Would you still be a fan if...
You knew Michigan was never going to win a title in your lifetime? I have a few friends here in the DC area who are Cubs fans, and I am admittedly a fair-weather Pistons fan, and much more of a Red Wings fan than a hockey fan. I don't know that I've ever watched a hockey game the Wings weren't playing in. I stop watching once their championship hopes are dashed.
Every year there is a hope that your team will win, and if not this year, you hope they build for the future. But if you knew, right now that Michigan (God forbid) or any team that you root for would not win a title before you died...would it affect your fanhood? Would you care a little less?
Well it would take a lot of drama out of the games and make them less stressful, but my connection to the university goes beyond the football team and there are other accomplishments so yeah I'd still be a fan.
What would be the point? That's what keeps us watching right? To see the team reach the mountain top? If I knew there was no chance of feeling the cathartic euphoria of winning the big one, yeah idk, it would definitely make it less exciting and enjoyable. I mean I would be a fan, but even if they started 8-0 or something I couldn't really get excited, I know some losses are coming.
If your kids play on a team that has no shot at a championship, does that mean you'd say, "What's the point?" Really?
Every game of every season after UM has been eliminated from NC hopes says my fandom would still be rabid. Hoke & RR years were still rabid. Always. Hail.
Even though I have hope. It's the camaraderie shared with my Dad at games. The people we tend to tailgate next to. Passing my love of Michigan down to my young son is special. Also, the new friends we make.
Yes.
Source: Am a Lions fan
This is the correct answer.
Ditto
This right here.
Anyone who is a lifelong Lions fan can certainly handle this emotionally. Trust me, for I am also a Lions fan and I still find myself at Ford Field in the fall on occasion.
were never spoken.
I'll never NOT be a fan.
I was born and raised in Ann Arbor, both my parents are Michigan grads. Hell, the way my dad talked about Bo growing up I damn-near thought he was my grandfather... It'd take a PSU-Paterno level scandal for me to stop being a fan.
situation, I wouldn't stop being a fan for anything. All the money in the world couldn't buy me the feeling I get during a Michigan game.
I'm not a huge basketball fan so for Pistons I wouldn't watch much more if there was no chance they could ever win a title. But for football (both Lions and Michigan) I'll watch every game regardless of records or championship dreams.
That it would not affect their fandom, is lying.
If you knew your team would never win, there's zero purpose to watching.
Waking up Saturday morning knowing that my team was already out of it, I'm going to do more productive things.
You have no business speaking for me or anybody else you don't know. I've been a fan since before I really much cared whether they won or lost. While I now very much enjoy seeing Michigan win, it has zero to do with my fandom.
With your comment and the initial thread.
Unknown vs the known. Fandom or not, there's always a chance to win the championship going into the season, whether or not the team is projected to be 1st or 300th.
This question takes all of that out of the equation.
You said you wouldn't watch a game knowing your team was already out of it. Sadly, that comes up most every year at some point. I don't stop watching.
Of course the hypothetical was literally impossible. But elements of reality fit it fairly well. While I am always hoping Michigan wins a championship, (while that's still possible), it's never the reason I watch or root for them.
You're quite welcome to feel differently, but wrong to think everyone is like you.
They know they will never win a championship but every home game, winning record or not, they pack the stands and have the times of their lives. Many many ECU fans tailgate and scream for their team every bit as much as we do for ours. They know the likelyhood of winning any kind of championship is less than winning the lottery twice while being struck by lightning. They still show up and are as passionate as anyone else
ECU.
But they are in the minority. The majority of teams outside of the P5 that are out of the major conferences have piss poor attendance when the season is out of reach. Go to ANY MAC stadium (CMU fan, I've been to some of them), and you can pretty much walk wherever you want and sit.
Yet football teams like Kansas, Rutgers and Vanderbilt still have thousands of fans show up every Saturday.
