Kevin Wilkinson

Sports are often associated with passion and love. These two emotions are intense in our own human nature, then you sprinkle in competitiveness, and it becomes an absolute fandom. When it comes to the “home team,” we see the emotional side of sports take a more forefront focus. We associate ourselves with our hometowns, these towns we are molded by, and it’s only fair that we feel that we are a part of our teams. 

Philadelphia has a special fan base that not many other cities can say that they even come close too. There’s a certain connection and unique distinction between the blue-collar environment of Philadelphia and its sports teams. It allows for the people of the city to feel like they’re actually apart and a physical presence for the team. A prime example of the connection of passion from fan to team would be from the Phillies campaign this past season. We saw an absolute onslaught from Philadelphia fans this postseason at all, which became national news in the sports world. This type of support only builds for the loss to hurt even more, the more invested we are, the more repercussions we feel. 

According to Dr. Daniel Wann and Nancy H. Fast, researchers in Psychology at Murray University, there are multiple characteristics of fandom. Gender, age, athletic experience, and economical influence. The effect that sports have on these different demographics are the same emotions, but different reasons and outcomes for those emotions.

Age is a big developing factor in sports fandom, it is likely that if you are introduced to and are a fan of a sport at a young age, you will have some type of interest in it when you get older. 

The longer you are a fan of a team, the more invested you become. Emotions towards that team are raised and a passion develops. Once passion is developed, then you see an affected attitude if a team wins or loses. 

Fans are typically grouped into two major categories: “casuals” and “die-hards.” Casual fans can watch their team win or lose and it won’t affect them nearly as severely. Casual fans keep a well-organized balance between their fandom and their regular lives.

Die-hard fans have an uneven balance of fandom and regular life; therefore, they are greatly more impacted by a win or loss from their team. Whether it’s their attitude being poor for the rest of the day or week, they just can’t stop talking about it, or in some scenario’s things are broken. Quote from Penn State student E. Connor “I had a teacher freshman year of high school who would give us pop quizzes every time the eagles lost. He almost hit me with his car once and the only thing I saw was the Eagles flags on either side of his car flapping down Torresdale Ave.”

People may wonder why there would be any fans of bad teams, enthusiasm is the answer. A fan’s team may get battered in one game, but enthusiasm engulfs fans and gets them excited because maybe their team can win the next game. The “there’s always another game” aspect is massive in sports fandom. 

When your team loses it can leave a lasting sting for that next week. When it carries on into their day and week that’s when the fandom is passionate and is used to describe the intense nature of these feelings. 

Sports is an obsession for most who are involved and is in most cases the entire livelihood of some. It can cause complete mood shifts and attitude swings depending on the outcome. It’s an incredibly interesting point of psychology that’s not touched on a lot.