If there is something that every true sports fan should admire, it is the bottom line, winning. The Yankees, Lakers, and for the most part even the Cowboys have all been doing it for years. All three, storied franchises with net values most likely in the billions. They've all had the best of the best wearing their uniforms. Stars such as Magic Johnson, Troy Aikman, Mickey Mantle and arguably some of the best players in their respective sports today, play for these teams; sadly it becomes easy to hate them.
Why? Well, “to the victor go the spoils,” goes the saying does it not? The money, the cars, and the fame go to the players, and their franchises. This of course comes only with the support of their loyal fans, of which there are four categories:
The Die Hard Fan | This guy/girl can talk to you all day and night about every draft or lottery pick since the franchise was added to its respective league or association. He knows every trade, every person who’s ever worked in the team’s front office, if he lives in the city where the team plays you better believe that he has a personal relationship with many of the people who work the stadium. Most likely he’s been a season ticket holder for years. |
The Good Fan | This guy/girl can talk to you for hours about recent draft picks, and what he/she thinks that the team needs to improve on, he knows the organization’s tendencies but doesn’t always know who the people in the front office are. He probably tries to attend or watch as many games as possible, but come playoff time, don’t bother him. |
The Casual Fan | This guy/girl realizes that life doesn’t revolve around sports. Most of us fall into this category which is fine, because we still keep up with our sports; know most of the current roster changes and the style of play of our teams. We might not have all the sports channels, or the luxury to attend games live, but come playoff time, don’t bother us. |
The non-fan fan | This guy/girl is like it says in the title, not a real fan. Still thinks Shaq plays for the Lakers, can’t really talk about current events in any sport, but for some reason feels entitled to be on everyone’s twitter or facebook account about how great his team is. This guy is the problem. |
Now I do have many friends who are fans of the Yankees, Lakers, or ‘boys. None of which I consider to be the non-fan fan, but those are the guys that like I said before, mess everything up. You see they tend to grasp on to a team that gets a lot of publicity such as these winning franchises and do nothing but tweet and facebook how great they are, yet they can’t name 4 non-stars on the team.
We understand that life is complicated, and you don’t have time to keep up with all the stats, new players, constant roster moves and so on and so forth. Just embrace that, we know. We’re all casual fans as well, maybe you miss a few playoff games, that’s fine. Life is complicated. Just please, please, in the words of one Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson: “Know your role, and shut your mouth”.
I’m sorry ‘Boys, Lakers, and Yanks. You just have too many of these guys brining down and disgracing your names. Every game you win I won’t remember how great Jeter or Kobe or Romo played. I’ll remember the guy who doesn’t even watch sports bragging. In the back of my mind I’ll remember that you’re great.
