superrific
Legend of ZZL
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I started to ask myself this question more seriously a decade or so; it can be phrased as I did in thread title, or more provocatively, "is rooting for spots just stupid?" I never reached what I would consider a "general" answer, but I did reduce my viewership. I'll just make some observations. The backdrop, of course, is that we generally have no power over the success of our favorite teams. Right off the bat, putting your happiness entirely in the hands of others is of questionable wisdom, but anyway . . .
1. I see people saying on the other thread, "This loss killed UNC football forever," or at least the milder form of "we will never live this down" or "this will be a source of embarrassment for a long time."
I have no opinion on that. But I'll bet there is nobody at TCU saying that this victory put TCU on the map, and for good. The emotions are asymmetric, and the negative emotions seem always more powerful to me. That is to say, in this game at least, rooting for sports teams is a net negative activity. The residents of this country would be better off if the game had not been played or at least not been watched.
2. Well, don't get blown out. Sure. But 95% of the lists of "worst losses" I've seen involve close games. Often extremely close. What are some of the worst losses for the UNC fan base? Utah '98 is certainly one of them. We didn't get blown out. We just should have won. I'd wager that UNC fans were way more upset about that loss than Utah fans were happy. The Chris Keldorf INT game against UVa. We were winning almost the whole game. We lost by a FG? Why was it a gut punch game?
I'd offer that losing is, in general, so much worse than winning is good. Maybe that's just me, but I don't think so. Win a game, party that night and then it's back to your normal life the next day. Losing a game can bum fans out for weeks, months, or in some cases even longer. Back when I was younger, if UNC lost a game, it could get me down for a week. I was so pissed off after losing to G'Town in 06 or whatever year it was.
3. This imbalance is made more extreme by the sports culture of winning. There can be one champion and everyone else goes home unhappy. Well, exaggeration maybe. There have been games I didn't mind losing because I felt that we were successful just getting there (HD's finals appearance in whatever year that was. Time in the Trump era is just a smear), but for the most part, that's not the case. And of course, if you're just happy to get there in year 1, usually the expectations increase to the point where the fans aren't just happy to be there. Like HD's next year.
In one sense, the best teams to root for are the ones that mostly suck. You rarely have big disappointments, because you are not expecting much, and every now and then you can have famous victories, like Appy St. over U of M, or even more extreme, Chaminade over UVa. But then you're rooting for a sucky team, which is not what we normally consider to be the point. And it gets old, right? So sports teams are caught in this cycle of desperately trying to get better, which just makes the experience of being a fan worse.
4. Athletes are not exactly reliable. If you had to put your happiness in anyone's hands, star athletes are pretty far down the list of reliability, I would think. They can get injured. They can be immature. They can get old in a hurry. They can demand a trade or transfer. Their effort can wane. I'm not necessarily saying anything bad about the athletes themselves. It's the structure of their profession.
So: maybe passionate fandom for sports teams is objectively stupid. Thoughts? I realize there are a lot of assumptions in here that might not be warranted, and/or false empirical intuitions.
1. I see people saying on the other thread, "This loss killed UNC football forever," or at least the milder form of "we will never live this down" or "this will be a source of embarrassment for a long time."
I have no opinion on that. But I'll bet there is nobody at TCU saying that this victory put TCU on the map, and for good. The emotions are asymmetric, and the negative emotions seem always more powerful to me. That is to say, in this game at least, rooting for sports teams is a net negative activity. The residents of this country would be better off if the game had not been played or at least not been watched.
2. Well, don't get blown out. Sure. But 95% of the lists of "worst losses" I've seen involve close games. Often extremely close. What are some of the worst losses for the UNC fan base? Utah '98 is certainly one of them. We didn't get blown out. We just should have won. I'd wager that UNC fans were way more upset about that loss than Utah fans were happy. The Chris Keldorf INT game against UVa. We were winning almost the whole game. We lost by a FG? Why was it a gut punch game?
I'd offer that losing is, in general, so much worse than winning is good. Maybe that's just me, but I don't think so. Win a game, party that night and then it's back to your normal life the next day. Losing a game can bum fans out for weeks, months, or in some cases even longer. Back when I was younger, if UNC lost a game, it could get me down for a week. I was so pissed off after losing to G'Town in 06 or whatever year it was.
3. This imbalance is made more extreme by the sports culture of winning. There can be one champion and everyone else goes home unhappy. Well, exaggeration maybe. There have been games I didn't mind losing because I felt that we were successful just getting there (HD's finals appearance in whatever year that was. Time in the Trump era is just a smear), but for the most part, that's not the case. And of course, if you're just happy to get there in year 1, usually the expectations increase to the point where the fans aren't just happy to be there. Like HD's next year.
In one sense, the best teams to root for are the ones that mostly suck. You rarely have big disappointments, because you are not expecting much, and every now and then you can have famous victories, like Appy St. over U of M, or even more extreme, Chaminade over UVa. But then you're rooting for a sucky team, which is not what we normally consider to be the point. And it gets old, right? So sports teams are caught in this cycle of desperately trying to get better, which just makes the experience of being a fan worse.
4. Athletes are not exactly reliable. If you had to put your happiness in anyone's hands, star athletes are pretty far down the list of reliability, I would think. They can get injured. They can be immature. They can get old in a hurry. They can demand a trade or transfer. Their effort can wane. I'm not necessarily saying anything bad about the athletes themselves. It's the structure of their profession.
So: maybe passionate fandom for sports teams is objectively stupid. Thoughts? I realize there are a lot of assumptions in here that might not be warranted, and/or false empirical intuitions.
