Wow - how fickle the loyalty of fans.
For those of you who don't follow American Football, Brett Favre was the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers for 16 years and was probably considered the best thing since sliced bread to many Packers fans. His professionalism and ability (particularly his ability to shine in big games) resulted in over a decade of success for the Packers and he was loved by the fans as a result of it.
However, for the last several seasons, Favre has been vacillating between retirement and playing one more season. Basically, he said he would retire at the end of the season and then, just before the new season starts, he would announce that he would play one more year. As you can imagine, this makes it extremely hard for management to do any long term planning and a couple of years ago, the Packers sold him off to the NY Jets. After a season with the Jets, Favre, after another 11th hour decision to play another year, signed with the Minnesota Vikings.
Which wouldn't have been so bad except that the Vikings are division rivals with the Packers. The upshot being that the Packers fans actually booed Favre as a traitor for signing with a rival team. This despite the 16 years of glory that Favre brought to Green Bay.
Which finally brings me to my point - I have never understood sporting rivalries to the extent that it becomes so personal.
This effect isn't just limited to American Football. Just as another example, there is a heated rivalry between Liverpool and Man Utd. Just by being a Liverpool supporter, everyone assumes that I hate Man Utd. And actually, I don't. I actually wish Man Utd and Fergie the best of luck in the premiership.
Actually, that's not strictly true. If I had a choice, Man Utd would only finish second in the premiership (Liverpool would be first naturally!) but this is a far cry from other Liverpool supporters who seem to wish that Manchester would be swallowed up by a gigantic fireball of fiery death (with raining fire to boot, natch!).
Why do people get so worked up over stuff like this? Is their life so devoid of meaning that this is all they have to look forward to?
PS flamebait ftw!
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4 comments:
The reason sporting rivalries invoke such passion is just similar to any other social group (or in the old days, "tribe"). You identify with one group or tribe, and rivals are seen as the enemy. Its what pulls the social group together. You see it in all sorts of social interaction - not just sports e.g. gangs, political parties, countries, ethnic groups etc etc etc.
Saying that, different members of the tribe will take the feeling to different levels of rivalry. And the level of intensity can change over time. I'm sure there are lots of Liverpool supporters who look at ManUre as a rival but with "friendlier" eyes, i.e. not spitting hatred. In fact, its more the younger fans where the feeling of emnity has been particularly strong I think. In part, its to do with the fact that they've dominated recent EPL history, and are challenging Liverpool as the most successful team in the history of English football. But also in part, its to do with the crass nature of their manager (e.g. his boast that his aim in life to to "knock Liverpool off their f@cking perch" - his own words) and their team (e.g. singing "We won it 3 times without killing anyone" after they won the CL final a few years back - if you don't get the reference then you better do some reading re: Hillsborough). When you have the manager and team of the rival leading the line in hate filled positioning, its no wonder that the rivalry has grown, and remains, particularly heated.
Saying all that, I'd be surprised there would be many Liverpool supporters that want ManUre to come 2nd after Liverpool.
I used to be more accommodating to that view in years past when their team appeared to at least have a bit of class, but I despise the team of recent years for their constant repulsive behaviour, egged on by an increasingly repulsive manager. Its the same way I feel about Chelsea (although that emnity has reduced a bit post-Moanrinho - at least Hiddink and now Ancelotti appear to be more gentlemen managers than that Portuguese pile of dung they had). Thats why I don't really mind Arsenal so much - yes, they are rivals but (on the whole) I find Arsene to be more bearable, even with his foibles.
The problem with the examples you give is that Man Utd fans probably feel they also have loads of examples where Liv fans have been "leading the line in hate filled positioning". And the line by Fergie - that was years and years and years ago. I mean, seriously? We still rely on that to fuel our hatred of Fergie and Man Utd?
Even in the case of Mourinho's Chelsea, where I didn't like the manager and subsequently the team (although I will admit he, and his interviews, were an entertaining addition to the Prem), it was a case of "I didn't want them to succeed" rather than actively wanting them to spectacularly fail.
I dunno. Maybe its because I studied econ (a comedian once said that economists are trained to say "on the other hand" as they look at both sides of the problem) but I just find it difficult to dredge up any hatred like that.
Having said all that, another reason that I don't hate Man Utd is probably cos I used to support them. This was back when I first started taking an interest in football. Singy was a Man Utd fan and so, I just ended up being a Man Utd fan as well. I only switched allegiance to Liverpool after getting into it a bit more (And possibly to rile up Singy? - who knows what my juvie mind was thinking).
Erm - did I refer to any situations between fans "leading the line in hate filled positioning"? Read my post again. Of course I know there are idiot fans on both sides who fan the flames. My examples are of the PLAYERS AND THE MANAGER. Personally, its one thing for the fans to act like idiots, its a whole different ball game when its the team itself doing it.
Slur Alex's line may have been years ago, but he's demonstrated on an ongoing basis since then that he still holds to the emnity behind his original comment. As such, I think its quite valid to raise his original line as the feelings behind it still hold. So yes, "seriously", his ongoing attitude to Liverpool (which stems from them handing his then Aberdeen team a good thrashing when he was manager there - woo, so mature eh?) results in a similar negative reaction back - not too surprising, is it?
And the singing of the ManUre players after they won the CL was 2 years ago - so no, there's no need to just rely on a line from ages ago...the scum provide plenty of reasons to hate them recently too.
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