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re: Which is WORSE? Bandwagon fans or Sidewalk fans
Posted on 4/24/14 at 11:08 am to cardboardboxer
Posted on 4/24/14 at 11:08 am to cardboardboxer
quote:
think this is where the respect thing comes in.
For a bandwagon fan, your fandom gets no respect. Period. And most bandwagoners don't ask for respect, they just want to enjoy the ride. If they go around rubbing it in everyone's face that their team won no one will take them seriously.
Many sidewalkers DO want respect. They want to be seen as "real" fans, or at least just as real as alums.
There is the disconnect.
As an alum, I am wary of sidewalk fans because on gameday there is no little name badge that says "this person has earned the right to represent this university."
It isn't until after the drunk bitch punches someone, or the tree is poisoned, that we all go back and say "and that person never even attended the university!" By then its too late, damage done, no take backs.
So I feel sidewalk fans should have more respect, even than an average alum, for the brand they have attached themselves to and take great care not to misrepresent that brand.
That is how I am with the Saints because all NFL brands are sidewalk brands. I never talk trash to rival NFL fans because I have no right to, as I don't work for Benson or the organization.
Problem is many sidewalkers have less respect than the average alum for the brand they follow, and that is why overall they are the worst group of fans
There's an enormous fallacy, though, in tarring them with that brush when you could just as easily tar alumni/students with the same brush. Are you one of the frat guys at Death Valley tossing piss balloons? If not, you certainly don't want to be treated like them. The same applies to sidewalk fans.
I can't entirely disagree with you with regards to the 'respect' issue, though I think you couch it wrong. It should be that they should feel the pressure to uphold the image more than alumni, not because they're sidewalk fans but because alumni have more vested interest in and thus, theoretically, more instinctive protectiveness of their school.
Even so, you're talking about practical applications of a topic that is essentially theoretical. I'm not going to grab a sidewalk fan by the shirt and demand that s/he prove respect. I'm just going to assume s/he has respect until proven otherwise. That doesn't mean I don't value the reputation of Vanderbilt (for my own selfish purposes, at that) but I also don't look down on people who didn't attend but still cheer for the Commodores (both of them, one in Nashville, one in Canberra, Australia, the last time ESPN did a poll.) They don't have my vested interest, but they're perfectly capable of loving the team and following it just as well as, if not better than, I do. Hell, my mom attended Vandy and she couldn't name the current coach. My little sister didn't and she knows everything about the team. It's just as silly to look down on someone for not attending your school as it is to look down on someone attending a school with a worse football team than yours. Either way, it seems unnecessarily condescending, imho.
2
Posted on 4/24/14 at 11:13 am to randomways
quote:
There's an enormous fallacy, though, in tarring them with that brush when you could just as easily tar alumni/students with the same brush. Are you one of the frat guys at Death Valley tossing piss balloons? If not, you certainly don't want to be treated like them. The same applies to sidewalk fans.
I can't entirely disagree with you with regards to the 'respect' issue, though I think you couch it wrong. It should be that they should feel the pressure to uphold the image more than alumni, not because they're sidewalk fans but because alumni have more vested interest in and thus, theoretically, more instinctive protectiveness of their school.
Even so, you're talking about practical applications of a topic that is essentially theoretical. I'm not going to grab a sidewalk fan by the shirt and demand that s/he prove respect. I'm just going to assume s/he has respect until proven otherwise. That doesn't mean I don't value the reputation of Vanderbilt (for my own selfish purposes, at that) but I also don't look down on people who didn't attend but still cheer for the Commodores (both of them, one in Nashville, one in Canberra, Australia, the last time ESPN did a poll.) They don't have my vested interest, but they're perfectly capable of loving the team and following it just as well as, if not better than, I do. Hell, my mom attended Vandy and she couldn't name the current coach. My little sister didn't and she knows everything about the team. It's just as silly to look down on someone for not attending your school as it is to look down on someone attending a school with a worse football team than yours. Either way, it seems unnecessarily condescending, imho.
Great stuff randomways.
Posted on 4/24/14 at 11:38 am to randomways
quote:
There's an enormous fallacy, though, in tarring them with that brush when you could just as easily tar alumni/students with the same brush. Are you one of the frat guys at Death Valley tossing piss balloons? If not, you certainly don't want to be treated like them. The same applies to sidewalk fans.
Sure, as noted the teabagger was an alum. I am not generalizing and saying sidewalk fans are overall bad, just that comparatively as a group they are the worst group of fans ON AVERAGE, and that average is driven by outliers.
quote:
It's just as silly to look down on someone for not attending your school as it is to look down on someone attending a school with a worse football team than yours. Either way, it seems unnecessarily condescending, imho.
I am not looking down on all sidewalk fans.
My father in law is a sidewalk fan by definition. No college degree himself, but he put two girls through at A&M, has season tickets, and has donated more to the program than I probably ever will. He is a bigger A&M fan than me, heck he respects the brand more than me. His father's Aggie ring is his most prized possession.
He is a good fan, sidewalk or not. I am proud he represents my university. I am not being condescending to fans like him.
I reserve my condensation for a particular breed of sidewalk fan- one whose only claim to a program was the fact he was born in that state or some other arbitrary thing, and who tries to leverage the success of that program (relative to the success of other programs) to feel better about himself by tearing down other fans.
This type of fan is close to a bandwagoner, aka they ride the coattails of team success. The difference is unlike a bandwagon fan who wants to root for a winner, this type of sidewalk fan uses the team brand as a way to feel superior to someone else because their normal life gives them no such opportunities because they suck at life.
This type of sidewalker, in my opinion, is the worst type of fan on the earth. Worse than teabagging alums (who then have to live with that brand hit) and worse than a unloyal bandwagoner with a closet full of different team jerseys. This type of fan is so bad that they drag down all sidewalk fans on average.
Why?
Because they take something with real value (the team brand) and borrow against that value (their shitty self esteem boost) without any claim to the principle. They basically spend someone else's money (since the brand is worth money) to feel better about themselves. As an alum, that is MY brand value they are spending and for that reason they can go frick themselves.
The worst sidewalk fan is a self esteem welfare case basically and I have no respect for that lifestyle.
You don't see these fans as much I assume because you live in a one-team state. I notice the USC fans sympathize with me, and that is because Clemson provides for them the exact type of fans I am talking about.
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