Lions fans have their own “century of heartbreak.” They’re not alone. “Yet Cubs fans kept flocking to Wrigley Field for literally a century of heartbreak.” “If somebody ordered a pizza from a delivery service six times and it came late, it was the wrong pizza and it was cold three out of six times, you’re not going to keep going back to that delivery service,” Wann said. Instead, we’re flirting with the idea that we’re going to be miserable in three hours, and we voluntarily signed up for that possibility. If we all knew we’d be happy after every game, we’d be on a gravy train with biscuit wheels, am I right? But that’s not the case. Sadness is the more interesting thing here. Right off the bat, we need to talk about how weird sports fandom is in the sense that every time we watch a game, we’re guaranteed a happy or sad outcome. It’s a topic that Lions fans are quite familiar with, and they may not even realize it. “The more you suck, the better next year has the potential to be” We’re creatures of needs and while we often look at sports as something that’s strictly entertainment, it’s really something that’s helping us psychologically cope with life and fulfill our needs. Every fall you know football is going to start up and every spring you’re talking about draft picks and it’s a way that provides some sense of routine and structure.” We set our days, our weeks and maybe our months and our calendars by games and seasons. Now all Lions fans can go back to setting their lives by Sunday afternoon. “Gosh, what provides more structure than following sports team?” Wann said. Those habits become part of our lives in order to build structure and predictability. We build a morning routine, have to be at class at a certain time, and parents set ourselves a bedtime. From the very beginning of our lives we’re taught about the importance of structure. Perhaps the most surprising need that Wann brought up though was the need for structure. “It gives them a sense of purpose and a sense of fulfillment. “If you talk to Lions fans and try to unpack what it means to them to be Lions fans, they’re going to start talking about how it gives them a reason to wake up in the morning,” Wann said. This feeds that part of our psyche that wants to be an individual.
When you choose your team and stand by it, you’re being part of a group that likes sports, but you get set yourself apart by being a fan of your team. While we all want to feel like we belong to something, some of us want to feel like we can set ourselves apart from others. It allows to feel the sense of belonging.” “If you’re a Lions fan and it’s a non-COVID year, you go to the stadium, it’s pretty easy to feel like you fit in. It’s seems very basic, right? Why do we do almost anything? Because we have very real psychological needs and wants, and sports can fill in the need to belong. Wann is a professor of psychology at Murray State University, and he’s spent years researching sports fandom and its impact on humans. Wann to help me understand why we do the crazy things we do as fans. This is something about our species that I just needed to understand. These are the things that go through our brains all the time. What is it about fanaticism that makes people cram tightly into stadiums in, let’s be honest, uncomfortable fashion? What makes us spend our money on jerseys with someone else’s name on them and apparel with logos of our team? What makes us dedicate our entire week to just getting to gameday? Why is it that the result of that game controls the way we feel hours, days and sometimes weeks? I also don’t want to just ask Detroit Lions fans. I mean as that question to be interpreted on a much deeper level. You’re not Toby Flenderson, and you don’t annoy me. Why are you the way you are? I don’t mean that in a Michael Scott way.
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