October is an interesting month for fans of all the major sports leagues. The MLB is in the thick of its postseason and countdown to the World Series, every Sunday (and Monday) fans across the world crowd around televisions to watch the NFL, and thousands of NHL and NBA junkies are anxiously watching to see how their teams will start the new chase for championships.
It all makes for a bevy of options for fans to choose from and offers countless memorable moments, but it also gives snobs like me yet another reason to pick on the scum of the fan world; bandwagoners.
It’s bad enough to have to endure loudmouth bandwagon fans of individual leagues, but so far in October I can’t believe the crazy amount of people I’ve seen across the interwebs proudly jumping on the bandwagon of any famous franchise, regardless of the sport.
They’re presumably doing it to look good for picking winners and following the rest of the crowd, but it’s still dumbfounding when I see a person from New York obnoxiously riding the Los Angeles Lakers train (from more than 2000 miles away) while also loudly rooting for the New York Yankees to win it all.
Really though?
Call me old school but there’s supposed to be rules when it comes to being a fan and being a sports prostitute willing to turn tricks for any winner shouldn’t be the way to go. You should root for the team from the city or state you grew up in, unless there are good reasons not to.
If you moved at a young age or lived somewhere else long enough, people will understand and you won’t look like a groupie. Ditto to having legitimate reasons as to why you might support and follow a team from another state, you know aside from them always being the best.
Unfortunately it looks more and more like that’s the way people are going. With the Lakers winning two championships in a row and the Yankees favorites to possibly repeat as well, prepare for a ton of bandwagons.
Thankfully the Dallas Cowboys look to have killed any chances of the evil trifecta of fair-weather fans coming to fruition with their terrible 1-3 start this season.
Either way though, thanks to big money, bad officiating and the emergence of all the new social media and camera phones it won’t be too much of a surprise if the sports world gets overrun with a massive circus of moronic fans rocking Yankees hats with Lakers shirts and towels and car flags from whoever wins in the NFL and NHL.
Luckily for me I’m a Los Angeles Clippers fan, so I can at least take solace from all the mess at their games, where there shouldn’t be a bandwagon forming anytime soon.
- Will.
The Sports Snob will be published once a week here on YouBeenBlinded.com. Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com
