The Kick About: Dude, Where's My Bandwagon?

My younger brother isn't very good at sports. Another year is nearly complete but the trophy case our mother had so optimistically built for him sits bare.

I flatly let him know after his most recent disappointing season that he no longer has my support. When we travel to watch him participate in whatever sport, I will be cheering for other children. The other kids are winners, and thus worthy of my investment. My own brother, not so much. I couldn't care less what kind of psychological issues this creates for him in his early teen years. He sucks.

Most of the above situation is fictional. I do have a brother who is not brilliant at team sports. But he is on a second degree black belt in karate so one day I will pay severely for this start. However, for me the aforementioned scenario is no different than threatening a sports team by withholding support, be it emotional or financial. This is where supporters and bandwagoners differentiate themselves.

This is difficult to express to the reader on TorontoFC.ca because the lines between supporter and employee are diverging. But I do have supporter credentials.

I've spent most of the 1990s and all of this decade supporting Liverpool Football Club. Yes, that club which hasn't won an English league title in all of the years that I've actively supported it. I even pay a monthly fee to have full access to their website. If the day comes when all of my belongings are being possessed and my credit cards are being revoked, the e-season ticket on the LFC site will be the absolute last thing that I will surrender.

It's much easier to support Manchester United. They always win.

So with that in mind, please consider me a supporter above all else. Like the best football supporters, I too am a cynic who refuses to focus on just positive things. It's too easy to do that. Unless my team wins the maximum points or the trophy, what was so positive about it? I don't have much time for people who wake up each morning wearing rose-coloured glasses, and then aggravate me with their insane blindness to reality. Positive people anger me.

But there aren't enough negatives in the world that could ever cause me to stop supporting my favourite sports teams. So I am baffled when I read on message boards or under the comments section of stories, the one or two fans who threaten to stop supporting.

How do you do that, exactly?

I would in earnest, like to know how this can be done so I too can rid myself of the misery that my favourite teams constantly put me through. As I see it, cutting off support for my team is as unthinkable as cheering for other kids when my own brother is playing.

I am gratified to know that I am not alone in feeling so strongly about this. Perusing through the Toronto FC supporters' message boards, the one thread that represents how I feel best was posted by a Red Patch Boys member named "prizby." His entry is as follows:

"So I was wearing around my TFC jersey today...and I had several people come up to me and say, you shouldn't be wearing that after last nights (sic) embarrassment (or stuff along those lines) ... I told them flat out that no matter what the result, no matter how frustrating it is, and no matter how mad I get at them, I am with, behind, and will always be Toronto FC."

I relate to prizby because after Liverpool had lost to a beach ball in Sunderland and the entire non-Liverpudlian football world was laughing at the club (one news story was literally called "Let's all laugh at Liverpool"), I too was proudly wearing my shirt and scarf. My love for Liverpool is unconditional and a referee not knowing the rules of the game and costing the club a point isn't going to dilute my passion.

To me the prizbies of the world are reliable people and mature supporters. They understand that being a sports fan and a human being is a lifelong grind that isn't about winning or losing so much as the side you are on. It's about your principles.

Compare that to the following comment, which in my mind is quite immature, posted on a story on this site a couple of days ago:

"After losing a must win for the playoffs match 5 - nil to a team playing FOR PRIDE, there has to be a reckoning. I'm a supporter in Buffalo, and as much as I love getting to a few games a year, I'd hate to have to devote all of my football passion back to FC Barcelona. Or worse... Thierry Henry might be going to the Red Bulls... and they're at titularly (sic) a NY team... with a new and potentially glorious stadium for next year... plus I do get MSG... Like I said, a reckoning."

If it came between prizby and the second commenter, I know who I would rather have on my side, be it for sports or anything else in life.

That's not to say there shouldn't be a "reckoning." There is no hiding Toronto's shameful end to the 2009 season. I am certainly not writing to paper over the disaster in East Rutherford. The club was humiliated and changes have already been made and more are on the way.

Supporters should definitely remain vigilant, as they have, and let the club know how they feel in a strong fashion when necessary. The Danny Dichio "Thank You" banner proved there isn't much that TFC supporters aren't capable of. Heavy criticism leveled at the club is part of the contract between the team and its fans when things fall apart in such a spectacular fashion. Criticism is mandatory.

Threatening to pull support on the other hand, is a non-starter for most followers. When things turn sour, they are willing to stay and fight for improvements. That kind of activism is what makes TFC's following unique in the North American landscape, it's not just their singing and chanting on Saturdays.

Bandwagons are not designed for football supporters. Let them fill up with those infuriating individuals that wear LeBron James and Kobe Bryant jerseys to Toronto Raptors basketball games.