(See Detroit Lions mentions for further proof).
sure, Kansas and Vanderbilt may have thousands of fans, but it's unfair to Rutgers to suggest they have more than hundreds.
Patently false statement. It may be true for you, it may be true for many people.
It is 100% bullshit that it's true for everyone.
It depends. I honestly don't really care for pro sports. I keep up with the standings and headlines from time to time but I won't really watch games until the playoffs. I will watch NFL now and then because there's not much else on TV on Sundays during the season.
For Michigan though, it's totally different. Being an alum, my affinity for the Wolverines is an extension of my love for my University, and so I get far more invested and even watch other college games too, to see how it would affect Michigan's standing. Even if Michigan went had a losing record every year for the next decade I have no doubt that I would still watch every game. Hell even now I turn on BTN for the off chance that they're broadcasting an M tennis or volleyball game or something.
How is this even a relevant question for us?
Jim Harbaugh is our coach.
Yes, Michigan helped to create and shape my family so it's much more important than Ws and Ls
If I knew Michigan would never win because I was a time traveller who attempted to revise history/deliver a national title and instead ended the world, then no I would no longer root for Michigan.
Other than that, I'm in
that says it all i beleive..
Thoughts and prayers...
1. Uncertain futures and hope are a part of sports.
2. I'm stuck with it now. I'd be rooting for them to finish a close second. It's all I'd have.
Michigan is my school, and just like I remain a Detroiter (even though I last lived there in 1966), who roots for all of Detroit's teams (the Lions have made it hard), I would always want Michigan to win and take pride in the quality of the effort regardless of the result. Although winning is more gratifying, it is also gratifying to watch a team play that is continuing to compete until the clock reads 00:00.
answer = yes, always and forever.
I can't undo being from Michigan. So yes.
I drink the koolaid, eat the cornbread and bathe in butter every year. And I know deep in my soul they are never going to win a Super Bowl in my lifetime.
All of the above applies to Michigan, minus the certainty of winning a championship.
If I could predict the future I'd be rich and wouldn't give a shit.
I watch the tigers every night and was alive in 1997. Yes
I mean Michigan State knows they will never win a championship and they still have fans.
You win.
Not really though.
My connections to UMich and Ann Arbor are too numerous for me not to be a fan.
Absolutely. The journey, each game, each play makes it rewarding to be a fan. The rise to the top is much more fun than being on top.
when I was 9 and old enough to make a conscious choice of my own. So after this year my answer will always be unequivocally - Hell yeah I'm a fan til death!!!
It's not the accumulation of titles that matters. It's being a part of the collective fandom with all its ups & downs.
Also a Lions fan but half-heartedly since I couldn't double up what with the Cubs masochism.
you already dont know if they will ever win in your lifetime, isnt that what makes it exciting?
I'm happier if they win, of course, but I'll never forsake them if they struggle. Can't, it's in my blood.
But it's getting outright annoying hearing the OSU and MSU fans (OSU in particular because all their recent national titles are validated poll titles) use the "one half national title in 70 years" rhetoric against us with impunity. One of these days a blueblood program such as us can't just settle for consistency and stability and we have to breakthrough. And what better way to honor the 20th anniversary The Champions then to give them company on that lonely pedestal in the era of colored TV
think of all the other schools you could have been a fan of. schools with no chance of hell of ever winning anything. all i know is the first game i ever remember watching was the 1965 rosebowl, michigan vs oregon state. i have been hooked every since.
Many of us have gone through RR and BH and yet still fans should answer your question.
Only on MGoBlog.
Michigan fan from here until I die.
Or until I get tired of football and leave the college football fandom.
I would still be a fan IF(a very big IF and never happening) Mork Dorito, Urbz, or Satan were to be the next coach...God forbib.
Some things will never be bigger than MICHIGAN!!!
GO BLUE FOREVER!!!!!
Michigan is in my DNA. I've loved Michigan Football my entire life and that's not changing under any circumstances.