The rules of fan loyalty

[Eric_the_Red]

As I have posted a few times, I am a fan of multiple teams. In football, I've always liked the Bengals first, Colts second. In baseball it's Reds, and then the Red Sox.

I have a co-worker grilling me about this, saying that I am not a "true fan" if I root for more than one team, especially if the other team is more successful. Also, it is apparently against the rules to root for a football team in the same conference or baseball team in the same league.

Where do you guys fall on this?
Am I forced to pick just one team from each sport? Are fans allowed to switch their loyalty over the years?
Or, is it okay to root for more than one team?
What obligations, if any, do the organizations have to their fans, or should they expect blind loyalty?

[Revering4Blue]

I have a co-worker grilling me about this, saying that I am not a "true fan" if I root for more than one team, especially if the other team is more successful. Also, it is apparently against the rules to root for a football team in the same conference or baseball team in the same league.

Horseapples.

Root for teams and players that you like.

Simple as that.

[Mario-Rijo]

As I have posted a few times, I am a fan of multiple teams. In football, I've always liked the Bengals first, Colts second. In baseball it's Reds, and then the Red Sox.

I have a co-worker grilling me about this, saying that I am not a "true fan" if I root for more than one team, especially if the other team is more successful. Also, it is apparently against the rules to root for a football team in the same conference or baseball team in the same league.

Where do you guys fall on this?
Am I forced to pick just one team from each sport? Are fans allowed to switch their loyalty over the years?
Or, is it okay to root for more than one team?
What obligations, if any, do the organizations have to their fans, or should they expect blind loyalty?

The truth is it only matters if it matters to you. Personally I get what your co-worker is saying I do give guys a hard time for that myself at times, it's just for fun as far as I'm concerned. Although I will add this little nugget, if you talk trash about anyones team then by all rights you should only have 1 yourself. That's the Die-Hard level of fandom, you get 1 team in any one sport and you must live and die with it. You can be a level headed die-hard and give respect where it's due and also root for another team that's not your own but only when you are actually rooting against the team they are playing because it has some positive/negative effect on your team in an indirect way. If you are more a fan of the sport than any one particular team I.E. a casual fan (of sorts), but you tend to appreciate a few of them it's ok but in order to be a die-hard you must boil it down to one, I think.

As far as the organizations go they don't have any rights as far as I'm concerned, greed has seen to that IMO.

I "root" for (and consequently am a strict fan of) the following:

Die-Hard
MLB - Reds
NFL - Bengals
NCAA - Buckeyes

Somewhere between casual and Die-Hard:
NBA - Chicago Bulls (I wish I was more casual so I could jump on the LeBron bandwagon, but my own pride won't allow it)

I also think you can be a die-hard fan of a team but you can appreciate certain other things. My favorite NFL player of all time is Barry Sanders followed by Carson Palmer. I like GABP ok but I love Fenway park. When March madness gets here I reserve the right to root for any team in any circumstance as long as I have a bracket going (with exception to rooting against Ohio State, no can do). Etc., etc. Woody Hayes would kill me but the reality is I want Michigan to win every game that they don't play us (of course it has more to do with selfish reasons for my own team).

[Hoosier Red]

I'm all for root for who you like, but because I've seen the "Southland" promo on TNT roughly 40000000000032 times in the last week, I think it translates to sports.

You're a Bengals fan because you don't know how to be anything else.
I live in Indy and suppose I want the Colts to do well, but it just doesn't get me on a gut level.

I'm a Bengals fan and a Reds fan and have been for life. THe only fandom I changed was from UC to IU when I went to the latter for college.

[Roy Tucker]

There is the fan where you paint your basement in team colors, get a team logo as a tattoo, and name your first-born child after a team famous player. If the team loses, you seriously contemplate suicide. Your wife says "no season tickets or I'm walking" and you open the door for her. Your cell phone ring is the team fight song. You go to games and paint your face and spend $1000 on some outlandish team costume trying to get on TV. Somebody criticizes your team and you get into a fist-fight over it. They know you by name on radio talk shows. You hassle other people what may dare to admit they could possibly like another team because that thought causes you to have violent shakes.

If you're like that, you are probably a true fan.

[blumj]

Horseapples.

Root for teams and players that you like.

Simple as that.

Yes. I can't even really just watch a random game with 2 teams I don't care anything about without eventually winding up rooting for one or the other to win it. It just happens.

[BRM]

There is the fan where you paint your basement in team colors, get a team logo as a tattoo, and name your first-born child after a team famous player. If the team loses, you seriously contemplate suicide. Your wife says "no season tickets or I'm walking" and you open the door for her. Your cell phone ring is the team fight song. You go to games and paint your face and spend $1000 on some outlandish team costume trying to get on TV. Somebody criticizes your team and you get into a fist-fight over it. They know you by name on radio talk shows. You hassle other people what may dare to admit they could possibly like another team because that thought causes you to have violent shakes.

