Where Loyalties Lie as a Sports Fan

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Being a sports fan can range from easy and fun to difficult and gut-wrenching. This gap can be attributed to such things as geographic location and teams your alliances fall with. If you live in New York and are a Yankees fan - you probably live a fulfilling sports life all while your neighbor, who's a Mets' fan, is currently tying a noose to his ceiling fan. Those who don't follow sports would just ask - "why the hell doesn't the Mets guy become a Rangers fan, they've gotten to the World Series back-to-back years?" Answer: If you live in the general vicinity of a professional sports team - you are contractually obligated to root for that team. "If that's the case, why doesn't fan number two become a Yankee's fan?" Well there are multiple factors for this;

1.) Familiarity: If you grow up your entire life rooting for a sports franchise, you consider yourself a part of the team. When they lose, you lose. Shit, there's times when the fans are more beaten up about a big loss than the players. It's like a Catholic Marriage; there has to be something astoundingly messed up for you to pack up your bags and change teams. It takes too much time to relocate and become accustomed with a new franchise. Plus, you have probably created a little-man's complex about your team that can only be satisfied with victory.

2.) Bandwagon Retribution: If you have publicly supported a team and then switch affiliations - be ready for a sandstorm of hatred from every person you know - and the entire city of Cleveland. If you think fame is a fickle food, sports fans are a fickle buffet. If you don't believe me, walk down a block filled with Pirates fans in a Bucco's jersey. When you've gotten everyone's attentions, rip it off WWE style until you are standing there in a Phillies jersey. Trust me, something will pop off.

3.) Playing the Stock Game: In the hipster culture of today, everything that can be conceived as art is kind of like a trading stock. In high school I discovered a mix-tape I really enjoyed called "A Kid Named Cudi." I had bought stock in Kid Cudi early. Less than a year later I heard "Day N' Night" on the radio and recognized his voice and thought - I know this guy. At that time I was able to cash in my stock for "cool points," because I had listened to Kid Cudi before anyone else. Although most of my friends enjoyed his music, nobody felt the same connection I did to hearing Cudi go commercial. It is the same way as a sports fan. A championship would taste so much sweeter to Royals fans who haven't "cashed out" these last twenty years than those who are jumping back on the bandwagon right as they've started to get exciting again. Everybody always feels their team is due, and they don't want to miss the opportunity to feel complete bliss after sticking it out through all the bad times.

I, however, live in Topeka, Kansas. You might have guessed that we do not have a professional sports team. However, just about an hour away are the Royals and the Chiefs so my loyalties must go towards them. I have only strayed from them being my teams one time each. I loved Pedro Martinez, so much so I spent $80 of my own money as a 10 year old to buy a watercolor painting of him in Niagara Falls. I became a Red Sox fan and cashed in my stock in 2004 with a smile - something that would have left me weeping in happiness if I had grown up a Boston fan.

Acceptability Level: 5/10 (Pedro was a transcendent player who played my favorite position better than anyone else. This was also during the era where the Royals got pennies on the dollar for Carols Beltran, Jermaine Dye, Johnny Damon and so on and so forth. There is always a push-and-pull effect of blame between the old team and the new team. At least, that's how we rationalize it.)

In 2003, I abandoned the Chiefs as my favorite team in the league. My new team - The Baltimore Ravens. I wish my reason for switching was something I didn't sound like a complete jackass for saying, like "I became a huge fan of The Wire and was enthralled with the city of Baltimore and saw how important the franchise was to such a devastated city and fell in love." Nope. Jamaal Lewis was my sixth round fantasy football draft pick and won me my league by rushing for over 2,000 yards that season. I bought the only J. Lewis jersey I could find with my birthday money and it still is, to this day, two sizes too big for me.

Acceptability Level: 0/10 (If we could dip into the negatives I would. Twenty-one year old me wants to bitch-slap some sports sense into thirteen year old me as I speak. If you change teams based on fantasy football - please go play hopscotch on a busy two-lane highway.)

As an avid NBA fan, and a citizen of the state of Kansas, my loyalties do not lie with any team based on geographic location. In situations like that, most people have a favorite player, and his team is your team. Kevin Garnett was and always will be my guy. I watched him put up a triple-double in person against the Blazers - all while yelling, flexing, beating his chest, and doing pushups after an and-one. I guarantee I was the biggest T-Wolves fan in Kansas history, but that all changed when KG was traded to the Celtics for Al Jefferson and three packs of Trident Layers. Overnight, I had become a Celtics fan.

Acceptability Level: 9/10 (I followed my guy through the muck in Minnesota for almost a decade and finally had the chance to watch him play for a contender. This is the reason I don't give LeBron fans trouble for trading their Cavs jersey in for a Heat one.)

As KG nears retirement, I looked to the newer generation for someone who would take his mantle once he hung his sneakers up. As fate would have it, he plays for the Timberwolves. I battled anyone who said Ricky Rubio would be a flop once he made it to the NBA. Now that he's had a successful NBA season, I feel vilified for the verbal stock I put into him for two years. I now have to clarify the Celtics are my favorite team in the East and the Wolves are my favorite team in the West to not lie to myself.

Acceptability Level: 6.5/10 (Negative points for going to the team I Left4Dead, especially now that they have a team that is on the up and up. A little bandwagon like, but hey, screw you and your Brooklyn Nets snap-back. Positive points for staying with Rubio through the tough years as well as falling in love with the most entertaining team in the league last year. If they can somehow get a healthy Brandon Roy, they might take over the Celtics' spot.)

Moral of the story: Love the one your with, and if you can't do that - figure out a good excuse.

Josh Jackson

@JoshJackson_TID