When sports fans say "We" this and "We" that
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CountAntonius
Member
People like feeling attached to things they are fond of. It's really not that complicated a reason or something to be annoyed by. I wonder how people manage to not walk around mad sometimes with all the petty shit that upsets them.
Non-community sports threads on NeoGAF seem to be becoming a baffling ordeal.
And I click them every fucking time.
Mental note; stop that.
MultiJhonny
Banned
I like how OP made the thread then dipped lol just trying to stir some shit up
it worked
Yeah, this is just a thinly veiled disparaging remark about watching sports.
Have you ever actually seen other people watch sports? When the team succeeds, the fans cheer. When the team fails, the fans cry. When something doesn't go the team's way, the fans scream. People become incredibly emotionally invested in the teams they follow:
Do you sit on the edge of your seat, hoping that they nail that guitar solo and don't fuck it up? Is there tension as you wait and see if the last song goes by without something happening that ruins the entire show? There is zero drama to watching a band play at a concert. You are there because you love and identify with the music.
Humans are weird. I'm over it.
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
Fans, fandom, fanaticism. We're invested emotionally or financially in a multitude of ways.
It's part of sport. Live with it or turn your ire to more erosive parts of it like hooliganism, domestic abuse, degenerative gambling etc.
It's part of sport. Live with it or turn your ire to more erosive parts of it like hooliganism, domestic abuse, degenerative gambling etc.
Pankratous
Member
Yeah, it's really stupid, I hate hearing it too.
shoplifter
Member
- "We" implies it is a team you support and are not merely offering a comment on.
- Teams actively encourage fans to think this way, often introducing and marketing them as "Your ______ ______", and having players emphasize fans importance.
- The teams do in fact exist entirely around their fans collective money.
- Most people who say this are doing so as casual shorthand and do not actually consider themselves a crucial part of the team, or whatever fantasy some seem to have come up with.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with an emotionally invested fan saying "we won", "we got X player", etc. Its part of their lives and often identity. Objectively getting so tied up in a sport may be a little absurd, but so is getting wrapped up in videogames and every other hobby on earth. Its part of what makes them entertaining and in human nature.
The only time I'd shake my head a bit on it is someone hopping on a playoff bandwagon and acting like they've been a lifetime fan, but even then its a petty concern.
- Teams actively encourage fans to think this way, often introducing and marketing them as "Your ______ ______", and having players emphasize fans importance.
- The teams do in fact exist entirely around their fans collective money.
- Most people who say this are doing so as casual shorthand and do not actually consider themselves a crucial part of the team, or whatever fantasy some seem to have come up with.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with an emotionally invested fan saying "we won", "we got X player", etc. Its part of their lives and often identity. Objectively getting so tied up in a sport may be a little absurd, but so is getting wrapped up in videogames and every other hobby on earth. Its part of what makes them entertaining and in human nature.
The only time I'd shake my head a bit on it is someone hopping on a playoff bandwagon and acting like they've been a lifetime fan, but even then its a petty concern.
I'm not a sports fan so I don't call any team 'we' but that is not normal.
It would be bizarre if someone was a huge fan of a team and called their team 'they'. It would sound disconnected. That's not how sports fandom works.
Lol, awkward?
Its one of the most commonly used ways people refer to the teams they support. I imagine the only awkward person in a conversation like this would be you for taking it so literal.
When your favorite developer is working on a new IP do you say, "I hope we make a great game this time."?
No, because it'd be weird.
RaySpencer
Member
Lots of times its just easier.
Us vs Them. We vs They.
Us vs Them. We vs They.
PassiveObserver
Member
Do you get that sporting events are games, meaning competition and winners/losers, thus something to get invested in? It's like saying "we're at war" when your country's at war.
It's awkward and lame. What are you a part of exactly? A revolving door of millionaires that don't give 2 shits about you and will likely sign to your rival team at some point in his career? Please. They're them, I'm me. I watch them for entertainment.
It is your country because it is a democracy, and hence you do in fact have a say by choosing who's at the table. You don't get a vote in a team's decisions. So yeah, very different.
The reason why people say we when it's about a sports team is because of the root of competitive sports being people from different areas would play each other and lots of marketing. No one says we had a good performance when going to the opera.
PassiveObserver
Member
Yeah, pedantically speaking.
