 Everyone has that friend that laughs at you and rubs in each one of your team's defeats. Then when you get on them about their team losing, they usually reply, "nah, I'm not a Patriots fan, I'm a Saints fan". You can't keep up with their team because they only back who's winning now. I have a friend whose team has never lost a game. We all have this same friend. Look around, if you can't spot this annoying person, walk to the closest mirror and say, "hello, my name is Fairweather Frank and I'm a bandwagon fan."
This article is to inform all bandwagon fans that you aren't cool for supporting every Super Bowl winning team in history. If you have never been disappointed at the end of a NFL season, then this article is probably meant for you. If every week your friends meet up at the sports bar to watch the game and they always seem to forget to mention it to you, this is why. Bandwagon fans are the lowest form of life. Pondering...Nope, don't feel like I overstated that. Real fans can't stand talking sports with you.
Every year I go to the sports bar in Houston, TX. Last year 80% of the place was in Steelers jerseys, the year before was covered in Colts, and the last few years before that was Patriots fans galore. When "their team" makes a play and I use the term "their team" loosely, the whole place erupts. I find myself pulling for these teams to lose as bad as my team to win. They jump up and down and celebrate, screaming, "We're going back to the Super Bowl this year!" NO, NO, you don't get to say "we". Only fans that have been to the pits of the NFL cellar and stayed fans get to refer to themselves and the teams they follow as "we". Only when you have suffered together, have you become one.
A lot of people from Houston hate the Cowboys. The main perception is that Texans fans hate the team with all their passion. This is true, but the Cowboys' organization isn't the main reason for this hate. It's their fans. It's the guy that grew up down the street from you in Houston and went to school with you. It's the wife that raised her kids in Houston and has never even been to visit Dallas. These fans scream "Houston sucks" and "Dallas will win the Super Bowl again". These fans that everyone knows as soon as the Texans make the playoffs will have a jersey over-nighted to their house with a Texans players' name on the back. These bandwagon fans are why Houstonians hate the Dallas Cowboys.
It's really the bandwagons fans that are losing out. I grew up a Broncos' fan. You might ask how a kid growing up in South Carolina could grow up as a Bronco fan. As a little kid I was really into baseball. When I finally came around to football, the first game I watched had this rocket arm QB by the name of John Elway. I was amazed at how he performed in the clutch and I was hooked. I suffered through numerous Super Bowl losses and was the butt of a lot of jokes. Then that wonderful day came around, the day that Denver played Green Bay in the Super Bowl. In the weeks leading up to this game, all I heard was every single person telling me how the defending champs, the Packers, were 14 point favorites and Elway was going to lose another Super Bowl. I got laughed off the radio for making a prediction that Denver would win. We all know now that Denver was victorious. What you might not know is the story of a boy in Florence, SC, walking through the Magnolia Mall in his weather torn Elway jersey, with the number peeling off, running into another kid. This excuse for a human had on a brand new Terrell Davis jersey with the tags still on. He just came out of the store where he bought it and threw it on immediately. He looks me in my eyes as he passes me and says "Go Broncos!". At that moment, I had to thank God for giving me a mom who raised me a Christian son and prayed that He would give me the strength not to destroy that kid - the audacity of that kid. Where do you get off basking in the glory. Were you there when WE lost 55-10 to the 49ers? Or how about the Redskins Super Bowl Blowout of us? NO YOU WEREN'T!! You didn't even support Denver before the Super Bowl. As of that moment, I vowed to destroy Bandwagonism at its heart. Wherever there is a baby in Texas having a Colts jersey put on him...I'll be there. Whenever there is a kid in Cali that gets a Steelers flag for Christmas... I'll be there...I'll be watching.
That same bar has a group of Lions fans that come in every week. Yes, even when they went 0-16 they were there every week. They have my respect and so do Browns fans, Bills fans, and Chiefs fans. These fans have something that bandwagon fans never will. LOYALTY!!! When their teams finally win the Super Bowl or any big game for that matter, it's going feel like they accomplished something. When the Texans beat the Patriots in Week 17 last year, all they needed was the Jets to lose to the Bengals in the Sunday night game to make the playoffs for the first time. I have never seen or heard that bar, the radio, and the whole city of Houston so electric. It gave me goose bumps and pride. I was there through the suffering of the David Carr years, the battle of Sage vs Schaub, and now maybe OUR first playoffs!!!
So this year help a little boy achieve his dream. Stop Bandwagonism!!! Find your team. Support them and stay loyal through the ups and downs. This way, it'll be so much sweeter when you get there. Enjoy your 2010 NFL season, loyal fans; and Bandwagon fans, here's to finding out who your team will be in February. - Jayson Braddock
Jayson appears on Sports Radio 790 AM in Houston, TX once a week as the football insider on the Dylan Gwinn show. He's a graduate of the Sports Management World Wide Football GM & Scouting Course and has been mentored by former NFL player / executive John Wooten and Sporting News.com NFL Draft Expert Russ Lande. His work is mostly appreciated by die-hard fans interested in every little detail about their team and not just watered down mainstream talk.
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