The newest J. B. Cash column.
Sports Fans?
(7/30/05) Ever wonder why sports fans are such fanatics? Isn't it odd how a big win or a championship victory by your favorite team can raise your spirits for days, and conversely how depressing a crushing loss can be? Fans make a tremendous emotional investment in their teams and athletes. One can make a good argument that it has become too much.
There is rarely any significant connection to your favorite sports team besides geography or tradition. Notice how sports fans talk in the collective voice: "We need to start playing better" or "Our guys are gonna win this one" or "Why can't we play defense?" In a way it is absurd because the speaker is not going to do any "playing" and has zero effect on the outcome of the game.
Surely the desire for the "home team" to win is left over from our ancient tribal existence when the "home" team had to win (i.e. defeat the other tribes in battle) or else die. Consequently we are all the descendants of many millennia of "winning" teams. This leftover thrill of victory and agony of defeat undoubtedly accounts for our irrational desire to "root, root, root for the home team."
Initially in team sports in America the "home team" was essentially your "tribe". Early baseball teams like the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the mid 1800's were made up of players from the same geographic area, in this case Cincinnati, and in those days almost all Americans clustered in areas based on their nationalities, which is another way of saying "tribe."
The Red Stockings then went on barnstorming tours to play teams from other places. Those teams were made up of players from the local areas. When you were in attendance at those games you were literally cheering on "your boys".
Even as baseball grew and became a national sport the players on the various teams usually settled in the city of the team they played for. Years ago players did not change teams very often so many of them became part of the community. Once again it was typical that if you were a fan at the game you were actually cheering for your neighbors and friends. And when everyone was white/European they were in a sense family.
Professional football grew out of the popularity of college football. Most college students in those days attended schools close to home. The school football teams were made up of the local student body (no recruiting trips to Vegas). The football heroes of those days were the same kids you had watched a couple of years ago playing on the local sandlots. When they grew to young adulthood you got to watch them play for the local team and you really, really wanted them to win, just as you would your own children.
The early NFL capitalized on the popularity of college football players by organizing teams of the most popular college players after graduation. In the early days of the NFL each team had a geographic location where they were allowed first pick of the kids that graduated from the local colleges. This was done to ensure a continuity of support for players that had connections to those communities.
Even through the 1950's, '60s and into the '70s players made only marginally better money than the fans so players moved to the cities where they played, usually for many years, and became a part of the communities.
Today however there is usually no connection between player and team. To call them mercenaries is to demean mercenaries. Professional athletes have no connection to the cities where they play, often no connection to America at all. I would guess that there is no team in the Major Leagues, the NFL or the NBA, that has more than one player, if that, who lives in the city for which the team is named. I would bet that no team has more than ten players on its roster that live in the metro area of the team they play for.
Yes the desire to root on the home team is strong. There is a completely irrational connection to the local sports team. The loyalty of a fan is expressed in many ways, by going to games, watching them on TV, and buying team-associated items. They also support the advertisers that seek to connect themselves to the teams by sponsoring them. The most ruthless exploiters of team support are the politicians and team owners that ram through publicly financed stadiums and arenas through taxes by capitalizing on the support of the fans.
The majority of sports fans in America are white men and boys. At one time the majority of the players were white men. It was normal and natural for those men to cheer on the athletes that made up their local teams. The players were very similar to the fans. They shared a genetic heritage (European), and many players lived locally, often in much the same lifestyle as the fans.
Fast forward to today. Nearly all pro athletes in football, basketball and baseball, and certainly most of the superstars, are either urban blacks or foreign hispanics. Needless to say those urban black males and hispanics arenot related in any traditional way to the white fan base. Furthermore many live an outspoken lifestyle that considers the white man the enemy. To them the white man is a craven, racist exploiter. His culture is considered by them to be one of violence and bigotry towards their people.
One must be forced to ask: "Why the heck are white men cheering them on?" There is no connection, as there has always been in the past to the teams. The players are not fellow "tribe" members. They do not live anywhere near the fans. And they do not even share the same culture, often not even the same language. A good case can be made that if the players and fans were put together in a social situation they would hate each other.
Thus we have come this far in the odd world of team sport fandom. Once athletic competition was meant to be a test of ability by pitting the most able members of your group against the best representatives of another group, all to determine who was better in a competitive contest of athletic skill. Now we are asked to finance the million dollar salaries of people we have nothing in common with and would most likely dislike if we met them. All for the short-lived thrill of a meaningless victory, and more likely for the dull depression of another loss.
American team sports was once the way white men encouraged the success of their people by cheering on the athletic exploits of the best of their young men. But in today's society it has become just a meaningless exercise in the many ways white people transfer the allegiance they should hold for their own people to other people who are not only unworthy of it, but who often in fact resent us and hate us for the gesture. At least hockey season will be starting soon.
