This afternoon, I was talking with another employee and he had asked me if I had seen any of the Viking's game before coming to work. With football, I only have one team, the Detroit Lions. Other sports, baseball and hockey, I will watch and follow the Twins and Wild just because this is where we live. I can't stand the NFC North opponents of the Lions. Yes, they might be better from time to time (i.e. most of the time), but you will never see me take time out of my day to watch them. Regardless, I caught the score on the radio on the drive to work and told him what it was about forty five minutes ago. This person was walking past us and spouted 'twenty one to fourteen, we won!' and continued on her way. And I thought to myself, she said 'we'. I try my best not to use the word hate, but I hate when people say that. 'We won the championship two years ago.' or 'We beat the hell out of our rival last night.' Listen, unless you have gotten a paycheck from a sports organization or you are an alumni of a school, you have no right to use the collective term 'we' when referring to a sports team.
I know that the die hard fan will argue until they are blue in the face about this point, but they are wrong. The athletes are the ones making the plays, putting their health on the line from time to time, to entertain the masses. They deserve to use the term 'we'. The owners who put up the cash to put the team together deserve to use the term 'we'. The general managers and presidents who make the trades and draft the players are allowed to use this term. Alumni from colleges or retired players who proudly played for a team for the majority of their career can use 'we' without being chastised by me. But the minute some lazy, beer swigging, sofa surfing, never played the sport but gloats when the team wins and doesn't support them when they are losing, mother fucker starts to use the term 'we' I lose it.
It is the sense of entitlement. I have always supported my teams, but have never claimed to be a part of them. Even when the Lions went 0-16. Even when the Tigers lost 119 games. Even when the Red Wings were the Dead Wings. Even when the Pistons were...well, I never really liked basketball. The fact that the Pistons are still around is pretty amazing. Go them! I have no recollection of ever using the term 'we' when talking about the sports teams I follow. I don't say 'yeah, we went undefeated in '97 and were national champions' when talking about the Wolverines football team.
I appreciate the teams and their efforts and never claim to be a part of that. I'm just part of the fan base. I am one of the reasons these professionals go out and play the game. To be entertained. To spend my hard earned money so they can make their hard earned (even if it is too much) money. I don't know if it is because I never heard the term 'we did...(fill in the blank)' growing up and it wasn't engrained in my brain or if I know that there is a division between the fans and the players. Either way, people need to stop doing this. It drives me up the wall.
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