Monday, February 06, 2006

sports team loyalty

What is the deal with some people and "their" team? Bob loves team A and Dave loves team B. If team A wins Bob will gloat to Dave and if team B loses he will ridicule Dave. I recently worked with some guys like this. Every Monday you'd hear "my team did well...how about yours" First guys, neither team is YOURS. Secondly, win or lose, you sitting on the sofa, drinking beer, watching the team play had no affect on the outcome of the game. You have nothing to gloat, ridicule or even lament about.

When someone is loyal to a team, what are they loyal to. It should be the players, seeing as they are the ones actually playing the game. But over time players come and go. The team they were loyal to 15 years ago no longer exists. They could love team A and hate team B. Over time with the right trades, theoretically, the lineups of each team could switch. Now this person loves this same group of guys he once hated. Coaches and owners change all the time as well. The only thing that is close to being constant (but still is not) is the city, name of the team and the logo. I suppose I can almost understand being loyal to your own city's team. But if your local hockey team is made up of mostly Europeans than it really doesn't make any sense.

In the early 80s I was a football fan for a couple of years. My fave team was the Atlanta Falcons. Why? Becuase the helmets were red, the logo looked cool and "Falcons" sounded cool. That's not much to hold on to. That coupled with the realization that basking in the glory of the work of others is empty made me lose interest shortly after.

I am now a big fan of the sport of paintball. (If golf and Nascar is a sport than so is paintball.) There are a couple of leagues in the US but I don't really follow them. I do, however, have a favourite team. The team is called DEMENTIA. I even have a favourite player...Tony Gallo. He's a good player and he's pretty sexy too. The best part of all is whether DEMENTIA wins or loses, I have a direct effect on the outcome.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are totally right!...I must agree sexy too!

Tony said...

Is that you Robin? ;)

Robin said...

I might call you sweetie, but not sexy, I think.

Check this out - it's a little clunky (and slow at the moment) but I think you'll relate: http://www.dice.com/beingit/

kogvk!

Diorissi said...

with paintball, do you get to choose the colours?

Tony said...

Not usually. Most fields and events require that you user thier paint as that is the only way they make any money.

Why do you ask?

Diorissi said...

I just thought it might be a way of rendering the opponent progressively more other...you know, like different species. And I could guess your colours.