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How important is your sports team image to you?

echico

echico

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Sometimes you inherit your sports team from your family or hometown. Sometimes you follow your favorite player or like the mascot. We all picked our sports team some way. As sports have become way more national and the coverage has exploded we get investigative peeks into a lot of shady business. There is a lot of money in sports along with a lot of egos. I am sure every team could be found breaking some type of rule. There are large scandals that involve the whole organization and also disgusting human beings all around sports.

I make no apologies for being an Astros fan. Nothing anybody could say will change the way I felt on that November night when Altuve threw the ball to Gurriel for the final out against the Dodgers. After 30+ yrs of being a fan, after Hurricane Harvey, after so many disappointments we finally won. I jumped up and immediately sat back down and let a breathe out as my team was different now. It was great. Did I like hearing about the sign stealing stuff? Hell no, who would. I leaned into it some then I didn't care what anyone said anymore.

So the question is how important is your favorite team's image? Have you dropped a team because of it?

No bashing other teams, just talk about your own. Keep it to things that affect outcomes of games and not any political stuff please.
 
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Not that important. I feel like I love sports but I have become a super casual fan with no real ties. Other than I am a big Yankees fan so I hate the Asstros and Red Socks. But overall I dont really care.
 
Templet0n said:
Not that important. I feel like I love sports but I have become a super casual fan with no real ties. Other than I am a big Yankees fan so I hate the Asstros and Red Socks. But overall I dont really care.
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Yeah, I am really only a true fan of the Astros. I root for a lot of other teams but I don't live and die by them. There are teams I hate for sure but even that is just starting to not be that big of a deal for me. With the gambling and money and ego in sports if you are looking for an "ethical and moral" team it may be pretty difficult.
 
Something like the Astros trash can thing doesn't bother me at all. Baseball teams have been stealing signs since the day the game was invented and if you think otherwise you never played the game. As the saying goes...if you aint cheating you aint trying.

Now other things do bother me. Stuff like the Aaron Hernandez murders, or the Deshawn Watson massage saga, or other nefarious illegal type activities do bother me.
 
I grew up a Redskins fan, now I don’t have a team.
 
Every team has people that hate them because of the past or a rivalry or any reason imaginable. Unless the organization covers up gross ethical misconduct for years at a time (looking at you Blackhawks), I don't think something like sign stealing or deflating footballs and everyone else's thought's on it would cause me to change my mind on the team
 
Well let’s see- I am a fan of:
- Ohio State
- Cleveland Browns
- New York Yankees

Each one of those carries a certain stigma with them and I candidly do not care that much about it.
 
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echico said:
Yeah, I am really only a true fan of the Astros. I root for a lot of other teams but I don't live and die by them. There are teams I hate for sure but even that is just starting to not be that big of a deal for me. With the gambling and money and ego in sports if you are looking for an "ethical and moral" team it may be pretty difficult.
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For sure. When I say I hate the Astros. It dont lose any sleep or argue with Astos fans about it. It is more just any chance I can drive by pop off I will lol.
 
We don’t have private ownership in our most dominant sport - football , AFL .

So we are not at the whim of ownership
Issues also

As for reputation and brand , you always want your team , to be leading and looked upon with respect and admiration.

With so much of sport dominated by younger demographics , issues will arise . Culture and role models , education and guidance helps significantly.

My team ,Collingwood , has just one the Premiership - your equivalent of superbowl . It has reputation of being disliked for all its success and what that brings …

For me, don’t denigrate my team , make your better , it’s far harder to do , be better .
 
I’m a Philly fan.

Also I’d give almost anything for a championship.
 
My team. They've been to the superbowl twice. Had a steroid scandal. A wide receiver try to kill his girlfriend and her unborn child. I'd prefer that they have some class and they do. At least they're not the bad boys of football... but they are currently the worst team in the nfl and haven't been very good for several years.
 
Overall, I have not shifted teams that I cheer for. Being from Houston, I certainly pull for all of the pro teams here. My passion comes and goes since it's not the easiest thing in the world cheering for a basement dweller, but my allegiances have not wavered. In terms of college, I've been an Oklahoma fan since I can remember, so those allegiances also haven't changed.

I will say that my day to day mood is much less impacted by my sports fandom as it was when I was much younger. Back when OU would lose in football, it would ruin my week, and now it's not really a big deal, just a small bummer.

I think that it is inevitable that any team will go through some sort of controversy (some obviously worse than others), so I don't put much stock in the necessary image of the team that I pull for.
 
echico said:
Sometimes you inherit your sports team from your family or hometown. Sometimes you follow your favorite player or like the mascot. We all picked our sports team some way. As sports have become way more national and the coverage has exploded we get investigative peeks into a lot of shady business. There is a lot of money in sports along with a lot of egos. I am sure every team could be found breaking some type of rule. There are large scandals that involve the whole organization and also disgusting human beings all around sports.