If you're like that, you are probably a true fan.

Or a nut.

[Eric_the_Red]

What if I want to paint one wall Bengals' orange and the opposite wall Colts blue, with one black and one white wall in between? ;)

[Hoosier Red]

What if I want to paint one wall Bengals' orange and the opposite wall Colts blue, with one black and one white wall in between? ;)

You'd have an ugly room.
And people would think you're a Broncos fan.

[BRM]

You'd have an ugly room.
And people would think you're a Broncos fan.

Well, a Broncos fan should have an ugly room.

[westofyou]

I have one wife and only one team in each sport, BUT I'm allowed to look at other teams.

[RichRed]

I have one wife and only one team in each sport, BUT I'm allowed to look at other teams.

Good way to look at it. I like to look at the Red Sox, Chargers and U. of Virginia but I'm married to the Reds, Redskins and James Madison U.

Still, I say be a fan of as many teams as you like, unless of course one of them is the Cowboys or Cubs. ;)

[Mario-Rijo]

Well, a Broncos fan should have an ugly room.

:D

[Joseph]

ETR, my gut says you have to pick only one team if you really want to claim to be a big fan.

On first blush here it appears you have your teams you grew up rooting for [Bengals and Reds] and you later chose some teams who actually win [Colts and Red Sox]. It kind of comes off as bandwagony in my opinion. I'm not saying thats the case, just that it can easily be perceived as that.

[Eric_the_Red]

ETR, my gut says you have to pick only one team if you really want to claim to be a big fan.

On first blush here it appears you have your teams you grew up rooting for [Bengals and Reds] and you later chose some teams who actually win [Colts and Red Sox]. It kind of comes off as bandwagony in my opinion. I'm not saying thats the case, just that it can easily be perceived as that.

With the Colts, it was that I admired Manning and Dungy. Sure they were good, but not Super Bowl winners yet. Bandwagony? Perhaps, but it wasn't that I was looking for the best team out there.

Definitely not the case with the BoSox. I really liked Nomar and the Sox before they were beating the Yanks. Plus, I hated the Yanks, so that helped.

And in the marriage analogy, that is the same example my co-worker gave. The comparison falls apart when you realize that married people makes vows to each other and (should) work as a partnership. If sports organizations have no responsibility to the fan, then the analogy doesn't work.

[westofyou]

With the Colts, it was that I admired Manning and Dungy. Sure they were good, but not Super Bowl winners yet. Bandwagony? Perhaps, but it wasn't that I was looking for the best team out there.

Definitely not the case with the BoSox. I really liked Nomar and the Sox before they were beating the Yanks. Plus, I hated the Yanks, so that helped.

And in the marriage analogy, that is the same example my co-worker gave. The comparison falls apart when you realize that married people makes vows to each other and (should) work as a partnership. If sports organizations have no responsibility to the fan, then the analogy doesn't work.


Implications that loyalty is something that must be reciprocal is a false reality, one can be loyal to things that are not able to return the loyalty.

But the way I see it is you dabble in other teams, then you are not loyal to one team since loyalty is this: faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc.

Now the real debate is do sports teams deserve faithful adherence?

Probably not, but I've never rooted against the teams I'm loyal to, and I've rooted against the teams I've shown passing a interest in, so teh real answer can't be found by querying folks here, but by only querying your own allegance to a team.

[Eric_the_Red]

Probably not, but I've never rooted against the teams I'm loyal to, and I've rooted against the teams I've shown passing a interest in, so teh real answer can't be found by querying folks here, but by only querying your own allegance to a team.

I guess that is my question: I enjoy both teams in both sports and actively root for them both. My co-worker said this is either impossible or makes me not a fan. So, I am looking for outside opinions on the subject.

[RedsBaron]

I am a Reds fan, preferring them above all others, but in many seasons my interest in major league baseball would fade by mid-season if the Reds were all I could follow, I therefore usually find another team to root for in the post season.
The Red Sox have long been my second favorite team, dating back to the "Impossible Dream" season in 1967 and reading Ted Williams's "My urn At Bat" in 1969.
Other than those teams I tend to root for a team that has players I like. When those players leave, so may my rooting interest in that team. For example, when the Phillies in the early 1980s added Pete Rose to a team that already had guys I liked such as Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton, and later when Joe Morgan and Tony Perez joined the party, the Phils became my no. 2 team. When Pete, Joe and Tony departed, my interest in the Phillies also departed, and I haven't cared that much for them since (I did want them to win the '09 World Series, since they were playing the Yankees).

