Sports is a synonym for competition.  We engage in sports for the
competition.  As with all competition, individually or collectively as a
team, we seek to engage in an endeavor against somebody or a group of
people.   And by whatever measure, we seek to be determined better than
the opposing side (individual or team).
 
We have built an extensive world of sports in our society.  In these
sports you have one basic, all encompassing element: the game.  In a game
you have two opposing sides.  Each side breaks down into two groups: the
players and the fans.  Those who play the game, and those for whom the
game is played.  Ultimately you can not have one without the other.  They
can not be separated.
 
Those that can not play in the game watch the game.  They support a given
team for a variety of reasons.  They may like a teams colors, school,
city, or somebody on the team.  They hope for this team to win.  When
they do, they are happy, when they do not.......well they may not feel
all that great.  In any case, they live vicariously through that team.
And there isn't anything particularly wrong with that.  We all live
through other people.  Our sons and daughters, our favorite characters in
a book, or a T.V. show, and through sports teams.  So long as we keep
reality in perspective there isn't anything wrong with supporting a team,
and even feeling down when they lose.  It is natural.  We are fans.
 
The degree to which we live through these teams, or rather how much we
care for these teams, and in what way we care, differs from person to
person.  It follows accordingly that the type of fan that a person is
varies.  And just as in anything else how we act as a fan, depends on
what kind of person we may be, and how we react to things happening
around us.
 
In the game their are rules.  There are rules under which the players are
obligated to play according to.  There are rules by which fans should
abide by.  The rules the players go by are set by the powers-that-be in a
given sport.  The rules for the fans however are slightly different.
Like in society, these rules are made up from a consensus of what the
majority of people consider acceptable behavior.  When you break the
rules on the ice, you get a penalty.  When you break the rules as a fan,
you are looked down upon by other fans.
 
I would rather take a penalty any day of the week.
 
Which is why I'm writing this.
 
Both fans and players come together in a game.  The players play the
game.  The fans cheer them on from the stands.  I have heard much debate
here and elsewhere about how much a crowd effects a game.  The ideal
among teams is that it shouldn't make a difference.  Coaches put on their
best poker face and will tell you that you can not let the fans win or
lose a game for you.  But I bet you will never find a coach or player
tell you that fans don't make a difference.  The players get a charge out
of a large crowd.  It is the origin of the much debated "home field
advantage."  "The extra man" as they call it.
 
The best way to be that "extra man" is to cheer for your team and to be
positive in what you say.  I completely agree.  The vast majority believe
that leaning over the glass and spitting vulgarities and insults at
players for the sake of doing it, is simply the wrong thing to do.  That
is the absolute truth in my humble opinion.  There those who sit and
cheer when something good happens.  There are those who participate in
the group cheers that are a staple of college hockey across the U.S.
Some boo the refs. bad calls, and god knows there are enough of them.
And there are those do make comments over the glass.  Some are word of
encouragement to their team, others are to refs. about bad calls, and
some are critical of other players that are being less than sportsmanlike
(in midwest they are call "goons."  In Canada they call them "tough
guys").  In any case that is not the same as using vulgarities, or being
insulting to other teams, or their coaches.  There is a fine line at this
point.  A tiny minority cross that line.  The rest of us do not.  The
term "heckler" is applied to both.  And hecklers are what the brunt of
the current topic is about for the time being.
 
Those that are degrading and vulgar are looked down upon.  I along with
all of those who regularly are at home games do not insult the players
with vulgarities for the sake of doing it or otherwise.  We look down on
those that do.  We go to the games, we support our team, often because it
is the school we go to.  We live vicariously through our teams exploits.
We want our team to be better.  We are disappointed when they lose, we
are elated when they win.  We cheer for our team and they benefit from
it, it is part of the game.  And as such we become part of the game.
Like at all schools, we keep it clean, we keep it positive, and if we
make a comment, than it is warranted.  To what extent you accept that
varies as does your own participation.  We exemplify that level of
participation by our standard of conduct.  That may be cheering,
commenting, or saying nothing at all.  But barring those who are vulgar
and insulting, we are all part of the game.  We are all fans.  We are all
there because of the sport.  Which is to say we are all their because of
a game.
 
Nathan W.L. Boyle
BGSU
 
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