Supporting the Home Team

I was watching the Canucks game at my friend Ian's place the other day. His sister had these three boys visiting from Toronto. As the game was on PPV – which for the record, absoutely blows in quality – there were a lot of people in attendence: not only were our friends there but Ian's parents and their siblings showed up. All were nice people and it's regrettable that I was still on the mend from a flu so I couldn't be too social. One of them, Harvey I believe tried to get me all riled up about cheering on the Canucks and then proceeded to ask where I grew up, to which I replied, Vancouver. At this point, it became obivious to everyone that many of those people who were meeting me for the first time thought I was Anna's friend (Ian's sister) and that I was from Toronto.

I had actually met her friends briefly a game or two before when I came by to watch the game. At both games, they were teased about being from Toronto and supporting the Maple Leafs – to which, surprisngly, they don't. I recall some of them saying blatantly that they suck so why support them. In fact, they all were into cheering on the 'nuks. Some even bearing the colours.

This has always struck me as a strange phenomenon. In fact, the whole topic of supporting a team is rife with social commentary including such repudiated acts as bandwagon jumping! Now, I don't intend to give a long, invovled analysis on the subject (just yet) my feelings towards these activities is unfamiliarity, akwardness and distrust. Let me explain why.

My main premise is simply that these people aren't displaying primary loyalty values. When someone supports the home team, they're supporting the familiar: their friends, their family, their kin. It doesn't matter how well they do or, more importantly, how poorly they do, you support them. It's unconditional love. This occurs really on a base, evolutionary level as we need our neighbours to survive. From the nuclear family unit to the mass demonstrations of patriotism that engulf nations and precipitate war, it's the same basic feeling of supporting the 'home team'.

Now, of course this is extremely polarized and an exageration: no love is unconditional. You're not going to forgive your dad for raping you while you were a toddler and you're not going to waste your money and time on entertainment sucks. However, the fact remains that the reason your support the home team is because it's representing yourself. You don't love a part of yourself, how can you love another? If you don't support the home team, and continue to watch the sport, you're showing that you're capable of betraying those close to you 'at some level'. And, this is the same reason bandwagoners are so vilified: they only join the 'winning team' and can't be trusted to 'put the work into building a winner'. They're opportunistic.

And that's why you support the home team.

On a side note, the insult that someone's such a bandwagoner that they're driving the bandwagon makes no sense: if they're driving it, then they've never jumped off it have they? So they're actually a true fan...