#sports fans

[newyorkthegoldenage]

A fan at Yankee Stadium during the 1951 World Series. Obviously a Dodger fan, but giving a Bronx cheer anyway!

Photo: Ed Clarity for the NY Daily News via Getty Images/Fine Art America

[mikafever]

im so grateful for the isolated experience of being a sports fan on tumblr <3 … i look at youtube comments and wanna start throwing fists... and we’re not even a losing team..

[janesurlife]

Lol that's so true. They think it's a burn cause 99 percent of Charles fans are his fans cause he's a number one driver at ferrari so they think everyone is like that. They don't know that as a Fernando fan who has seen El Padre go from a bad team to an even worse one, my love and support isn't conditional. I'll support Carlos no matter where he goes just as I have supported Nando cause I believe that Sports are much more fun when you let your favourite ruin your mental health 😜

[bethanythebogwitch]

Australian Pokemon

Another set of Fakemon from my Goorda region based on a mix of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Previous posts in this series: misc 3, single stages, non-natives, regional standards, creepy lines, regional variants, birds, early-game standards, misc 2, misc 1, starter variants, starters.

Drolladrong, the Lungfish Pokemon, Ground or Water-type. Drolladrong live simple lives burrowing through dried-up billabongs and seasonal streams. They are considered by most to be a dull and forgettable Pokemon. However, when the rainy season comes, Drolladrong metamorphoses into a majestic form and swims freely through the water to attract mates and lay eggs before the dry season returns.

Drolladrong is normally in Dry Form, a slow, defensive ground-type. If rain starts, it will shift into Wet Form, a speedy glass cannon. It has a unique ability called Seasonal Rains that causes this. Drolladrong is based on lungfish, which are famous for their ability to survive on land during dry seasons due to having lungs. The name comes from "drought" and "billabong" (seasonal wetlands).

Yowookee, the Hooligan Pokemon, normal-type. Yowookie are too small to participate in the rough games played by their evolutions, so they stand on the sidelines and cheer and holler to encourage their team. They paint their faces and leaves with berry juice to further show their support. Yowookee from opposing teams sometimes get into fights and they will throw wild parties if their team wins and riots if their team loses.

Yowookee evolves to Champowie, the Athlete Pokemon, normal-type. Champowie live in groups that act like sports teams. Different team play games against each other with the goal of getting a ball (made of giant seedpods) through the other team's side. These games are very rough, involving tackling and wrestling. To protect themselves, fur on the arms, legs, and chest has developed into thick padding. The best player of a team is the leader. As the ball is used, it sheds seeds, helping spread the parent plant population.

Yowookie and Champowie are based on sports fans and athletes. Yowookee is based on overenthusiastic fans like the football hooligans from the UK, with the decorated leaves being like flags and banners. In a game, members of this line from different routes would have different paint colors to represent the different teams. Champowie are the athletes and I based the game they play on rugby, which is popular in Australia. The padded fur is based on protective pads worn in sports like rugby and American football. They are also based on the yowie, a creature of Australian folklore said to look like an ape man. Basically, Australia's Bigfoot. The names come from "yowie", "rookie", and "champion".

Sepiliar, the Familiar Pokemon, psychic/poison-type. These rare Pokemon live deep in the forest and move through levitation. Each one carries a stick that it uses as a focus for its psychic powers. They are sent out to collect ingredients from throughout the forest and bring them back to their master. People in the past belived them to be spirits of the forest.

Sepiliar evolves to Sorsuttle, the Forest Witch Pokemon, psychic/poison-type. Sorsuttle lives in the deepest part of the forest and heads a coven of Sepiliar that are sent out to gather ingredients. It hollows out a boulder and uses it as a cauldron to brew potions. These potions are stored in hollow, dried fruits. Legends say that people who protect the forests may be gifted with potions from a Sorsuttle, while those who harm the forest will be attacked with poisons.

Sepiliar and Sorsuttle are based on witches, familiars, and the flamboyant cuttlefish, the only venomous cuttlefish. Naturally, they live in Australia. The reason they live in forests instead of the ocean is I had a dream involving flying cuttlefish in a forest. Yeah. Sorsuttle brews up potions like witches do and its reclusive nature as role as a protector of the forest drawn from various stories of witches and pagans. The blue rings on both stages are a reference to the blue-ringed octopus, another venomous cephalopod that lives in Australia (Because where else would it be?). Their names come from "Sepiida" (the taxonomic clade of cuttlefish), "familiar" (an animal-like servant of a witch), "sorcery", and "cuttlefish".

[krakenshaped]

MATSUKAZE TENMAAAAAAAA!!!!

[katawpr]

🇦🇷 ⛹️‍♂️🗺️ awesome 👏 ⚽️ 🏆✔️

[f1tfballetc]

Wishing a very happy birthday to Marco Reus (football player, Borussia Dortmund)! Your selflessness and your dedication to teamwork are truly invaluable. 🎉🎂🥳

May your special day be filled with love and surrounded by the people who appreciate and respect you. Keep putting the team before yourself, and you will continue to achieve success both individually and as a team.

[awesomecooperlove]

🏟️🏈🎪

[confessionconsensus]

I confess in college I used to regularly pretend to be super into football to get laid in sport bars. (I'm a guy)

[opiatemasses]

Football fandom: Are the minority ruining it for the majority?

