This is such a broad topic to discuss but let me do so since I finally have the platform to. Let’s take a minute and go back into the good ole’ days of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers historic rivalry. Both teams hated each other, why not both from New York. The two teams have met each other in the World Series 11 times, the most between two teams in baseball history.
I bring those two teams up because if you talk to the old generation folk who remember the Dodgers being in Brooklyn you would know that if you were a Yankees fan in Brooklyn chances were you were hated. It is not just in baseball, it’s in all sports that have historic rivalries. My point to this discussion is fans these days are not real to me. Fans of the old school era are the real ones simply because you rooted, lived and died with your one team. In today’s world, you have people who like more than one team and it’s really not acceptable to me.
You can like a player from another team but regardless you shouldn’t wear another jersey of a team that isn’t yours. You see it more and more these days. Competitive sport is what makes the game fun and exciting. I’m the guy that believes if you don’t win it’s a complete failure and I intend to teach my future children that. I don’t believe in just participating. So yea I have just gone into even the little league sports of the world.
What makes the competitive sports world even better is the fan wars that go back and forth. I have numerous friends who on a daily basis go back and forth with each other. Growing up and still to this day I root for the Yankees, I follow the New York Rangers in every game so my arguments and trash talking are between Boston Red Sox fans, New York Mets fans (jealous of the Yankees for years), New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils fans. It the most enjoyable to me and to those who go back at me on that daily basis.
I wouldn’t know but I can imagine what New York was like with the Dodgers and the Yankees fans. That’s just it, it shouldn’t be any other way. Today, I see people going to other stadiums or rinks wearing a jersey of the team they are seeing – No! – that’s unacceptable. I don’t care if your team isn’t playing in the game you wear your team colors proudly.
The real fans to me are the braves souls who wear an Islanders jersey to Madison Square garden and the Rangers aren’t even playing the Islanders. The Yankee fan who will take the drive up to Boston and wear the pinstripes or road grey’s in the middle of Red Sox nation. That is how it is supposed to be.
The fake fans, mostly I see in hockey. There are people who I see on social media who are self-proclaimed die-hard fans wearing another team’s jersey all because they love the player. It sickens me to think you call yourself part of the same fans that live and die with their team. If you claim, you bleed Ranger blue then no other sweater should touch your body. (Disclaimer: I have worn an Islanders jersey as part of a losing bet) That’s okay though because it’s what fans do, that’s when it is okay to wear a rival’s jersey, when you lose a bet.
Lots of the time, you get spousal sports rivalries and that is a sensitive subject especially for the man in that relationship but an understanding wife or girlfriend should know the passion and shouldn’t make you wear her team’s colors if you take her to a game and your team isn’t playing. It just wouldn’t happen nor should it.
Today’s world is filled with lots of fake fans and just like in each sport there are “cardinal rules” you don’t want to break. The passionate, die-hard fans have those rules to and that is never wear a jersey other than the team that is in your bloodline and the pulse in your body. Most people may not agree with what I am saying but that’s okay but, if you ever have the time to talk to the old generation folk that are still around and ask them what would happen if you were a Yankees fan or wearing the paraphernalia around Brooklyn what would have happened to them maybe you’ll understand where I’m coming from with this article.
An Islanders fan will never wear a Rangers jersey.
A Jets fan will never wear a Patriots jersey.
You get the idea of where that is going. If you happened to be one of many fake fans then that’s your choice just know who the real fans are and who the fake ones are.