[reds1869]

This is a fun question. I have a diehard loyalty to the Reds--I can't stomach cheering for another team, though I enjoy watching the game wherever it is played well. In football I have come to be a Bengals fan even though I grew up cheering for the Colts. The Colts no longer really do it for me, no matter how hard I try. They were a team I "chose" because we didn't have a pro team within 150 miles; since living in Cincinnati, I've grown to love the Bengals and the city.

College sports is where it get trickier for me. I'm a lifelong Marshall fan and alum of the school. I bleed green if you will. But I fell in love with Xavier while attending graduate school there and due to proximity I feel almost as strongly about the Muskies. I say almost because I could never cheer for XU against MU...but the thought would at least cross my mind if the win would be more beneficial to X, which it almost certainly would be right now. I have friends at both schools who play the "you have to choose one" card, but I say dog bollocks. I don't have to choose between my parents in an argument so why should I choose between my two colleges.

In the end I think you have to do what makes you happy. Worrying about other people's opinions will just ruin your day. Sports are meant to be fun, so enjoy yourself. If you want to cheer for the entire league, go for it.

[RichRed]

The Red Sox have long been my second favorite team, dating back to the "Impossible Dream" season in 1967 and reading Ted Williams's "My urn At Bat" in 1969.


The Red Sox are my second favorite team too, partly because Ted Williams was my dad's favorite player. Plus, as a kid, I liked teams that could mash the ball.

[Kingspoint]

I've tried to switch. Couldn't do it if I wanted to.

"Random Harvest"

[Redsfan320]

I say root for whoever you want, as long as it's not a direct rival of someone else you root for such as Reds- Cubs.

320

[Captain Hook]

I'm a converted GB fan.I always liked the Packers but the Browns were at one time my favorite.When the Browns moved I decided to completely jump ship and dedicated myself full time to GB.It was a easy move considering the Packers had a pretty decent QB at the time and was winning a good amount of games every year.

So just a few years ago my allegiance to Green Bay was tested.My all time favorite player and my favorite team were going through a very messy divorce.I didn't grow up a Green Bay fan and from the time I took on the Packers as my #1 rooting interest in the NFL this player reigned over the team and to a large extent was the team.Many people felt the team should have welcomed this guy back with open arms and to be honest I was torn.Finally I came to my seances and made what was in my mind,despite my initial feelings the only decision that made seance.Screw that guy and that the Packers will always be my team.

So I guess if your questioning weather your a true fan of a team a good starting point could be just simply be to ask yourself if you'd continue to be a fan of that team regardless of who's playing QB or hitting HRs or sinking game winning shots for them.

[GAC]

I have one wife and only one team in each sport, BUT I'm allowed to look at other teams.

ROTFL! :D

[wheels]

I've always had a little soft spot for the Indians, but I hardly find myself flipping between both games when the Reds are on. As far as football goes, my heart is with those dastardly Bengals, even though I've always claimed the Saints as my favorite NFC team.

Thing is, the Saints are in the Super Bowl and I almost don't care at all. Maybe I'll watch, maybe I won't.

[GAC]

I love it when a person tries to somehow set the "rules" (parameters) for what a true fan is/is not. Gee - who made them the Commish. ;)

So if I'm a diehard Red fan I can't like, or root, for any other team because it is somehow a sign of disloyalty?

I live in Ohio, so I can only PICK one Ohio college program to root for, or I'm not true-blue?

And since my team didn't even make the NFL post-season, let alone the SB, that means I can't root for any team that made it? Can I at least watch the game? ;)

I guess rules are made to be broken.

[TeamSelig]

Gotta love the guy who loves random teams all throughout the US without having any sort of background to them. Like my buddy, for instance.

Detroit Pistons, Kansas basketball, Dallas Cowboys, and St. Louis Cardinals. He was a former bandwagon fan that just stuck with his teams.

[RedsBaron]

I guess part of the test of being a fan of a team is the old Seinfeld line about "rooting for laundry." When it comes to the Reds, I root for the laundry--I'm a fan of the team, regardless of the guys on it.
As for other pro teams, as I noted in an earlier post it tends to be who is on it. I mentioned in my prior post how I liked the Phillies (not as much as the Reds) when they had Rose, Morgan, Perez, Schmidt, Carlton, but I became indifferent to them after that. Another example would be the Dallas Cowboys. While the Oakland Raiders were my favorite NFL team in the 1960s and 1970s, I could root for the Cowboys of the '70s so long as they were not playing the Raiders, because I liked Staubach. However, once Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys I began to root against Dallas, whereas I cannot see me ever rooting against the Reds no matter how big a jerk owns them.

