State of Florida Sports: The Bandwagon Lives Here

The second part of my examination of the Florida sports scene addresses the dreaded "Bandwagon."

The fact that Florida as a whole functions as a "sports town" means that our state is more susceptible than most to the sports Bandwagon.  For those of you unfamiliar to that term, the Bandwagon can be defined one of three ways:

1. The showering of positive predictions on a franchise by a large group of sports "experts" - usually a team that has had a checkered past and is aimed at a "breakout season."  EX: This year's Portland Trailblazers in the NBA.  [A Corollary to this is a large group of experts predicting doom for a team - like this year's Spurs.]
2. A large number of fans suddenly supporting a team that is doing well.  Often this involves a team with a "good story."  EX: This year's Tampa Bay Rays
3. A large number of fans suddenly claiming "I've always liked this team" when that team starts doing well - even though they never indicated that before.  EX: The millions of Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots fans that crawled out of the woodwork in recent years as those teams did well.  The same thing happened last year with the Celtics.

The reason that Florida is more vulnerable to this problem is that it seems that everyone here is really from somewhere else.  This makes them likely to jump on the Bandwagon with both definitions 2 and 3.  Here is how it all works.

Johnny moved from Connecticut to Lakeland when he was eight years old.  Before they moved, the family cheered for the typical New England Combo Platter - Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox, Bruins.  Since they moved to Florida, they followed those teams, but they were never diehard fans.  They lived in Lakeland, so they actually had more pull towards the Detroit Tigers, since they had a minor league team there.  Every Sunday they were predestined by the NFL to watch the Bucs.  And the local papers eventually started more coverage of the Magic and Rays and Lightning.  So, by geography, they became more familiar with and invested in the local teams.  And it helps that for the first portion of their lives after the move, the Boston teams were lousy.

So, like most Central Florida residents, they got behind the Bucs in 2002 when they won the Super Bowl.  And they pulled for the Magic when they got in the playoffs.  But, they also had the pull to the Boston teams once they started doing well and getting national coverage.  So Johnny buys a Patriots jersey, a Red Sox cap, a Celtics shirt.  And he claims he "always cheered for those teams."  No one around him growing up knew that.  But now, he is more vocal - partly because they won.  And he also is happy when his Florida teams win.  

So, Johnny has become a Bandwagoner.  Even though he has legitimate reasons, he jumped at both groups of teams with their success.  If you check his closet, he has a Bucs jersey and shirt ("In case I go to a game").  During the course of a year he watches 30 Magic games and 10 Celtics games.  He actually has taken his Bandwagon ways and expanded them into what Bill Simmons labels "Sports Bigamy."  He truly has two teams in each sport - the local and the "real team."  This is a natural pull - especially in today's media heavy sports world.  It is hard to not care about the local team when that is what you are saturated with.  It is easier to get coverage of your team from back home, but the local stuff is everywhere.  

So, for one of many reasons, most Florida residents pull off this Bandwagon jumping and Sports Bigamy with every sport.  It could be that they went to a different college than the one they cheered for growing up.  That happened with me when I went to UCF after being a UGA fan.  UCF is clearly my college team, but we're usually out of play long before UGA is (something I'll address in my next post).  It could be that a spouse liked a team different than them.  They may move within Florida.  Moving from South Florida to Orlando will test those Dolphin allegiances - since they teams shown here are the Bucs and Jaguars.

What is the big deal?  There isn't really any big deal.  To people who spend way too much time worrying about sports and how other people deal with sports, both the Bandwagon and Sports Bigamy are very offensive.  These are the people who want you to "pick a team and stick with it."  If your team moves or shuts down or becomes offensive, you should cheer for no one rather than pick a different team.  And most of these people are from New England - where they have nothing to do for months except think about things like this.  I think a lot of it comes from being Red Sox fans, and staying true for 86 years, and then watching a bunch of people jump on the Bandwagon right at the end.  They wanted to separate themselves (the "real" fans) from the newcomers (the "bandwagoners").  This is why Florida is so offensive to those people.  The whole state is a bandwagon.  Our newer teams and recent success and tons of implants from other areas invite you to cheer for two (or more) teams.  

So, next time someone accuses you of jumping on the Bandwagon when you haul out your brand new Arizona Cardinals jersey or Atlanta Falcons hat, don't try to defend yourself.  Don't tell them about how you have always really loved the Cardinals, since they were in St. Louis.  Don't give some story about your family history in Atlanta.  Just say, "That's right!  I'm on the Bandwagon.  It's a Florida thing - you wouldn't understand.  Until you move here when you get old and drive slow in the left lane."

I Guess Cheaters Do Win

It's been hard to keep up with the blog lately.  Lots has been going on round our parts of the woods.  Heather had her MCAT and got her scores (30! - ROCK ON).  She's been filling out Med School Applications.  I've started writing a new curriculum series for Defender Ministries.  And the kids' school year is over this week.  In addition, we had Gabe's Dedication last week.  So, things have been busy.  

