In sports, fandom is a term used to describe the allegiance of one to their team. The teams they cheer for often define people – and sometimes those they cheer against. Their ties to a team may determine what they wear, dictate their schedule, or even influence who they interact with. Sometimes its gets to the point that sports is life, people look to it like religion. Football fans may be the group with the most emotion… We all recognize “Big Nut” from OSU, the PSU big uglies, and the various images of Raiders super fans in the area known as the Black Hole. While being a fan can be a great experience, the 2009 film ‘Big Fan’ shows us a perfect example of sports fandom gone too far. Unfortunately, it’s not just a story on the big screen as there are now weekly real-life examples that make the headlines each week.

Before it sounds like I’m preaching from a soapbox, those who know me well are aware of the moments that my fandom has trumped other parts of my life. Currently, I’m waiting to see how the ALCS plays out to make plans for the next couple weeks. While that’s a special circumstance, I’m also sometimes the “angry fan” at games who boo’s my football team when they have bad plays or miss scoring opportunities, take the time to yell to the umpires and referees if I don’t agree with how they are calling a game, and my voice has echoed in a hockey arena when my team was pass happy on a power play and I felt the need to shout “shoot the puck.”I was very involved in the student section in college and am pretty sure that part of me will always exist. Still, I’m always aware of those around me to not say anything offensive and there’s a difference between being passionate and be crazy – a line which I admittedly sometimes straddle.

Where am I going with all this? As passionate as I am, I was completely disgusted by the recent behavior by certain fans of the Houston Texans when it comes to Matt Schaub. Yes, he didn’t have a great start to the season and threw a pick-6 that eventually cost them the game in late September (his 3^rd straight game where he gave one up). However, fans took to the parking lots after and started burning his jersey. Some even bought brand new jerseys just to burn them in the streets. If Dallas fans acted like that every time Romo cost them a game, they couldn’t make jerseys fast enough to keep in stock. The only other time we’ve seen outrage like that over a player is when Lebron James left Cleveland for South Beach.  Well, they say everything is bigger in Texas – and that apparently that includes overzealous fandom. After he threw another pick-6 and they lost the following week, there were reports of people driving past his home and taking photos – startling enough that he called NFL security about it. Then, this last weekend, the home crowd erupted into cheers when Matt Schaub went down with a knee injury. It’s never ok to cheer for an athlete getting hurt, this is both their livelihood and our entertainment – to be happy when it happens to someone on your own team is unacceptable, ghoulish behavior.

Sports are no longer fun when taken too seriously or people get hurt. My husband’s college roommates fondly remember and tell stories about a kid who didn’t know how to handle his sports emotion, but luckily the only thing hurt was a broom that time. Now, he’s the one that sometimes has to remind me that it’s only a game and sports won’t love me back no matter how passionate I get about a specific team or game. Win or lose, there is always another season and the life of a fan goes on – sometimes just a little disappointed. That’s all it should be though…the thrill of a victory or agony of a defeat, even though some of the losses are tougher to swallow.

In the last few years there have been several incidents at bars and in parking lots between fans of opposing teams that have ended badly. I’ve been booed when I’m on the turf of an opponent (and especially a rival), but rarely felt anything other than out of place. Unfortunately for some fans though, this is a very dangerous situation and there is much more than a game on the line. Fans have been beaten, murdered, or suffered injuries as serious as comas that they never awoke from as the result of run-ins with an opposing fan base. While we will never know what, if anything, they may have done to instigate the violence, it should never go that far. It’s depressing to think that I may not be able to take my family to games someday (like I did as a kid) because I’ll have to worry about safety. Again, everyone has the right to be a passionate sports fan, but not to jeopardize it for the rest of us.

This is a great time of year to be a sports fan as you can watch College Football, NFL, Playoff Baseball, NHL – and have College Basketball and the NBA just around the corner. So, as another exciting weekend of games is upon us, let’s all remember that it’s for fun and entertainment. Enjoy the weekend!