The Case For Bandwagoning
It’s unquestionably positive for all… When done correctly
Every time a sports team who hasn’t been good gets good, there’s always a bunch of fans that come out of the woodwork as they make their run.
Immediately, tons of diehards, the ones who stuck with them through the dark days, revolt against these new fans, saying they don’t deserve to enjoy the team’s success because they just showed up and didn’t have to suffer through years of disappointment.
This has always been a bit strange to me. I get that you want credit for sticking with them when it was hard, but if you’re at a bar and see someone wearing a jersey or T-Shirt of your favorite team, you yell to them, high five them, hug them, talk to them, or some combination of all four. You certainly don’t ask for the qualifications of their fandom.
After all, its sports. It should be positive! Why purposely be negative about a thing there for no purpose other than to entertain and inspire you?
But, there is a lot of truth to it being hard to stay positive when your team sucks every year, can’t seem to get over the hump, just misses the playoffs, etc…
I hear you, and I have a solution.
Bandwagoning.
Oh no! It’s ugly, it’s offensive, it’s awful… You’ve been raised to hate those flip-floppers, those spineless trophy chasers.
And I agree with that, to an extent. Before hopping on your high horse, hear me out. Bandwagoning is not inherently evil, and, when done correctly, is a great thing for you and sports as a whole.
Before we go further, let me clarify what I mean by bandwagoning. I’m even going to change the term slightly, since the word has such a negative connotation. Let’s call it Respectful Bandwagoning.
Respectful Bandwagoning is not changing your favorite team every season based on who looks like they’re going to win. It’s not watching a game and waiting for a team to take a lead to choose who you’re rooting for. It’s not even liking a team just because they’re good.
Respectful Bandwagoning is finding an underdog-like team to root for, when your team is not involved, that you have some type of innate draw toward.
It’s not a betrayal of your team. It’s not a spineless move by a jelly fish of a fan. It is at worst harmless and at best insanely fun. The novelty of your fandom keeps everything fresh, sometimes bordering on giddy as you learn the culture of a brand new team and see their fan base out of their minds with excitement.
Sound interesting? Let’s go over the rules…
First Rule of Respectful Bandwagoning: You can never root against your team. Everyone has a real favorite team and that must remain. Your team is ride or die and that cannot change.
This also means never rooting for your team’s rival. I am a Steelers fan, which definitively rules out hopping on for the Ravens. No questions, a hard and fast rule. Rivals are out, regardless of anything else.
Second Rule of Respectful Bandwagoning: A team being good isn’t enough reason to hop on their bandwagon. Sure, it’s a factor, but a respectful bandwagoner requires something more. You can like their style of play (E.g. Big 12 Football Offenses), the culture of the fans (Bills Mafia), the swag of certain players (Fernando Tatis), team traditions (Arkansas Razorbacks’ “Calling the Hogs”), or something in that realm. Maybe you love the color scheme or they have great story of overcoming the odds. It can’t just be about how good they are and it has to be a real internal draw, something subconsciously pulling you toward them that year.
Third Rule of Respectful Bandwagoning: The team should be some sort of an underdog. They can be a team that isn’t typically in the running for a championship or division title or bowl game, a small-market or new professional team, a perennial sub-.500 or playoff missing franchise, something like that. It can’t be an institutional team, like the Yankees or Alabama or the Cowboys. An exception to this rule would be geographical. If you take a job in New York or Dallas or Alabama, then sure, join the fun if that’s what’s calling you. But if you’re in Florida or Colorado or West Virginia, the Cowboys bandwagon is off-limits…
Fourth Rule of Respectful Bandwagoning: When you hop on, you have to commit for the remainder of the season, regardless of what the outcomes are. You can pick the team at any point during the year, but once chosen, you need to stick with it. Your mandatory commitment to the team ends with their season, but once you’re on, you’re on.
That may seem like a lot to follow, but when you think about it, it really just eliminates what aggravates people so much about bandwagoning. You take away the people that claim to like the Yankees and Red Sox with the rival rule. You stop people from just rooting for the favorite by needing a deeper reason and outlawing the institutional teams. You stop flip-flopping by mandating the remainder of the season on the bandwagon.
It puts more eyes on the small market and small school teams. It lets the inspirational comeback stories of the underdogs get more attention and the accomplishments of those not in the spotlight to get their chance to shine. It keeps more people interested as the season winds down and most people’s teams are eliminated. The individual gets to watch more games with that butterflies in the stomach nervous feeling, and who doesn’t want more of that? We can say we hate it all we want, but the emotional roller coaster of a high stakes game is completely unrivaled.
It is unquestionably a positive for everyone: Fans, Teams, Leagues and Sports as a whole.
Once you get over the disgust that naturally occurs when hearing the word, you understand that, when done correctly, respectful bandwagoning should not just be accepted, but encouraged.
I rest my case.
