Claiming to be a fan of a team and actually being a committed fan of a team are two different things. I was around for Michael Jordan’s run with the Chicago Bulls. Trust me, there was plenty of people hopping on and off the Chicago Bulls bandwagon. I do not quite lump Packers fans in with Bulls fans, although there are plenty of front-runners in that camp. I have a theory on why the Packers have this perceived great fan base.
The reason why people generally hate the Yankees is because they’re from New York. The same goes for the LA Lakers. LeBron James is hated throughout sports because he left his hometown of Cleveland to play for the Miami Heat. There’s this hometown feeling associated with sports. Considering most teams play in big cities, it is refreshing to many that there’s a team in obscure Green Bay, Wisconsin. It’s like a puppy or girl with pigtails, it’s cute and cuddly.
People from the state of Wisconsin are generally front-runners anyway. Now that the Brewers are finally winning, they’ve crawled out of the woodwork. I can remember the University of Wisconsin being an afterthought until Barry Alvarez came along and built that program. Don’t even get me started on Marquette. I can remember how irrelevant the Packers were during the 1980s. Finding a Packers fan was more difficult than finding Osama Bin Laden. Today of course, Packers fans are all over the place.
So what’s my theory…people love the concept of the Green Bay Packers more than they like the actually team. I’ll admit, it is great to have a sports team from a small town win titles. It’s like Hoosiers meets the NFL. But when you get into this a bit further, there’s little substance to this fan base. Sure, they’ll tell you how awesome it is to be a Packers fan, but they’re more in-love with the concept than the reality. It becomes that made-up badge of honor to be associated with a franchise located in a small town. I enjoyed going to a game at Lambeau Field last season. It was a unique experience. But I can’t say that the fans were football savants. It almost felt like being at the Apple Store.
I don’t write this piece as a bitter Chicago Bears fan. I am quite confident in my loyalty to my team. I didn’t discover the Bears one day, I grew up with this team being a part of my family. My father went to games for a LONG time. I didn’t turn on ESPN and think that being a fan of Jimmy Chitwood and Hickory High would make me this special person. And yet, it is a good 75% of Green Bay’s fandom. Claiming to be a die-hard fan and actually being a die-hard fan didn’t begin when Brett Favre entered the league.
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Jonathan -
This is how this “article” makes me feel:
I was in Atlantic City on Tuesday night, and holy shit that is the saddest city in the world. It’s like a human discard pile. Ninety percent of all slot jockeys there are sitting on Rascal scooters. I sat at the dollar blackjack table for two hours (because I’m cheap and cowardly), and the guy next to me was with his girlfriend and joked about hitting her THE ENTIRE TIME. That had a MATCH THE DEALER circle where you could place a side bet to see if one of your cards matched the one card the dealer was showing, and every time the guy’s girlfriend didn’t throw some chips in there and there turned out to be a match, he’d be like, “You see? Now I’m gonna hit you even HARDER!” And then other people at the table laughed uneasily, even though it was clear he was TOTALLY going to go beat her up when they got home. Never go to AC. And the Packers fans can suck a fat one, I agree.
I live in DC now, grew up in bout 20 min north of Chicago. All the best movies growing up were about my town ie. John Hughes films (don’t say you didn’t love em too) and by the time I started loving sports the superbowl shuffle was released, Jordan was a bull, and the cubs well i really can’t say anything there. However in DC it is honestly amazing how many packer fans, flags, stickers, jerseys, personalized licence plates, etc… have started popping up since January. It’s all about being a front runner, being able to brag about “your” football team. These are the fans that I hate most, they have no sense of commitment, no sense of loyalty, and no real love. Just like a drug addict they are always looking for the next fix however the next high won’t ever get you back to where you were before. A real fan of a team may be disappointed more often than not but the reward of joy one gets when the team win it all – nothing compares. To all the real packer fans out there, congrats…..but that was last year. GO BEARS
I have a couple of things to say to that:
1) Packers home sell-out streak: 365 games, even through the dark years of the 80′s that you mentioned. Bears home sell out streak: 226 games, or about 8 and a half seasons behind.
Source: http://www.thesportmarket.biz/charts/sellout%20streaks/ranktop.html
2) Packers season ticket waiting list: 86,000, with an estimated turnover of 90 per year, for a wait of approximately 955 years. Bears season ticket waiting list: 5400, with an estimated turnover of 360, for a wait of approximately 15 years.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_season_ticket_waiting_lists#Lengthiest_waiting_lists
In short, the Packers have sold out more games and have more people that want tickets, with less people giving them up, than the Bears (and the rest of the NFL). I think the Packers have more than enough die-hard fans, and certainly not 75% fair weather fans. They are out there though, and I despise them.
I think this season ticket waiting list is a badge of honor. As far as fans go, I stand behind my 75%
If the Packers lost 75% of their fan base every time the team had a losing season, there would never have been a sold out game during the 1980′s. Also, I think the season ticket turnover, or the renewal rates (Packers-99.6%), is a much more telling number than the size of the list.
Your opinion does not equal reality.
There’s no way to really measure a fans loyalty especially when the team has been so successful as the packers have been in recent years. I think packers fans in general are genuine though if for no other reason than theres nothing better to do then root for the packers in most of wisconsin. I think the worst bandwagon fans are actually the saints. I go to school here in New Orleans and you’ll see people everywhere with saints jerseys, especially on sundays. However 75% are probably Brees, then the rest are a mix of colstons, bushes, hendersons, and other people on their super bowl team. I wouldnt be surprised in the least if 75% of Saints “diehards” couldnt name the quarterback before Brees much less any others before that, and now everyone talks about how new orleans has the best fans in football.