Puck
Originally Written: January 15, 1999
Posted: January 18, 1999

Puck Takes On Bandwagon Fans

There are two types of people. Those that are fans and those that are not. There is a problem when the later turns into the first.

New fans have to start somewhere. Most of which will not become an instant die-hard fan overnight. Some people chose to be faithful to teams based on a number of different reasons like location, colors, and reputation to name a few. It is hard to start off being a fan of a horrible team, so a lot of fans will hold in their raves until they start winning. This of course is when the problems begin.

Remember back to the beginning? Yes, the problem begins with the old fans. Lets not group all of the fans of one particular team in the same group, because some fans can remember what it was like choosing the team they like. But it is the fans that feel they are the only fans and the only way to be a "real" fan is to know every single detail about the team, its history, and what they eat for breakfast every morning before practice.

Of course, the reason these die-hard fans are like this is to weed out the ever annoying Bandwagon fan. A bandwagon fan are those people who follow whomever the hot ticket is in the sport. For example a bandwagon Viking fan has for the past 2-3 years worn Green Bay Packer merchandise, before that, most likely Dallas Cowboys attire. This lack of loyalty to one team angers the loyal fans of the current bandwagon favorite because the new "fan" just wants to be associated with the winner and are considered skum of the earth to any real fan.

To weed out these annoying pieces of garbage, so they can tell them to get lost is by creating outragous quizes designed so that only people who are loyal fans would know the answers. The problem is that these quizes generally compose of questions like: "What was the name of the guy that blocked a pass on 4th and 1 in 1972 to send our team to our first playoff win?" First in order to answer that question you have to be at least 30 years old AND be interested in the sport to even have a SHOT at answering that type of question. Even IF you were a fan of the team back at that time, it was over 25 years and 30 playoff games later, who would remember that? Most people can't even remember what their dog's name was in 1972 let alone some guy that blocked a pass in a football game.

The way these old fans act toward new fans that happen to come out at the wrong time (when the team is winning) generally make the new fans reluctant to be outspoken about their loyalty for two of the most common reasons: for one, no one wants to be labeled negatively by a fellow fan and two they feel ashamed for not finding out about the team and sport earlier.

This is some advice coming from a 4-year old Viking fan about these bandwagoners jumping on our wagon.

Wait.