Editor's note: This is a weekly column from former sports reporter and editor Mike Bass. Bass will be contributing to The Enquirer by offering advice for sports fans, athletes and youth sports parents and coaches through a weekly Q&A. To ask a question of Bass for potential publication, email him at [email protected]. And get the conversation going on Twitter @SportsFanCoach1.
Lance McAlister posed this question when I appeared recently on his WLW radio show:
“Is it OK for someone to become a bandwagon fan, and simply go team to team looking for success and happiness, rather than being stuck with a team?”
Great question. OK to whom?
Diehards might cringe, but how important is the judgment of others to your success and happiness? What if adopting another team makes you happier? It certainly works for the players.
Your definition of fan might not be mine, and that’s OK. When identifying with a bad team tears at your soul, breaking away might help. There even is a colorful term for this phenomenon. (Not the obscene one you might be thinking). It is called CORFing. Cutting off reflected failure.
“In essence, fans distance themselves from a losing team, thereby preserving a positive self-image and maintaining self-esteem,” professors Daniel L. Wann (or “Dr. Fandom,” as ESPN calls him) and Jeffrey D. James wrote in the book, “Sports Fans: The Psychological and Social Impact of Fandom.”
CORFing fans generally did not feel the strongest bond with a team. No shame there. In that case, shifting loyalties might feel awkward but more of a reward than a betrayal. And the less you identify with the team, the easier it is to jump on and off a bandwagon and follow the fair weather.
Adopt a new team every year, call yourself a devoted fan for that year, and you might have the time of your life. Others of you might hear that and want to throw up in your mouths just a little bit.
You feel a real fan requires a permanent commitment. When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet for life. When you identify with a bad team, it still tears at you. Instead of defecting, your coping strategy also has a cool name. BIRFing. Basking in spite of reflective failure.
When you pledge allegiance to a team, when it becomes your team and part of your identity, when other fans become part of your community, why would you want to blow up that connection?
I brought up Chicago to Lance, where he used to work and where I was born: Cubs fans hated losing, but they embraced the curses until finally celebrating the team’s first World Series championship in 108 years. Boston Red Sox fans knew the feelings. Bengals fans share a pain of 30 years without a playoff win and a frustration over owner Mike Brown.
The social experience can transcend winning and losing. If we can’t gather in arenas, stadiums or ballparks — even if the games are stopped — we can connect by phone, text, Zoom, social media, etc.
If you feel nobility atop the fan-for-life pedestal, you have every right. What if life gets in the way?
What if you move? What if your team moves? What if your favorite player moves to another team? What if you grew up a Duke fan and end up attending North Carolina? What if your fantasy team becomes your favorite team? What if you just want a break from your team because life is too short to keep pounding your head against the wall and hoping it won’t hurt this time?
In other words, my answer to Lance’s question is: Yes.
Remember to email Bass at [email protected] or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.
