Football Fans: The Fair Weather Fan
The Fair Weather fan and the Bandwagon fan are in many ways the same, but I still feel there is a bit of a line between the two.
To me, the Fair Weather fan is this: The fan who doesn’t really follow the team or the sport until the team is doing well, then they trash talk and wear tons of stuff to support the team. When the team is winning, the fan wont shut up. They won’t tone it down, they won’t discuss the sport reasonably, and they’ve “been a lifelong fan”. When the team loses, especially to your team, suddenly all evidence that they are a fan is gone and they avoid discussion completely. As soon as the season ends for the team the flags come down, the evidence of support vanishes.
They are super annoying. It’s one thing to fade out of pure support for your team during a dry spell, we’ve all done it. But this fan does it differently. They are only a fan when it is advantageous to be one, and frequently doesn’t even know what they are supporting, as they will name off players that left the team years ago because they don’t actually follow the sport.
This is the Fair Weather fan. The Bandwagon fan, and how they differ slightly, will be covered when I get to it.
I would like to go to a Sexy Rexy Party…
God I hate this fan. One of my coworkers is one of these guys. He’s a Red Sox fan, and my grandpa that got me into baseball as a kid was an Orioles fan, so I’m an O’s fan even though I don’t live in Baltimore. In 2011, you didn’t hear a peep out of him about the Red Sox, he never wore anything for the team, nothing, because they were in last place. You did hear him constantly bashing Orioles fans though, because “you’re all a bunch of bandwagoners that just came out of the woodworks”, because I totally didn’t stick out those 14 years of horrible sucking. Then last year, suddenly he’s the biggest Red Sox fan on the planet. They’re the best team, he loves them, and he’s always wearing stuff from them. Enter this year and they’re back in the bottom division, he’s quiet as can be again.
He’s just as bad with football. He’s a Broncos fan, and was he anywhere to be found after Peyton choked in the playoffs in 2012? Nope. How about before Tim Tebow’s miracle season? Never said much about the game. The only thing he’d say with football after the Superbowl this year was “Yeah, well we still won two Superbowls, so we’ve got more than they do.” The same guy trumpeting Peyton talking about how he had the greatest season ever and the Seahawks D could never stop that offense didn’t want to talk about football at all for weeks after the Superbowl. The same guy is just as happy to jump and bash not only other people’s teams, but also how loyal he perceives them to be to that team.
The funniest thing is that he’s a fan of the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, he’s a Boston guy, and he loves Belichick and Brady, but he’s a Broncos fan instead of a Pats fan because he got into football right after Superbowl XXXIX, and didn’t want to look like a bandwagoner. He’s so concerned with people having a positive perception of him with sports that he doesn’t even root for the team that he wanted to and that he clearly still likes because he was afraid how it’d look.
Go O’s! I guess. Loved the Orioles as a kid but I fell so out of favor with Baseball that not even the recent upsurge can get me back into it. Maybe if I still lived in Baltimore I wouldn’t have lost interest.
I think every kid in the 80’s-90’s2000’s was a bit of an Orioles fan. Cal Ripken was every kids hero back then, mine included.
Amen to that!
As a Carolina Panthers and Cincinnati Reds fan, I hate these people. I’ve had so many people make fun of me for wearing Panthers/Reds shirts and hats year-round, especially when Carolina went 2-14 and the Reds were the height of mediocre. Now that both are good, I get so many people who now “pay attention” to those teams and brag when they win, yet couldn’t tell you half the starters.
Disclaimer: I used to be a fair-weather fan of South Carolina football, then figured out that I really don’t care enough about college football to call myself a fan, so now I’ll root for them to win, but I won’t call myself a Gamecocks fan.
Note: The best people that balance those fair-weather fans are the ones who are fans of the sport as well as their team. So even though they’re a Rams fan or a Vikings fan or a *shudder* Eagles fan, they still know how your season is going, some of the major storylines of your team, and your best players. They can carry on a reasonably intelligent conversation about your team with you, and they’re not even a fan of them! I try to be this guy as much as possible, but I’ll admit that outside the NFC, I really don’t care as much.
Thank you for not taking the low hanging fruit and making the Fairweather a Seahawks fan.
No, they’re diehard fans turning into smug/a-hole fans. The real difference between bandwagon and Fairweather fans is that the fairweather fans usually will hang on for a season or two of non-playoff appearances then disappear; while bandwagon fans (*cough Miami Heat fans cough*) dissappear after the first loss.
I’ve you’ve got it turned around, at least the way I see things. Bandwagoners are the ones that hang around for a few years after initial success, then disappear or switch teams seeking more glory. Fair Weather fans are the ones that vanish completely upon a loss, but show up “when the weather is good”, aka the team is winning.
Seattle is fair weather as all hell. Seriously: this city isn’t full of die-hards. Maybe– MAYBE, and I’m being generous here– maybe a fifth of the fans in this city can name Largent, Walter Jones, Kennedy, or any of the great, HoF worthy players the city has had, let alone the talented-but-flaws players of the 80s, 90s, or even 00’s. When the Seahawks made the playoffs at 7-9, I got a ticket for $15. They didn’t sell out until businesses in the area went hyper-spendy to buy them so it wouldn’t be blacked out. You get a home game in Buffalo, I don’t care if the team made it at 6-10, it’s sold out. If it weren’t for Paul Allen, the team probably wouldn’t even be here today, and there’s a significant portion of the population who resented his intrusion who are now puffing themselves up like they’re megafans. This city is one of the most pretentious in the country– about everything– and they’re just transferring it now to their football team. There are *SOME* die hard fans in the city, and there is some amazing PR for the team. But it’s not a city of them, and the vast bulk are fair-weather douchebags who will complain the team’s never done anything in 3 years if they don’t win another.
This is a city that has lost two professional sports teams, and was entirely willing to ditch its others. It seriously is a relatively few high-powered business folks, led by Paul Allen, who have kept sports in this city at all.
You’ve been checking out the panthers forums haven’t you. I am a lifelong panthers fan that doesn’t live in the area, and the forums have been my lifeline to make it through the darkest days of offseason for years now. But not this year. If you don’t believe that a. Dave gettleman is god, b. Steve Smith is so old he’s totally useless, or c. We have nothing to worry about with Cam coming off of surgery and the Linch pin of our o line is now going to be played by a guy who got replaced mid game for under performing last year multiple times, then you just aren’t a fan. I almost got death threats for saying that our biggest positive for next year is that we will actually have cap space to afford t resign our good players next off season, and an 8-8 year wouldn’t be a complete disappointment. Can you tell I’ve needed an outlet to talk panthers football yet?
I have met SOOOOOOO many people just like that, only they wore Black and Gold and swung little pee yellow towels around their head. Most fair weather fans I have ever met.
This and the bandwagon fan are the two worst types of fans IMO.
I kind of wish I were a panthers fan if only so I could accessorize with an actual kitty.
“Steve Smith is gonna own everyone”
Good lord that’s funny