The relationship a sports fan has with their team of choice is a sacred bond that words cannot adequately describe. It’s what drives someone to paint their face, dye their beard, or 3D print an entire Mandalorian suit and paint it in their team’s colours in order to wear it to each game. Oftentimes, for many, their mood can depend on whether their team emerged victorious, the elation of a win giving them the extra boost they need or the deflating feeling of a loss completely dragging them down. But as all relationships must, the one between a fan and their takes its next step when the fan begins to refer to their team of choice as ‘we’. Is this too far?
Professional sports, by nature, are exclusionary in who can ascend to their ranks. Only 250 or so players are drafted into the National Football League each season while there are thousands who are eligible and tens of thousands in the high school ranks hoping to one day be one of those 250. As such, the vast majority of us can only wear those jerseys in the stands or at home instead of on the field. Since none of us can ever realistically dream of suiting up beside our favourite players, is it right that we refer to our favourite teams as we?
While I have no definitive answer, I must admit that as a lifelong Cincinnati Bengals fan, any time I refer to the team in conversation I use ‘we’. I’ve been to countless games in Paul Brown Stadium, I’ve bought an unhealthy amount of team merchandise, I even re-watch their games after they’ve been played to get a better understanding of who the players are and what they’re doing on the field on a given play. But this still does not make me one of them. I will fully admit that, in this regard, I can be obnoxious when supporting my favourite team. I am relentless in their defense when someone accuses them of anything negative and I go on the offensive to raise them above every other.
Reflecting on the Bengals’ crushing defeat in the Super Bowl, I have since come to the realization that, for better or worse, a significant chunk of my personality is being a fan of the team. It dominates the podcasts I listen to, the conversations I have, and entire Sundays when I dedicate the whole day to watching them play. I don’t necessarily think that this is bad by any means, but I can’t help but laugh at the fact that a team I could never play for and players I may never meet mean so much to me and form a significant part of my identity. Whether I like it or not, my fandom is my personality, and I will continue to support the team fervently and wait another 31 years for them to make it back to the Super Bowl.