The pros and cons of supporting a team – open thread
Why do some sport fans never pick a team?
How do they manage to remain neutral? And are they missing out?
If you weren't sucked into sport through the addictive practice of supporting a team, why would you care about it? We can dress games up with chalkboards, tactics trucks and salt and pepper shakers, but most of them consist of overpaid men running around after balls. If you have no vested interest in where those balls end up, would you not be better off using your time elsewhere?
Those of us attached to clubs are trapped. Our life sentences were confirmed long ago. But if your well-being isn't tied to a team you adopted unthinkingly as a kid, should you not make the most of that freedom? Why not spend some time with your family, further your career, save some money and travel the world, or at least read the news pages and learn something useful?
Beyond the question of why non-supporters want to watch, how do they manage not to pick sides? Some of us struggle to make it to half-time in a football match without favouring one team over the other. The league system helps out here. If you're creative enough to find the links, almost every game can have an effect on every team. The most inconsequential of matches can be re-imagined as season-defining six-pointers.
When no obvious loyalties can be found, reasons for bias can be plucked from anywhere. Underdogs are easy to like, as are the majestically talented. Teams with a lot of skill or none whatsoever are strangely likeable, even though that sounds like a contradiction. Grudges can flair up from anywhere. Poor refereeing decisions, mouthy players, blatant diving and perceived time-wasting can be turn-offs.
The reasons don't need to be valid or even last beyond the end of the game, but that sense of belonging makes contests seem important. It gives viewers a stake and keeps them watching. A friendly between two non-League teams can become a moral battle between valiant underdogs with quaint sponsors and long-ball loving cheats whose disgraceful captain kicked the ball away and didn't get booked for it. Is having a cause not preferable to remaining detached?
Non-supporters can seem sophisticated. They view things with a lofty detachment and can notice things like tactics and grand narratives, rather than conspiracies and irrational worries. But are they not missing out on the primary joy of watching sport: seeing your team win things, preferably against your rivals.
When your team wins a big game, there's nothing like it. Losing is horrible, but as Badly Drawn Boy once sang, "the joy is not the same without the pain". The jeopardy is the whole point. Is watching sport without caring who wins any more fun than poring over photographs of other peoples' holidays?
Why do some people never pick a team? How do they manage to remain neutral? And are they missing out?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/feb/21/pros-cons-supporting-team-open-thread