What is it that distinguishes ‘supporters/fans’ with ‘spectators?’ I would argue the difference will help you grasp the notion of fandom and how some people reach their levels of devotion and intense interest towards their chosen sports team. I would define a spectator as a person who can observe sport but feel no direct emotion during or after the event, it will not leave a lasting memory. In comparison, supporters and fans who will personally live every moment while watching a game and have an intense emotional devotion towards their chosen team. Moreover, fandom offers people an escape from the ‘real world’ and allows them to invest their time and energy into something they have a strong passion and love for.

Is the outcome of a football game a life-or-death situation? The obvious answer to this question is no but to many football fans up and down the country and across the world they may not give such a straight answer.

Social media

The morals of fandom is something that has been questioned by many, with various events happening within football to spark these conversations. Examples of this include fans confronting players from their ‘beloved’ team either in real life or via social media, which has been both positive and negative for the connection between fan and athlete. I have found examples of both ends of the spectrum on the influence of social media on the modern-day fan to player interaction:

Positive: Marcus Rashford in Lockdown creating a strong movement via social media in funding children with meals.

Negative: The three players who missed penalties in the EURO 2021 final receiving racist abuse on social media.

‘The fan experience doesn’t stop at the turnstile, it now continues after the match on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.’ (Toney, 2013)

Devotion

Health

A football fans' devotion towards their team is reflected in the levels they go to show their support. Forms of devotion can be shown in many different ways and can cause physiological and psychological issues.

‘Fans who are strongly fused with their team - that is, have a strong sense of being 'one' with their team - experience the greatest physiological stress response when watching a match,’ said Dr Martha Newson, researcher at the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, at Oxford.

Dr Martha Newson at Oxford underwent a study by taking the saliva from football fans and found heightened levels of cortisol which increases blood pressure and damages weakened hearts. Cortisol also has increased psychological issues such as it gives people a feeling of impending doom, that their life is in danger, or they are under attack.

Economic

The amount a fan is willing to spend also shows the levels of devotion they possess. In the Premier League the average match going football fan will be spend 13% of their annual salary per season on tickets, merchandise and food and drink on a match day. This statistic doesn’t take into consideration the added TV subscriptions and streaming services to watch football in order to show their ongoing support.

‘With fans now running the risk of being priced out of football, we’re glad to uncover the true cost that fans are now expected to pay.’ Layla Johnson, Regional Manager at Creditfix.

The European Super League

When this situation arose in April 2021, 12 of Europe’s biggest teams proposed to form their own league, leaving the rest of the world of football behind. This caused a huge rift across fanbases with 79% of all fans strongly opposing the idea, 89% believe it’s for financial gain and not in the fans' interests.

Fans began turning on their own teams and questioning their devotion all together resulting in marches outside stadiums and boycotting games as well as asking for their teams to be heavily fined and have points deducted. This shows the extremes of this situation with devoted fans turning against their beloved clubs due to their insensitive actions.

Violence and crime

The role of being a fan can be taken to extremes, with their love and devotion being taken too far resulting in violence and crimes being committed.

For example, this season both West Ham United and Aston Villa had fans banned from European fixtures due to a small group of people causing issues in foreign cities. These leaves a large majority of fans missing out on potentially a once in lifetime opportunity of watching their team play in European competition and also labelling all supporters as ‘hooligans’ even though it’s the minority rather than the majority.

In 2022, Nottingham Forest drew Leicester City at home in the FA Cup - considered to many as an East Midlands derby. With there being a strong dislike between the two sets of ‘fans’ it resulted with fighting in the streets and shops and a pub window being smashed. This left many fans of the two respected clubs after seeing the aftermath take to social media platforms and voice their embarrassment for what they have witnessed.

After the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown (March 2020-July 2021) there was an increased rise in incidents occurring in football games across England and Wales. Such as a 59% increase in football arrests compared to pre-pandemic, hate crime incidents rose by 99% and number of pitch invasions up by 127%.

Seeing change in the future

Sport as a whole is such an influential environment for many and is a brilliant way to connect with people, have conversations and debates on a variety of topics. Fandom as a concept shows the extremes on both sides; on one hand you can see people come together with a common goal of supporting their team and on the other hand taking their passion and devotion too far, representing it in a negative sense by expressing their views via aggressive words or actions. The positive change required in sport fandom is for the people to use their voice in a way to ‘block out’ the negativity by having great conversations which spark ideas and discussions across groups of people.

N1021356

#Football #PremierLeague #Englishfootball #Fans #Supporters #Fandom #Devotion #EuropeanSuperLeague #Violence #SocialMedia

[petsincollections]

Animals: Elephants, In front of Majestic Building, Detroit, wearing baseball cap

Virtual Motor City

Wayne State University Library Systems Digital Collections

[charlieferrari16]

Let’s normalize having a favourite player instead of a favourite team. Let’s normalize following whichever team they’re on no matter what. Let’s normalize accepting everyone’s way of being a sports fan.

[janesurlife]

I never understood this kind of insult. Like are we supposed to just stop watching and talking about our favourite sports after we reach a certain age???? what a childish thing to say.

In my very humble opinion, Me being older means I actually have been following the sports longer than you and have more knowledge 😉😉 (although I'm not supporting bullying new fans but I'll always speak against ageist tweets or insults)

she's me... I'm her

[whatthehoech]

Bro time. Photos with Travis, Tanner, and Papa Hoechlin.