After watching those green and white inflatable men flail around on top of Baker University Center all week, I got to thinking about school spirit and the nature of fandom.
It’s all in good fun to throw on a jersey and paint some whiskers on your cheeks to cheer on your team, but to some people, being a fan is more than just a casual Saturday night observance. Some people live and breathe that stuff.
Some fans are genuinely heartbroken or violently upset when their team loses, as if the team’s failure were somehow a reflection on them personally. Everyone knows it’s only a game, but that doesn’t stop the fans from taking it life-or-death seriously.
What I’m wondering is where the sports-fan passion comes from and how real it is. Does devotion to a team come from a place of reason, or do people just like having something to root for?
I know people who pick their favorite teams for personal reasons such as where they grew up, where their parents grew up, where they went to school or where they’ve always wanted to go to school. Other people choose their teams more logically and factor in players, coaches and an institution’s history when deciding which teams are worth rallying behind. Still others will select favorite teams somewhat arbitrarily, picking out the ones with the coolest mascots or prettiest colors, which has always been the extent of my method.
Yet no matter how the teams came to be their favorites, the fans will still burst with joy after a win and throw things against the wall after a loss. I don’t get how such strong emotions can come from essentially random reasoning.
Though I’m not a sports-minded person, I’m not a stranger to the concept of overzealous dedication. I grew up in central Ohio, deep in the heart of Buckeye country, where “Go Bucks” is as common an expression as “What’s up?” and “Michigan” is a four-letter word. I think it took me until about third grade to realize that “The State Up North” was not actually the name of the state.
Fans — casual or serious — seem to enjoy loving one team while hating another, even if the rationalization is incidental.
I knew a dedicated Ohio University student who transferred to Ohio State and traded in his “OS-Who?” tee for a Buckeye necklace without blinking an eye. I don’t know how someone can claim to bleed green and white one day and scarlet and grey the next, but I think the reason sports fans can get away with their fickle fandom and inexplicable loyalties is that everyone understands, on some level, that it’s only a game. It doesn’t really matter who you root for because it doesn’t really matter who wins, at least not in the life-or-death sense.
If you’re among those who have an aneurysm every time your team suffers, I submit a request for you to take a deep breath and realize that you could have just as easily been born on the other side of the country and raised rooting for the other team. The fandom might be random, but it’s OK because it’s all just for fun.
Haylee Pearl is a sophomore studying journalism, a novice sports viewer and a copy editor for The Post. Do you bleed green and white? Tell her why at hp208310@ohiou.edu.