I tried to at least add some content last week with the Summer Movie Calendar and Reviews on the right side.  Hopefully you picked up on that and are enjoying them for all they are worth - about $1.37 with inflation.  I've wanted to do several posts, but just haven't been able to motivate myself.  It is the typical "no one cares about this post anyway" cycle I think all bloggers ultimately find themselves in.  It hasn't helped that I have tried to apply to a couple of writing gigs and got turned down for being "too blog-like" in style.  Kind of comes across as an insult.  

Anyway, I decided to post something today because I read a great article by Gregg Easterbrook on ESPN today about the New England Patriots.  Here's the link if you want to read it too.  He argues that the only way the whole issue about their cheating will go away is if Coach Bellichick is suspended.  He argues for a lifetime ban, but figures a year would do it.  I have waffled on this issue for months.  Part of me wanted to see New England go undefeated last year, just so the Dolphins of 1972 would have to get real jobs and stop milking that 17-0 forever.  Instead, they just missed.  And the whole "Spygate" thing broke, which made it really hard for a casual fan of the team to support them.

It was one of those situations where I got caught up in the streak and started to want to see something really special happen.  But, as I've thought about it, I realize that I was wrong.  Now, I know that it isn't a really big deal who I root for in the NFL.  But on another level, that's not right.  Easterbrook argues that this issue isn't as big of a deal as baseball's steroids - another issue I've been guilty of largely ignoring.  I would disagree with him.  I think both of these issues are of equal importance.  I have a six year old boy, and a seven-and-a-half month old boy.  Both of them are some day going to want to know more about sports.  And what are they going to learn by hearing about these issues?  They are going to learn that it is okay to cut corners, cheat, bend the rules.  They are going to learn that you don't have to do things right as long as you win.  The most creative cheater wins.

Last week, I heard two different radio hosts talking about cheating.  One was Colin Cowherd; one was Mike Greenberg.  Both of them argued that they didn't care that a type of cheating was going on.  I was shocked.  Cowherd's opinion didn't surprise me, because he's borderline anarchic with his approach to life.  He thinks rules and guidelines and establishments are there to be mocked - as evidenced by the train wreck of his personal life.  So his argument that baseball has been destroyed because they GOT RID OF STEROIDS is kind of useless.  But Greenberg, if anything, is a sanctimonious snoot.  And he was arguing that he didn't think that corporations and agents paying high school basketball players were a "victimless crime" and "no big deal."  (His co-host Mike Golic could not have agreed less as a former athlete.)

Cheating is cheating.  Breaking the rules is wrong.  It is no wonder the corporate execs at Enron and such felt they could lie and steal.  Why are we shocked when the government flat out lies to us about things?  It is what most people want.  They just want problems to go away.  The NFL just wants this issue to stop.  The commissioner has basically said he isn't doing anything else.  And so the cheaters prosper and the few who do right get run over.  And my kids get to see this played out every day in every industry.  

This doesn't disappear in the church world.  I know of a church where there was overwhelming evidence that the pastor lied, deceived, manipulated, bullied, and worse to get his interests met - with severe damage to the church and its staff.  As this information came out, and was corroborated time and again, the people who could do anything repeatedly just wanted it all to "go away."  To date, nearly twelve months later, they have done virtually nothing to stop the wrongdoing.  This is how most people live their lives.  Maybe the committees at the church don't want to do anything because they do the same things in their own businesses.  I know for a fact that is true about some of those leaders because I witnessed it.  It is a pathetic commentary on our world that this kind of "corner cutting" gets a blind eye turned to it.

I have made my decision, though. I am going to approach this differently from now on.  I am going to explain to my boys that the New England Patriots are run by a cheater - who has lied and lied and lied over the years.  And that the team is guilty because they have done nothing to stop it - and let him run things how he sees fit.  I am going to actively root against them at every game that I can.  I am also going to explain to my boys that a bunch of baseball players are cheaters who jam needles into their bodies to get around rules.  And I am going to root against those players as well.  And that probably means that whatever interest I had in baseball will die.  I have been a Yankees fan since a small child.  But that team is another one that condones cheating - how many players were named in the Mitchell Report from the Yankees?  TWENTY!  And the main source for much info was a Yankees staff member.  So I will rescind my allegiance to the Yankees due to their cheating.  I won't replace them.  

What I find very disturbing is that writers like Bill Simmons (who more and more just irritates me with his disgusting views on life) and Peter King continually slam the Yankees for their cheating, but defend the Patriots with theirs.  Oh wait, they are Boston fans and Patriot fans.  Maybe that explains it.  I think that if you are going to run your mouth about integrity of the game, as a fan you have to back it up.  So I will.  My boys need to see me do that.  I can't back a team like that because it makes my words empty.  I want my boys to know that integrity does mean  something.  And I want them to see me act that out.  I know in the grand scheme of things it won't matter one bit that I no longer root for the Yankees.  But it will matter to my family.  I won't let athletes and coaches undermine the lessons I am trying to teach my kids.  They are too important.