Fan loyalty

My best friend is a Notre Dame fan, diehard! The last few years has been very rough on him with Notre Dame going 3-9 in 2007 and then 7-6 in 2008, even though they won a bowl game. He realized that the team needed a change, a coaching change that is. When he found out that Weis was going to return to the sidelines of the Golden Domers my friend decided that he would switch his allegiance to Florida for 2009 season.

What has happened to fan loyalty and who is to blame for the fan to no longer follow their team. Lets take a look at Michigan and when they hired Rich Rodriguez, the fans understood that Michigan would not look like the team they knew. So could it be the coach that we should blame for this lack of loyalty. But if it is not the coach to blame because we have coaches that have been with teams for many number of years who do we turn to? Maybe it is the owner of the team, case in point would be Art Modell. Mr. Modell who owned the Cleveland Browns from 1961-1995 moved the team to Baltimore for his own financial gain. It is owners like this that could play a role in the fans not wanting to follow their team because the owner does not have their best interest at heart. So we have the coach, the owner, what about the players themselves. We currently have Alex Rodriguez to look at as he is going through his troubles. Alex Rodriguez was supposed to break the home run record and be the role model for all young baseball players but he let his own troubles creep into the public eye. Another example is a player who might have been with a team for what seemed like forever, Ken Griffey Jr., and then left to go home to Cincinnati and was hurt 3 of the 4 years. Now he has really returned home to Seattle. The only other to blame would be the team themselves; the Los Angeles Clippers, Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Bengals have been teams that have very litte fans. The reason is because they do not win, they are not in a market to win, well the Clippers are but the Lakers are better.

I think the only person that we can blame is the fan themself. However you pledge your allegiance to your team; painting your body, attending games regularly or watching them on television, knowing the players and their stats; you must keep it that way. Growing up in Ohio I have always followed the Indians, Browns and Cavs even when the Indians lost 103 games or the Browns were beat by the Broncos twice to keep them from the Super Bowl or the Cavs losing on purpose to get LeBron James.

Fans make sure you keep your team close to your heart because there will be a time in your life that they may be the only thing you have left. Once your team has betrayed you or you have betrayed your team then you have nothing else.