The Rule of Ten

I love how New England sports fans think that they don't have to know anything about their team, but can still consider themselves huge Pats/Sox/whatever fans. Recently, I witnessed a conversation between two people who shall remain nameless in which they were assuring each other of the greatness of New England sports. Now, for two reasons, I was a bit perturbed. One, I had just woken up from a nap, and as I'm sure everyone knows, being sick (as I was) and waking up from a nap makes for an indeed grouchy demeanor. Second, I have heard this conversation in many other forms around campus, and I've always wanted to call people on not actually knowing anything about the team they were deifying.

So I called them on it. These two people are friends of mine, so I didn't feel any trepidation towards challenging their sports aptitude. I asked, "Okay... name 10 people on the team." In this case, they were talking about the Sox, so I assumed that asking for the starting lineup plus one other player is a very liberal burden of proof to lay on them. One of them I was pretty sure could, and one of them I was pretty sure couldn't. The one that I thought could name ten asked if I wanted to know ten from the World Series team, or ten from the team now that offseason moves have been made. I figured okay, probably shouldn't have challenged him on that, but then the other one spoke up. He said "Lucky for us, it doesn't matter what you think."

Well, right then and there, I was vindicated. I knew that that's basically argumentational hara-kiri. Because in the end, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, and by that logic no one would ever argue about anything, because it didn't matter what the other guy thought. Anyways, I'm going to get off that point and move on because the idea here is not to single out individuals, but to point to a broader problem.

The broader problem I speak of comes straight out of what happened next. I was happy with just having made one person think his sports aptitude inadequate, even if he didn't admit it. But then the one who actually knew the team well enough spoke up and completely shot any shred of credibility he had. He claimed that "it's different for Boston fans. We don't necessarily have to know our players because we haven't won in so long." Absolutely astounding.

So my point is not that if you don't know the team, you shouldn't follow sports or consider yourself a fan. Considering yourself a fan is fine, and rooting for your team and all that is great too. But don't go around making comparative statements unless you know what the hell you're talking about. Expect to have your knowledge tested and expect to fail if you start running your mouth proclaiming the greatness New England teams while knowing nothing about them.

Just to shore up my point here, I'll give another example. I feel as if it's helpful here to draw a parallel to music. Let's say, for example, that I claim to be a huge... I don't know... Limp Bizkit fan. I've heard their latest hit, whatever the hell song it is, and am completely psyched about them now that this one song of theirs became super-popular. I run around saying how much better Limp Bizkit is than some other band, let's say, Godsmack. (Disclaimer: I am not a fan of either of these bands). But at the same time, I do not know any of their previously released songs and also, the only one I know in the band is Fred Durst. Okay, so I don't think anyone would argue that I do not have the right to run around making those kinds of generalizations having only heard one or two of their big hits, and having never followed the band before they all of a sudden got popular because of one or two songs. Also, I would argue that you deserve to get noses thumbed at you by true Limp Bizkit fans who have been fans since the beginning and actually know what the hell they're talking about.

As much as I can't stand fair-weather-fan-ism, I can see that if you're not a diehard baseball fan or whatever, you really shouldn't be expected to know that much if you start rooting for them when they have a chance to win a championship. And honestly, I can understand that someone who doesn't follow the team as closesly as some lifelong fans would want to root for their team when they start winning just out of pride for their hometown or home-state or whatever. I just don't think that such a person has the privelege of making comparative statements or the privelege to try and pass themselves off as a life-long fan (I'm not accusing anyone of this, it's more just a generalization based on some of the attitudes here at GW).