The Ten Commandments of Sports (Annotated)

I. Honor Thy Home Team…Thou Shalt Not Have Any Teams Before Them.
If you grew up in New York and want to be a Yankees fan, fine. If you grew up in Virginia but now live in New York and want to be a Yankees fan, fine. If your parents were Yankees fans and you want to be a Yankees fan, fine If you grew up in Atlanta, moved to Boston, and your parents hated baseball, and you STILL want to be a Yankees fan, you’re a disgrace to the name of fan and deserve to watch “your team” struggle long enough so that you move on to the next bandwagon. (Those without hometown teams are on their own on this one, though try and pick something relatively geographically appropriate.)

II. Thou Shalt Remain a Fan Regardless of Team’s Performance
Don’t go halfway with fandom. Be a fan when your team wins a championship, sure…but also be there when they’re horrible. It’s so rewarding to see the team you follow built from the ground up.

III. Thou Shalt Not Make Thy Fellow Fans Look Bad
People get caught up in crowds sometimes…that’s unavoidable. There’s a difference, though, between heckling the opposing team and…say…setting off a flare gun in the middle of a football game or jumping one of the coaches at a baseball game. Basically, don’t be THAT GUY (or girl).

IV. Thou Shalt Come to the Game Early
Due to limits on time, money and energy, it’s not always easy to go to a game. If the circumstances are right (someone offers you a ticket, you have the extra cash and time to spend, etc), go. Live games are ALWAYS better than televised ones, and I will not listen to any arguments to the contrary. Because of this, get there early. There’s almost always stuff before the game, you’ll want to find your seats (or visit your friends if you have season tickets), and between the sights and the concession stands there’s plenty to do to kill time. Tailgating also is a good way to spend time before the game.

V. Thou Shalt Not Leave a Close Game Early
If your team is losing by a lot, fine. That’s not fun, you’re probably not missing much, and you’d probably be turning the game off at home anyway. If it is even remotely conceivable that your team can come from behind (or if your team is holding onto the lead), then it is your duty as a fan to stay and see the game through. If you don’t…well, there are lots of people who want your tickets. Give them to someone who will actually use them. (As the last two imply, I hate LA fans).

VI. Thou Shalt Be Loud
Look…as nice as it is to watch a game (especially live), if you’re not going to make noise, do yourself a favor and stay at home. The best games are the ones where the fans are giving a boost to the home team (and making life a living hell for the opposing team). Let your team know you’re there. If you won’t, an empty seat would be better.

VII. Thou Shalt Not Listen to Sports Analysts
There are maybe five people on ESPN, Fox Sports, or whatever that actually provide genuine insight into the way a particular sport works. The rest do nothing more than make instant judgments based upon the conceptions that the fans already have. “Philly fans are bad,” “New York and Boston are the only baseball teams worth paying attention to,” “There’s an East coast bias,” and others have been spouted off so many times that most don’t even know the real facts. If you want to know something, talk to fans. They’re the ones who really know what’s going on.

VIII. Thou Shalt Boo When Appropriate or Necessary
It doesn’t sound like a commandment, but it’s something that needs to be addressed. Booing is as much a part of being a fan as cheering. Ultimately, you make your team a success or a failure. If you voice your displeasure, management will listen. Of course, if not spending money on them is more your speed, more power to you. Personally, I wouldn’t punish myself for the sins of my team. Either way, you’re going to make an impact and the team will respond (unless you’re an Arizona Cardinals fan…then you’re screwed).

IX. Thou Shalt Observe Proper Conduct as a Visiting Fan
When you’re at your home stadium, you have a certain amount of leeway. There’s a certain brotherhood among fans of the same team that allows for certain acts that, while questionable, are acceptable within the home environment. However, that leeway doesn’t give you license to go into an opposing stadium and do those same things. If you go, support your team, and ignore the drunken idiot fans who are trying to start something, you can go into Philly or Oakland or New York and be okay. As stated before, every team has a set of THOSE fans…just don’t be one yourself. If you ignore this, you’ll quickly turn even the rational home fans against you. There are, generally speaking, a LOT more of them than there are of you. Many, many problems would be avoided if visiting fans simply acted respectful of their environment.

X. Thou Shalt Have Thick Skin
Look…sports is supposed to be fun. A little friendly, spirited debate or trash talk is part of (or adds to) the experience of being a sports fan. Just know that they are people too. Most other violent incidents can be avoided if people just learned to have fun with being a fan. It’s not much of a release without it.