AllIsOneIsNone
Banned
Damn, some people really don't get it lol. Say you live in Spain and your economy is bad. You could say "Spain's economy is bad" or "our economy is bad" because it's your country. It's almost like that with a team. If you go or went to University of Georgia, you can say "that's our team" because you belong to University of Georgia. If it's your city, it's the same for pro sports. Is it really that hard to get? Sports teams are directly tied with a place, that's how they have fans.
I might if they were 30 minutes away, were in some kind of developer playoffs and I had spent dozens of hours in their office cheering their developmental at their request.
Obviously they are very different hobbies, how that investment manifests is going to differ. The point was that the vast majority of people get invested in their hobbies in ways that appear silly/absurd to outsiders.
And if all fans took that cynical attitude it would be a very depressing hobby.
bucknuticus
Member
oooooh yeeeeah?!
Don't talk to me, Brandon Mebane, like that.
TheOohChild
Member
I think it is kinda cunty to look down your nose at people for doing this
Judging by your general attitude and the constantly forced sarcasm (not only in this thread). your idea of entertainment might not really fit with others'. But it's your right to pay for it as long as it's not something illegal. If you don't understand something it's not necessarily awkward, it might be just different.
If it was so lame I would think that it wouldn't be so commonly used.
But the millionare players and owners don't really have anything to do with it. Alot of people follow the same teams regardless of staff for a lifetime. People vote all the time in city councils and such to finance multimillion dollar arenas for their team with their tax dollars. These stand for decades regardless of the team's makeup and become landmarks of the area they are raised. You must have an extremely isolationist mind if you really don't understand the basic concept of how people want to represent something bigger than them.
Enjoy your political correctness cool guy.
The fans are one pillar of what makes any team a team. They pay for the tickets, they pay for the merch, they read the news and their support makes q difference for the team on the field. Saying "we" doesn't mean you think you're on the team but it does mean you're a part of what the club means.
Unless you support a team, I don't think you'd understand. It's not just following, or checking out how they got on; at its core is a deep tribal culture. Particularly within football (soccer).
In most cases, the line between where the fans stop and the club begins is blurry. Supporters trusts, fan nominated positions at a relatively high level within the business, not to mention there's a hell of a lot of club's who's identities are born from their fan culture.
From a personal perspective, it's an emotional, financial, physical and psychological commitment....and there's thousands of people who feel the same, and thousands more that don't. The melting pot of fan culture in football creates all sorts of personas and passionate tribes, that there is a genuine sense of belonging involved. I fully expect those that aren't that bothered by sport, or aren't that passionate for their team, to criticize fans saying "we", but for those that ARE in at the deep end, saying "we" is perfectly understandable.
In most cases, the line between where the fans stop and the club begins is blurry. Supporters trusts, fan nominated positions at a relatively high level within the business, not to mention there's a hell of a lot of club's who's identities are born from their fan culture.
From a personal perspective, it's an emotional, financial, physical and psychological commitment....and there's thousands of people who feel the same, and thousands more that don't. The melting pot of fan culture in football creates all sorts of personas and passionate tribes, that there is a genuine sense of belonging involved. I fully expect those that aren't that bothered by sport, or aren't that passionate for their team, to criticize fans saying "we", but for those that ARE in at the deep end, saying "we" is perfectly understandable.
what
FinalStageBoss
Banned
Wtf kinda nerds have a problem with saying "we" lmao.
The fans are more a part of a team's ethos than the players who go in and out of that revolving door.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
Well it begins as our school team, then our university team, and so on I imagine.
Do I need to define something or??
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
The position of paying my taxes to help fund that new billion dollar stadium.
When you live in a country, you are a citizen of that country. You get a vote. That country's success brings you success (i.e. value of currency). That country's failures means potential hard times for you.
You can literally choose any team in the world and become a fan. It doesn't have to be the local team. Even locally, there can be 2 or 3 different teams close by.
It's not the same. #teamthey
Ganzlinger
Member
wtf, I don't get why people bother with this.
Also this. It's easier than say the name of A team and the name of B team all the time during sentences, since they are all "they" from OP's perspective.
Also this. It's easier than say the name of A team and the name of B team all the time during sentences, since they are all "they" from OP's perspective.
I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but there is the point that sometimes, residents of the city the sport team is in are paying taxes that directly go to funding the stadium co-owned by both the team and the city. At that point, there's definitely a feeling of ownership and being part of the overall organization by the fans.
lastflowers
Banned
people enjoy being pedantic. Always seemed like a really silly complaint.
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