There is nothing rational about sports fandom. On the most basic level, being a fan of a sports team means pulling for a group of strangers to win a game whose outcome is both impossible to influence as a spectator and has no discernable impact on our day-to-day lives. And yet, the emotional highs that result from your team pulling off a seemingly impossible victory, coupled with the occasional lows that invariably follow a heartbreaking loss, are not easy to forget, no matter how much time passes. At the end of the day, it’s only a game, and it really shouldn’t matter who wins or loses. Of course, whether or not a game should matter doesn’t change the fact that, for better or worse, for many people it absolutely does.
Sports are incredibly powerful. A single team can bring generations of families together, become ingrained in the fabric of the city it represents, and even unify entire countries. Objectively, there is absolutely no reason the outcome of a game should be consequential enough to affect so many people on such a deep emotional level. However, being a fan means leaving objectivity out of the picture. As a fan, once the decision is made that a specific team is “your” team, it is nearly impossible not to become emotionally invested in the successes and failures of said team.
Once you have chosen a team as your own, that team remains yours through thick and thin. The loyalty of some sports fans is truly astounding and borderline stupefying. In other words, fandom has no boundaries, and why loyalty to one team persists over time without fail has little to do with the outcomes of the individual games. As the old saying goes, “you win some, you lose some.” Being a fan means standing by your team regardless of what the final score is, because, no matter what changes from season to season, or even game to game, the connection forged with and dedication to a team remains constant.
Speaking from personal experience, there are few more satisfying moments than finally watching your team take home a championship. This wouldn’t be such a gratifying experience if it were easier to come by. From a statistical standpoint, only one team can be declared league champion every year, which means that the overwhelming majority of the time, whatever team you decide to support will fall short of its ultimate goal. However, unwavering belief in a team will, without fail, lead fans, young and old alike, to suspend disbelief and cling to the hope that their team is somehow destined to defy long odds and emerge the ultimate victors.
Whether or not the faith someone places in his or her team year after year is justified, at the beginning of every season, there is always a chance that any year could be the year. On a basic level, sports serve as a beacon of hope. Being a sports fan provides the opportunity to become invested in something far greater than oneself, which is why even watching a group full of strangers succeed and fail can feel so personal, almost as if it is happening directly to you. Even if being a fan means setting yourself for a higher number of devastating losses than series-clinching wins, deep down we all believe that, one day, it will be our team’s—and by extension, our—turn to be labeled reigning champions, and it will one-hundred percent be worth the wait. More importantly, we will be able to say that, after waiting for so many years, we finally got a chance to see the unthinkable happen and we were all were lucky enough to be part of it.
It may only be a game, but it’s pretty incredible how much one game and one team can mean to so many people.
