With the NFL season in full swing, we have been able to see how many teams have been holding up early on. This gameplay brings on another beast though: the ugly side of football fans.  

Growing up a fan of a particular sports team and keeping up with the organization after I moved away to another city is something I am particularly proud of. As someone who was born in Chicago, I take pride in all of my windy city teams regardless of if they are terrible or not. Although, some people like to take a different approach and methodology to cheer for sports teams, and it can get quite gruesome. 

Over the past ten years and through management changes, news of future stadium moves, and not a single Super Bowl appearance or win, teams like the Bears have been a team that only true fans can stand by. If you haven’t bandwagon from them to another team yet, I have respect for you. The people who have one bad season and swap teams don’t deserve to have a team period. Sure if you change because you move or are with someone who likes a different team to avoid conflict, but if you’re a fan of a team like the Lions and you go to the Rams because of their Super Bowl win, respectfully do not talk to me; that is a sin in the sports world. 

It’s not just about the bandwagons either; franchises have awful marketing. Seeing people with large crusty yellow foam blocks on their heads for a team that has nothing to do with cheese is an example. I have no hate towards the Packers, but cmon guys, you are about as creative as your quarterback; that is almost as bad as Ohio States’ mascot that is a literal nut. If a franchise wants to make a statement and also have a purpose to its madness it is going to need to try a lot harder than that to avoid backlash. 

On top of that even, the NFL trying to go international personally isn’t the move. If we put teams overseas, not only will game times be complicated, but also season ticket sales will most likely go down exponentially due to people not wanting to drop thousands of dollars to see their team play over in Germany. Although it would help with branching out and expanding the platform the NFL is on, I personally would be quite disappointed if I couldn’t watch my team play on Sunday because they were in London and the time change on a school night would clash. 

The NFL has grown a lot and has put the spotlight on professional sports in a way that they only could with football, but not everything they do is for the better of the league; it is only a matter of time at this point until monkeys get to join in on the fun and once again shake up the sports scene.