Has there ever been a time when you were watching a sporting event and you felt as if you were right there in the game with “your” team? So emotionally attached to a team that you have no personal connection to most of the time. It is a total wonder the lengths people will go to for a sports team; whether it is amatuer, collegiate, or professional, fans will got to great lengths to show that their team is the best.
Why is it that we do this? Why do we feel the need to become so involved, so emotionally invested with a team? Across the United States during the fall, during football season on Saturdays and Sundays you can find millions of people so enamored with, and invested in their teams that when said team wins, it is as if the person was there with them and took part in the team’s strategy to win the game. On the other side, the losing side, the team who ended up losing the game also had millions of fans who felt that loss as if they were on the team. Fans do this because they have emotional attachments to their teams to make them feel as if they are winning and losing with the teams they choose to share their alliances.
The term fanatic is what we get this from, the fanatic is a person who will go to great lengths for a team even if they are not on the said team or just have grown up with the team their whole life. They would do anything to show their ultimate support, ergo a fanatic. These fanatics have done things such as tattoo themselves with permanent ink on their bodies for lives the insignias of their favorite teams. This does not stray far from home, even at William Peace University, for home or away sports games the student section can be found packed. Also the fans get so into to the games of their teams that they jump up and down all around the houses, dorm rooms, etc during the games cheering with excitement and yelling with anger. There have even been times with pregnant women becoming so excited that the have almost gone into premature labor, this has happened in this reporter’s own household, over teams winning big time events. The rivalry between certain teams is what really drives the “fanatic” out of some people. There are rivalries such as Duke University playing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in basketball that leave seemingly best friends at odds with each other time and time again. The rivalries are old and are passed down through generations of people and families. They show who you can hate and who you better always cheer for on game day.
That is what causes us to put so much emphasis into these teams. It starts at home, with mom and dad and who they have chosen as their teams. Now you can create your own path and follow a superstar from the team and wherever they go, but does that allegiance from the former team die out with you? Does it burn strong? At the end of the day are you a fanatic with your mom and dad or with a school you attended, or did you choose your own path; whatever the case may be do you put all your heart and soul into this and are you just as guilty as being invested as the millions of others in the world?