I make no apologies for being an Astros fan. Nothing anybody could say will change the way I felt on that November night when Altuve threw the ball to Gurriel for the final out against the Dodgers. After 30+ yrs of being a fan, after Hurrican Harvey, after so many disappointments we finally won. I jumped up and immediately sat back down and let a breathe out as my team was different now. It was great. Did I like hearing about the sign stealing stuff? Hell no, who would. I leaned into it some then I didn't care what anyone said anymore.

So the question is how important your favorite team's image? Have you dropped a team because of it?

No bashing other teams, just talk about your own. Keep it things that affect outcomes of games and not any political stuff please.
Click to expand...
Like you I grew up a lifelong Astros fan, so the success is me cashing in years of ugly baseball and some heartbreaking losses. (Looking at you Brad Lidge) I’ll ride or die with them forever bc I’m Houston through and through.

Rockets have had my love but, for other reasons basketball has taken a backseat for me. Football is a 1B to baseball for me but I can’t latch onto the Texans like I did the Oilers. Once they left, it was Astros and no one else.
 
I’ve been through dark ages and pinnacles as well as everything in between. My team is my team.
 
Yes and no. Being from Buffalo, I obviously like the Bills but I can deal with them not being good. When it comes to the Sabres, it pains me when they suck. I’ve been in pain most of my childhood😂 but things are looking up. In any case, I can’t imagine rooting for any other teams
 
I don't live or die with my sports teams. I want them to win, but it doesn't ruin my day when they lose. Nor does it change my day-to-day life if they're mired in scandal. It would take something really egregious for me to stop rooting for my teams.
 
I mean I have no problem giving disdain for decisions that are made, but most sports teams are bigger than current players and even ownership in most places. There have been things that have happened with teams I cheer for that I don’t love or approve of, but I haven’t dropped a team because of anything yet. I’m not sure what it would take, and it could happen given what it ended up being, but as of now I’d say no I will stick with my teams.
 
I was born in Eastern KY and that means I bleed blue, but I have totally stopped watching UK basketball because I can’t get invested when the whole team is changing every single year.
 
I stick with my teams (Red Sox, Fighting Irish) regardless of anything that happens with those teams not in the course of playing the game. Frankly, that stuff just does not interest or concern me.
 
I was born in MO but moved to Arizona as a kid. I have loved the Suns since I was a kid and want them to have a championship so bad after years of watching them get close. I'd give a lot to see them win it all. Also, I was a St. Louis Cardinals fan until the Dbacks started. I have been watching them for 20 plus years and a big fan of them but at least they got one. The Az Cardinals I root for but not big emotional attachment. After watching their terrible ownership for 20 years not care about winning, it is hard to have a strong connection to them. For so long local sports radio tried to sell us on it being a successful season if the Cards could win 6 games.
 
I’d like them to win and be a well run organization. Unfortunately I live in Chicago so the choices are pretty bad.
 
echico said:
Sometimes you inherit your sports team from your family or hometown. Sometimes you follow your favorite player or like the mascot. We all picked our sports team some way. As sports have become way more national and the coverage has exploded we get investigative peeks into a lot of shady business. There is a lot of money in sports along with a lot of egos. I am sure every team could be found breaking some type of rule. There are large scandals that involve the whole organization and also disgusting human beings all around sports.

I make no apologies for being an Astros fan. Nothing anybody could say will change the way I felt on that November night when Altuve threw the ball to Gurriel for the final out against the Dodgers. After 30+ yrs of being a fan, after Hurricane Harvey, after so many disappointments we finally won. I jumped up and immediately sat back down and let a breathe out as my team was different now. It was great. Did I like hearing about the sign stealing stuff? Hell no, who would. I leaned into it some then I didn't care what anyone said anymore.

So the question is how important is your favorite team's image? Have you dropped a team because of it?

No bashing other teams, just talk about your own. Keep it to things that affect outcomes of games and not any political stuff please.
Click to expand...
I don’t have a sports team.
I make an effort to watch golf, hockey and F1.
I have no rooting interest.
Consciously object to “my team” worship. Like I have a say in what transpires. 🤣
 
My teams have kept a clean nose which is probably part of the reason why they've historically been basement dwellers but I respect that over trading moral integrity, honestly.

That said, I have a hard time seeing that I'd permanently stop rooting for a team if that changed. Who knows 🤷‍♂️
 
I inherited a love of the Boston teams from my father who grew up listening to them on local radio.
I feel fortunate that I was able to witness the Red Sox finally getting the curse off their backs and also winning a couple more after that.
As others have said, there has always been and always will be some form of cheating at the professional level - there's too much at stake not to try and gain an edge.
While I heard something about the Astros after their win I never bothered to look into it, nor did it take anything away from their victory for me.
To me one of the greatest travesties in modern sports is the fact that Charlie Hustle will never be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Nothing he did in cheating affected what he accomplished on the field one iota, yet here we are.
 
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