By Jack Walker
Sports fandom has quite a wide range of people. On one hand, there are people who simply do not care and wonder why others dedicate so much time to athletes and teams who have no idea they exist.
On the other hand, there are the die-hard fans. The fans who paint their face when going to sporting events, the fans who absolutely cannot miss a game and even fans who will fight each other over a college team that neither attended. There are even fans who will burn their own furniture after a big win.
There are fans in between, the ones who will check in on the score of a team they claim is their favorite, but if they miss a game it won’t affect their mood. If they lose, they shrug it off, even if they win, it’s just another day.
If I had to put myself on the sports fandom scale, I would place myself pretty close to a die-hard fan. I’m not the fan who will fight someone in the stands, or the one who will paint their face, but I am the fan who has to know when my favorite team is playing and I have to know what the score is. Depending on how my team does, it will probably affect my mood for the rest of the day.
Growing up as a fan of Detroit sports teams, Michigan State athletics and Arsenal F.C. I’ve seen a lot of bad teams, emphasis on a lot.
Due to my favorite teams’ lack of success, I have asked myself these two questions multiple times, “Why do I even root for these teams? Why do I do this to myself?”
I am not from Detroit, I have not attended Michigan State University and I’ve never been to London let alone England. Basically, I have zero connection to my sports teams. But yet, whenever the Detroit Lions have a game, I find myself seated in front of a TV, with my eyes glued to the screen. I’ve done this for as long as I can remember, despite the little success I’ve seen my teams have.
Year after year I watch my teams lose, but year after year I tune in and buy into a fake hype machine from the prior offseason. Typically, the hype machine doesn’t last long, and before I know it, I find myself looking up hypothetical draft scenarios for an event that is months away.
So I had to figure out, why do other people root for their sports teams?
Hailing from New Jersey, Michael Remschel and his family moved to the Grand Rapids area when he was 12 years old. Despite this, Remschel has remained a fan of all things New York. Remschel is a fan of the Knicks, Giants, Yankees, and Rangers. For him, being a Yankees fan was a given from birth,
“If you are a Remschel you are a Yankees fan, doesn’t matter where you are born, it’s a requirement,” said Remschel. “You don’t have to be a baseball fan, but you have to be a Yankees fan.”
However, his path to choosing his favorite NBA team was a bit different. Remschel owned a Dwayne Wade jersey before he had ever watched the NBA. Because of his jersey, Remschel became a fan of the Miami Heat star and would follow the Heat. Followed by the Nuggets because of Carmelo Anthony, the Lakers because of Pau Gasol, and the Knicks because they were local and because of Al Harrington.
In February of 2011, it all changed because Remschel’s local team had acquired Carmelo Anthony in a trade.
“I was a Knicks fan just because they were close to me, but I wasn’t much of a fan. But then Carmelo got traded and it stapled my loyalty.”
Remschel spoke of his worst memory as a fan of New York sports teams.
“Tom Coughlin’s firing situation. That was the worst moment of my life. Tom deserved significantly better for two Super Bowls.”
After the 2015 NFL season, Tom Coughlin “stepped down” as coach of the New York Giants. It was later revealed that Coughlin was forced out. The whole situation didn’t go over well with Michael.
Zachary Rizzo of Grand Rapids had a different path to sports fandom. Rizzo did not have a sports team until he was 13 years old. Searching for a team to follow, he tuned into the NBA Dunk Contest during All-Star Weekend in 2014. A young and explosive player named John Wall took home the win for the contest, and with that Rizzo had his new favorite player and team, the Washington Wizards.
“When John Wall won the Dunk Contest he instantly became my favorite player. Originally, I was just a John Wall fan, but decided to stick with the Wizards.”
Because of the Wizards playing in the nation’s capital of Washington D.C. Rizzo became a Commanders fan, due to them also playing in D.C. Sarcastically calling his decision to become a fan of the football team a “terrible mistake.”
Rizzo’s worst moment as a fan however is when his favorite player, John Wall, tore his achilles, also calling it “the worst moment of my life.”
I asked Rizzo if he had ever contemplated switching teams,
“I contemplated switching to the Clippers when (John) Wall signed with them. But at the end of the day, I stuck with the Wizards, and I never contemplated switching from the Commanders.”
Rooting for a sports franchise is not easy, but rooting for a specific player and following them where they go, may be even more frustrating (unless the player is Kevin Durant.)
Yosof Abden, 23, is a student at Grand Rapids Community College. Abden is one who follows his favorite player, that being soccer superstar, Neymar.
Abden is a fan of French-based club, Paris Saint-Germain. I asked Abden how he became a fan of the French club,
“Because about five years ago Neymar went there, he’s my favorite player. Neymar used to play at Barcelona, I used to like them.”
But it’s been a lot of ups and downs for Neymar in the past few years. Abden doesn’t follow PSG as closely anymore due to Neymar’s move to Saudi Arabia. To make matters worse, Neymar has had his run-ins with injury.
Jokingly, Abden said that he “might retire” from following Neymar around. Despite this, Abden remains a huge soccer fan and will continue to have passion for the game whether he follows Neymar or not.
So, why do we root for sports teams?
There are plenty of different reasons as to why myself and others root for sports teams. Whether it was passed down by a family member or following a favorite player around, the reasons can be countless.
Loyalty, hope, rivalries, friendships, and just having pure love for the game are all reasons sports fans like myself stick with our squads.
There is something different about rooting for a sports team after committing to them. Once you’re in too deep, there truly is no going back. Sure, you may lose interest if the team starts to lose for a long time, but that sense of hope will always be there. Trust me, when a bad team gets turned around, lifelong fans are not going to want to miss it. If that hometown team starts to win, yet again, the lifelong fans won’t want to miss it.
I believe the best way to describe being a sports fan is with a quote from Michael Corleone, portrayed by Al Pacino, in “The Godfather Part III”
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
