We all know that one person who tries to justify being a fan of the Miami Heat, the Golden State Warriors and the New York Knicks all at the same time.
Please, just stop.
Being a true sports fan means sticking to one team through times of victory and times of loss and heartbreak. The slippery slope begins when you start cheering for different teams, and, before you know it, you’re a fan of half the franchises in the league or association.
If you have more than one favorite team in a single sport, never experienced a losing season in your life or switched favorite teams just because your favorite player moved to another team, you seriously need to reconsider your allegiance.
Unlike bandwagon sports fans, true fans handle losses; after all, losing is ultimately what makes victories so great in the future. Claiming that you never liked the team to begin with after they lose just makes you a bigger loser than the team. Stick to a team and stay strong; your day will come.
If there’s photographic evidence of you wearing different team jerseys each year, you’re just embarrassing yourself and the teams you claim to be a fan of. Don’t be the person who walks around wearing a Patriots jersey after they win the Super Bowl, and is then seen in a selfie wearing Ravens apparel the next year — even if the shirts were on sale.
Kobe isn’t the only guy on the court. If you’re unable to name the starting five for your NBA team of choice, then you haven’t been paying enough attention to them to call yourself a true supporter. If you have a blank stare on your face when someone asks about the team’s history, past players or past games and know less than half the players on the team, you’re certainly not a fan, even if your fan apparel says otherwise.
Those who switched teams when they moved to a different city are using a flimsy excuse to get out of a bad relationship that wasn’t built on loyalty. You’re supposed to stick with your team for life.
Fans like these always use the offseason to switch teams, hoping no one will notice them slip through in the shuffle. They’re the same people who trade jerseys more often than they change underwear. Awkward.
People should not root for a team just because they think the jerseys are cool, and definitely not just because their significant other does. Remember, as the saying goes, “You can pick your significant, and you can pick your teams, but you can’t let your girlfriends pick your teams.”
Even as die-hard fans, “we” is always a difficult term to throw out when you’re referring to your favorite team. Bandwagoners are the worst at this. For them, their allegiance boils down to two simple phrases: “We won!” and “They freaking lost.”
Bandwagon sports fans are total scavengers. After the regular season is over, and the contenders have been separated from the pretenders, a bandwagon sports fan will sift through the remains and pick out their new team, hoping to ride them to yet another title. Isn’t it weird how their team just happens to make the playoffs every year? Must be nice.
This might seem like a silly thing to make an issue over, but it doesn’t apply to only sports. Some people’s lives are full of bandwagoning and conforming to other people’s beliefs and ideas. Yes, it can be tough to root for certain teams when you have never seen them have a winning season, but you’re supposed to hang in there. That’s what sports are all about.
