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Do Bad Sports Teams Deserve Our Loyalty?
Fans today have more access and choices than ever before, bringing up questions about a limit to witnessing ineptitude and losing
This past week, New York Giants offensive lineman Evan Neal made comments about the fans of the team that he plays for. He called Giants fans “bandwagoners” and “fair weather” fans for criticizing his and his team’s play in the wake of a loss on Monday Night Football to the Seattle Seahawks. Neal eventually retracted his statement and issued an apology, but the message was clear that Neal was not pleased with the way that he and his Giants teammates have been spoken about on social media.
Neal’s comments were certainly not the first of their kind. NBA point guard Russell Westbrook has been very vocal about fan treatment throughout his career, particularly how it has impacted his family. Generally speaking, fans of sports teams are inherently irrational and prone to overreactions. Most of the time, athletes brush this off as they understand that dealing with fans is a part of the deal of being a professional. But when a fan base becomes accustomed to losing in a hyper online era, we need to start wondering if bad teams truly deserve our loyalty as fans.
