It’s great when everything is all sunshine and roses regarding your favorite sports team. However, darker days can affect you more negatively. Understanding the worst things about being a sports fan and mentally preparing yourself can lessen the sting when things go south.
Watching a Player Leave Your Team
With the way teams throw money around during each league’s free agency period, player movement is more rampant than ever. That’s good news for the players, but it’s not always good news for fans of small market teams. If you grow fond of a player, it can sting to watch them leave for greener pastures, particularly if the greener pastures are strictly money-related.
The Complete Lack of Control
The lack of control makes sports the most unpredictable form of entertainment. That’s a double-edged sword because the thrill of winning provides one of the better psychological benefits of watching your team emerge as the victors. Yet, the agony of defeat can stay with you for weeks or even years. Fans remember the bad beats more than they do the easier victories, and there’s nothing you can do to prevent them.
Watching With People Who Don’t “Get It”
When you’re watching a random baseball game in August, you don’t have to worry about many people being around asking you silly questions. But when Super Bowl Sunday comes around, there will be groups of people who don’t even know how many points a touchdown is worth. Watching games with people who don’t get it or mock you for caring is a downer. The last thing you want to hear is “it’s just a game” from someone if you are sulking after a last-minute defeat.
The Off-Season
Regardless of your favorite sport, the off-season is the biggest drag in the world. Assuming your squad isn’t the one who got to hoist the championship trophy, you’re anxious to get a new campaign underway to get the bad taste out of your mouth from a bad season. Every off-season moves about as quickly as molasses coming down a tree, making the wait unbearable in some circumstances.
Bad Fans
The worst thing about being a sports fan is that other sports fans ruin it for everyone else and gravitate towards it for all the wrong reasons. It’s okay to have playful banter with opposing fanbases, but when there are threats and things get physical, that’s a step too far. The games are unpredictable enough, and being around fans who have a quick fuse and ruin the experience is one unpredictability worth avoiding.
Loving the game you grew up playing and watching offers many benefits, so there’s no reason to quit your fandom because of the worst things about being a sports fan. Knowing the collateral damage and how to handle it helps you appreciate the good things that come your way.
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