Sports lie deep in the heart of many Chicago residents. Whether you like football, baseball, basketball or hockey, Chicago sports fans can root for not only their team, but their home. While most citizens of Chicago cheer on all of their teams, some fans believe that they can still be considered a true Chicago sports fan while simultaneously rooting for a couple of Chicago teams and a team from Wisconsin. People will look you straight in the face and tell you they love Chicago sports, and then say that they also happen to be a Packers, or a Brewers fan. These fans need to pick a side to be on, they can cheer for their city, or they can become a fan of a different one.
Chicago sports are not known for their success. While the occasional dynasty appears like the Michael Jordan Era Bulls or the early 2010’s Blackhawks, most sports teams in Chicago are painfully mediocre at any given time. Real fans are expected to stick by their teams, whether they perform well or not. If a team is going through a win drought, fans are expected to deal with it and keep displaying their pride. People who use teams’ poor records as an excuse to bandwagon onto another team are fans that no team wants. Meanwhile, the same fans claim to be die hard fans of other Chicago teams after abandoning one because of their performances. It is ridiculous to be a fan of all the teams in Chicago and the Packers. Either stick through the tough times of Chicago Sports as a whole, or leave.
A good example are Chicago Blackhawks, who maintained the aforementioned hockey dynasty fairly recently. Unfortunately, the team is currently performing poorly, and they are tanking games to have a better team around their star player Connor Bedard in the future. A true fan would deal with the pain of having a team that will have a lottery ticket for the NHL draft come June, and be excited for what Bedard can do for the team in the future. Some impatient fans could not deal with the poor quality of the team however, and have become fans of other hockey teams.
What makes these fans even worse than normal bandwagons, is that they transfer to Wisconsin or St. Louis sports teams, which are oftentimes the Chicago sports teams rivals. Cheering for a rival team after a big loss for Chicago is rubbing salt in the wounds of the fans leaving Chicago. Meanwhile, if another Chicago team beats their rivals, these fans will act as if they have always been cheering for Chicago. It is apparent that these fans however, lack the same endearment for Chicago, and lack the animosity for their rivals that longstanding fans have.
On another hand, people who are suddenly returning to Chicago sports teams like the Bears after a good season are arguably even worse fans. If a fan leaves when the team is down and goes to their rivals, they shouldn’t return after the team is performing well. Being a die-hard fan is to be a loyal fan, which these people are not. Going through challenges makes the bond of sports stronger, and it shows that you are part of the community. This community is welcoming towards people who are starting to learn more about sports, or pick a team to become a fan of, but when fans bounce back and forth between teams, not even the teams they are currently enjoying want them as fans. People who pick and choose which team to root for based on how well they are widely despised amongst the sports community.
This is not to say that people cannot be disappointed, or outright embarrassed, by your teams’ performances. Some Chicago Cubs fans believed they had a curse after they had not won a World Series in 108 years. This made the eventual victory in 2016 sweeter than any of the 27 Yankee’s World Series wins. The Chicago White Sox recently had the worst record in MLB history which caused many fans to put bags over their heads in shame and beg for the owners to sell the team. These fans are fantastic as they are staying with their team and trying to change it for the better rather than leave for a different one. In the aspect of loyalty, many could, and should, learn from long-time White Sox fans.