Edited by: Don Wassall
Sports Fans?
(7/30/05) Ever wonder why sports fans are such fanatics? Isn't it odd how a big win or a championship victory by your favorite team can raise your spirits for days, and conversely how depressing a crushing loss can be? Fans make a tremendous emotional investment in their teams and athletes. One can make a good argument that it has become too much.
There is rarely any significant connection to your favorite sports team besides geography or tradition. Notice how sports fans talk in the collective voice: "We need to start playing better" or "Our guys are gonna win this one" or "Why can't we play defense?" In a way it is absurd because the speaker is not going to do any "playing" and has zero effect on the outcome of the game.
Surely the desire for the "home team" to win is left over from our ancient tribal existence when the "home" team had to win (i.e. defeat the other tribes in battle) or else die. Consequently we are all the descendants of many millennia of "winning" teams. This leftover thrill of victory and agony of defeat undoubtedly accounts for our irrational desire to "root, root, root for the home team."
Initially in team sports in America the "home team" was essentially your "tribe". Early baseball teams like the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the mid 1800's were made up of players from the same geographic area, in this case Cincinnati, and in those days almost all Americans clustered in areas based on their nationalities, which is another way of saying "tribe."
The Red Stockings then went on barnstorming tours to play teams from other places. Those teams were made up of players from the local areas. When you were in attendance at those games you were literally cheering on "your boys".
Even as baseball grew and became a national sport the players on the various teams usually settled in the city of the team they played for. Years ago players did not change teams very often so many of them became part of the community. Once again it was typical that if you were a fan at the game you were actually cheering for your neighbors and friends. And when everyone was white/European they were in a sense family.
Professional football grew out of the popularity of college football. Most college students in those days attended schools close to home. The school football teams were made up of the local student body (no recruiting trips to Vegas). The football heroes of those days were the same kids you had watched a couple of years ago playing on the local sandlots. When they grew to young adulthood you got to watch them play for the local team and you really, really wanted them to win, just as you would your own children.
The early NFL capitalized on the popularity of college football players by organizing teams of the most popular college players after graduation. In the early days of the NFL each team had a geographic location where they were allowed first pick of the kids that graduated from the local colleges. This was done to ensure a continuity of support for players that had connections to those communities.
Even through the 1950's, '60s and into the '70s players made only marginally better money than the fans so players moved to the cities where they played, usually for many years, and became a part of the communities.
Today however there is usually no connection between player and team. To call them mercenaries is to demean mercenaries. Professional athletes have no connection to the cities where they play, often no connection to America at all. I would guess that there is no team in the Major Leagues, the NFL or the NBA, that has more than one player, if that, who lives in the city for which the team is named. I would bet that no team has more than ten players on its roster that live in the metro area of the team they play for.
Yes the desire to root on the home team is strong. There is a completely irrational connection to the local sports team. The loyalty of a fan is expressed in many ways, by going to games, watching them on TV, and buying team-associated items. They also support the advertisers that seek to connect themselves to the teams by sponsoring them. The most ruthless exploiters of team support are the politicians and team owners that ram through publicly financed stadiums and arenas through taxes by capitalizing on the support of the fans.
The majority of sports fans in America are white men and boys. At one time the majority of the players were white men. It was normal and natural for those men to cheer on the athletes that made up their local teams. The players were very similar to the fans. They shared a genetic heritage (European), and many players lived locally, often in much the same lifestyle as the fans.
Fast forward to today. Nearly all pro athletes in football, basketball and baseball, and certainly most of the superstars, are either urban blacks or foreign hispanics. Needless to say those urban black males and hispanics arenot related in any traditional way to the white fan base. Furthermore many live an outspoken lifestyle that considers the white man the enemy. To them the white man is a craven, racist exploiter. His culture is considered by them to be one of violence and bigotry towards their people.
One must be forced to ask: "Why the heck are white men cheering them on?" There is no connection, as there has always been in the past to the teams. The players are not fellow "tribe" members. They do not live anywhere near the fans. And they do not even share the same culture, often not even the same language. A good case can be made that if the players and fans were put together in a social situation they would hate each other.
Thus we have come this far in the odd world of team sport fandom. Once athletic competition was meant to be a test of ability by pitting the most able members of your group against the best representatives of another group, all to determine who was better in a competitive contest of athletic skill. Now we are asked to finance the million dollar salaries of people we have nothing in common with and would most likely dislike if we met them. All for the short-lived thrill of a meaningless victory, and more likely for the dull depression of another loss.
American team sports was once the way white men encouraged the success of their people by cheering on the athletic exploits of the best of their young men. But in today's society it has become just a meaningless exercise in the many ways white people transfer the allegiance they should hold for their own people to other people who are not only unworthy of it, but who often in fact resent us and hate us for the gesture. At least hockey season will be starting soon.
Edited by: Don Wassall