[RFS62]

I am a Reds fan, preferring them above all others, but in many seasons my interest in major league baseball would fade by mid-season if the Reds were all I could follow, I therefore usually find another team to root for in the post season.
The Red Sox have long been my second favorite team, dating back to the "Impossible Dream" season in 1967 and reading Ted Williams's "My urn At Bat" in 1969.
Other than those teams I tend to root for a team that has players I like. When those players leave, so may my rooting interest in that team. For example, when the Phillies in the early 1980s added Pete Rose to a team that already had guys I liked such as Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton, and later when Joe Morgan and Tony Perez joined the party, the Phils became my no. 2 team. When Pete, Joe and Tony departed, my interest in the Phillies also departed, and I haven't cared that much for them since (I did want them to win the '09 World Series, since they were playing the Yankees).



This is nearly identical to my experience. I love baseball. I love the Reds, but if my love of baseball was dependent on the Reds performance, I'd have long ago thrown myself off a bridge.

My favorite position player of all time is Willie Mays. My favorite pitcher, an eclectic choice I suppose, is Mark Fidrych. I will always identify my fandom with the Big Red Machine, but I can't allow myself to compare every other team or player I follow to those baseball Gods of my youth.

The game is bigger than any player or any fan allegiance. My loyalty is to the game first.

[GAC]

This is nearly identical to my experience. I love baseball. I love the Reds, but if my love of baseball was dependent on the Reds performance, I'd have long ago thrown myself off a bridge.....The game is bigger than any player or any fan allegiance. My loyalty is to the game first.


Exactly! Very well put. And one could say the same thing about any other sport.

As far as the NFL goes, I was raised a Brown fan. But growing up I loved guys like Starr, Unitas, Sayers, Butkus, and various others. I guess I was a "closet" Packer and Bears fan growing up too. I followed and rooted for the Bears in the 80s under Ditka. And I still like the Packers.

But as you say..... it's all about loyalty to the game.

[RollyInRaleigh]

Growing up, I too, felt that Willie Mays was the greatest player in the game. My favorite pitcher of all time was Sandy Koufax, he of the hated Dodgers. There have always been players from other teams that I loved to watch. As a youngster, I loved to watch Brooks Robinson play third base. Pure magic. Bench will always be the catcher that I measure all others from. Keith Hernandez was a magical first baseman. I loved to watch Clemente in the outfield. From a hitting standpoint, I love to watch the intricacy of players swings. The theory of the day is that you have to keep the front foot totally closed on impact, but Ted Williams hit with a completely open front foot, and many of the great players of the 60's completely rolled over on the front foot. I love the Reds, and they are my team, but the game is so much bigger and if I limited myself to only the Reds, my appreciation of the game would be so much less.

[Yachtzee]

I'm a lifelong Reds and Bengals fan, and that's about it. When it comes to all other sports, I have teams that I like and I guess you could call me a fan of those teams. The only thing that bugs me is when you get those hyper "die-hards" who feel that you can't be a fan of their team because you weren't there when times were hard. I've been a Bengals fan throughout all their troubles, but I would never begrudge another person rooting for the Bengals just because they weren't there in the horrible '90s.

[mlh1981]

Reds and whomever plays the Yankees/Cubs/Cards

Bengals and whomever plays the Steelers

[bucksfan2]

I have very few loyalties in sports. I have my hometown teams as well as my alma matter (OSU). Other than that I will root for Gonzaga basketball but thats about it. Don't particularly like another MLB or NFL team enough to have a rooting interest in them.

To be honest when I am watching a game its more of a gut feeling than anything. I feel as I have gotten older I root for the teams that I don't despise the most. Normally when watching a big game I root for the underdog and the team that is playing my rival.

I don't really have rules for fan loyalty. I can't find myself picking another NFL team besides the Bengals. Its just hard to hang up 27 years of a rooting interest and pick up another team. It sure would be much easier being a Steelers, Colts, Pats, Yankees, Red Sox fan, but what is the fun in that.

[RedsBaron]

Growing up, I too, felt that Willie Mays was the greatest player in the game.

I just saw in the morning paper that James S. Hirsch has a biography coming out about Mays, one in which Willie cooperated, which is very unusual.

[RollyInRaleigh]

Bob Costas is doing an interview with him in a couple of weeks on the Baseball Network. I believe it is on, Tuesday the 16th.

[westofyou]

I just saw in the morning paper that James S. Hirsch has a biography coming out about Mays, one in which Willie cooperated, which is very unusual.

Sunday times had a big article on it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/sports/baseball/31mays.html?scp=2&sq=willie%20mays&st=cse