoying, but the same thing can be said of the hardcore fan and they should know better.
But be careful of labeling people on a message board or a blog a bandwagon fan, because you have no clue about those people.
I have had people call me a Spurs' bandwagon fan, and yet I have been a Spur's fan since the inception of the team. My bandwagon is getting a bit rickity. I am a hardcore fan of the worst sort. Thank God for DVR. Other shows can be watched later, not the game.
But sometimes those of us who have been long time fans become a bit arrogant over our long fan status. That can be almost as annoying as the newbie. You know being a fan of a team for a long time does not bestow moral superiority on us.
So my advice is to not let it bother you. Don't sweat the small things and this is definitely a small thing. Just welcome the newbie fans and try ot educate them and turn them into hardcore fans.
Attitude- I don't really have a problem with anyone who switches teams because somebody they love as a player switches. I just don't like it when somebody cheers for a team that they really don't know anything about. For me, its been hard when i grew up loving the Niners and Steve Young and having to watch them flop down.
lakers- Thanks for the comment and age never matters in fanhood.
jon- Thanks for the comment. Seems that teams are just like clothes these days. A team starts to win and its the new fad.
Gab- That will only increase more if they win the title. Thanks for stopping by.
dtb- An OSU fan in Florida. I'm sure you've heard a ton of stuff.
Spur- I'll never label a specific person as something I don't know about them. With me, bandwagon fans bother me in the sense that they feel that they are true fans that have always followed the team and brag about how great they are. If they do happen to hold onto that team, then I have no problem, but if they run off to the next title team, then they are not even a fan to begin with to me.
I just had to get it off my chest. And I'm sure trying to recruit. haha. Thanks for the commment.
Yeah, the fans who switch alligence like they change their clothes bother me a little too. But I guess I have seen it for so long, I hardly pay attention to it anymore. It is just one of those facts of life in fandom that is always going to be with us.
The one that bothers me the most is the "fan" who goes from message board to mesaage board being obnoxious and giving your team's fans a bad name.
It is hard to be a fan of a professional sports franchise in these days of free agency. In the NFL, no matter what happens to some of my favorite Steelers, I will root for no other than my Steelers. For instance I was a huge Joey Porter & when he was let go & signed with Miami, I wished Joey luck, but stuck with my Steelers. I grew up as a Steeler fan, won't leave them for nothing. But in the NBA, I was a Magic fan once then a Laker fan then a Heat fan and now a Suns fan. If you haven't guessed, I am a fan of Shaq. I guess the NBA player's personalties stand out more than other sports. What I am getting at, free agency has a lot of to do with this bandwagon effect. What is a fan going to do when an athlete they love is relocated to another team? Do they find another atlete on there team to root for? Or do they follow their hero to his/her team? That is up to the fan. But the bandwagon fans of NCAA is something I don't get, especially new fans of Notre Dame since they stink. Pick a NCAA school and stick to it. NCAA has no thing like free agency where players constantly change teams every year. When a player leaves his/her school, they are done with sports in the NCAA level and a new crop comes in. Bandwagon fans to me are more in the collegiate ranks while trying to label fans as a bandwagon fan in professional sports is shady due to free agency & of course, trades.
hey its funny (example) you know those school flags banners that people put on their cars, vans, to show support of the teams.... i think no where else but in eugene,oregon would you see on one side of the vehicle a oregon state beavers flag and on the other side a oregon ducks flag????? example in southeren california would you see a UCLA flag on the other side a USC flag i dont think so
Being a true fan is an emotional thing. Sometimes there is just no rhyme or reason to it. You don't just pick a team, like you do a pair of shoes. You don't just wake up one morning and decide to become a Spurs fan. Becoming a team's fan is like falling in love. It just happens. Of course you can also fall out of love.
I am a Spurs' fan probably because I have lived in or within 50 miles of SA my entire life, so it was a natural progression. Proximity, even over success,(which I mentioned in an earlier post) is probably why most people become fans of a team. Loyalty to a city, a state, or a region comes into play.
It's funny how fandom works. I became a Longhorn fan when I was in high school because one of the guys from my high school played at UT. Having no prior attachment to any other school, I of course rooted for him. But my loyalty far outlasted him, and turned hardcore. I suppose if he had played for A&M, I might today be an Aggie fan. Horrible thought!
Every season on blogs and message boards, people start trying to set standards for fans. There have been long threads arguing just what a bandwagon fan is. There was a discussion on the ESPN board last season in which a guy set down about 10 "rules to being a fan." The debate raged for weeks. And people were actually serious about it.
The thing about sports fandom is that there are no rules.
BJ- I agree with your point. It seems in the leagues of the NFL, NBA, and MLB it is impossible for a guy to reamain with a team hence people change. I'm not entirely against that because players personalities can get you, just like you said.
Kelly- That person is crazy. No matter where they go in Oregon, one side of their car is going to get egged.
Spur- I also agree proximity does have a lot to do with it. I fell in love with the University of MN because I live here and because my brother liked them and we watched them together.
Amazing how just one small thing can be discussed forever. Fandom is free, but still shouldn't be traded. (Unless there's a bonus involved.)
Kal, I agree with you on most of your points. But let me tell you about me. I grew up in Florida. My family moved there in 1978-I was 6. The town just to the north of where I lived is Vero Beach-where the L.A. Dodgers had spring training. So, I was a die hard Dodger fan. However, a few things happened to switch me. First of all, Florida got an expansion team. They then made one of my high school friends (Charles Johnson-C)their first ever draft pick, and while all this was going on, the Dodgers were sold and got rid of Tommy Lasorda-the only manager that I could ever remember them having. I now started to get every Marlins game on TV-something that I never had with LA, and I really became more of a fan then I had ever been in the past. Also, when the Marlins were eliminated and the Dodgers were still alive, I rooted for the Dodgers-but I wouldn't say that I'm a Dodger fan anymore. Now, I live in Dallas, I'm still a Marlins fan but I now also root for the Rangers since they are the local team. I will also root for the Dodgers as long as they don't play the Marlins and Rangers. So you see, I have one FAVORITE team-the Marlins, but I have a seat on a couple other bandwagons-and it has nothing to do with winning or losing.
jaguar- An interesting story. I can see your perspective and I'm sure that happens to quite a few fans. A team moves into your hometown or you enter that area and become a fan of the team.
Best of luck to the Marlins the rest of the way and thanks for the comment.
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I'm a 17-year-old sports fan that lives in the northwest corner of Minnesota about 20 miles from Canada, who would love to be a sports writer. I have played organized sports all my life including football, baseball, golf, hockey, and, though I'm not too proud of it, basketball for a weekend.
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