I HAVE a confession to make. I'm a bad football fan. On game day, I show up late if the tailgate is rocking and I leave early if the team isn't winning. I defy the sea of orange by wearing a sport coat to every game and I find it a bit presumptuous that coach Groh ever told us how to dress. I don't know much about football, I don't read much press coverage of the Cavaliers and I can barely name a single player other than Chris Long. I have never joined debates about the merits of our coaches or the strength of our team, but I have argued in these pages that the University might be better off with a bad football team than a good one.
As a bad fan, I have about the same regard for football as a good fan would expect of his girlfriend. I attend most home games and I watch most away games, but a loss won't ruin my day if it's followed by a party. Football is entertainment, and I don't feel compelled to think about it when it's not being played.
Of course, I'm not alone, for the University is widely regarded as having some of the worst fans in the conference, if not, perhaps, in the nation. When the team lost its season opener, Beta Bridge read "Groh Must Go." But when the team won its next seven games, the fans were strangely exultant. When the team went to halftime leading Wake Forest 10 to six, the fans cheered. But when the team faltered in the third quarter, the student behind me shouted that Groh and his family should die of AIDS. By Virginia standards, he was actually quite a good fan. Many of us had already left for the Corner.
You might ask why I'm writing this and why, as a bad fan, I'm not content to live as quietly as I cheer. The answer is that we bad fans are fans nonetheless, and as the University grows larger and its athletic ambitions grander, it may become an inhospitable place for us. Last week, one letter to this newspaper argued that the team should have "total support from its fans" while another urged fans to "go all out on Saturdays, travel to away games and root their heart out start to finish." When Beta Bridge was painted with an anti-Groh slogan earlier this year, supporters of the coach demanded that students "Have Pride or Transfer."
Really?
As the son and grandson of Virginia graduates, I have cheered for the Cavaliers since childhood. As a native Chicagoan, I am also a bad fan of the Cubs, Bears and Bulls. I like these teams and I'm happy when they win, but I can't muster the energy to take pride in a losing team. I don't give teams my total support, I don't root my heart out start to finish and I can barely manage to think about sports between games. Are the coaches preparing the players properly? Do our rankings reflect the true quality of our team? What about our recruiting class? Who knows. Who cares.
I don't mean to disparage the devoted fans among us, for football is as good a passion as any and I'm sure the team is grateful for their support. But most of us didn't come to the University to give our undying loyalty to the football team, and it's a bit silly that some students think we should. Football occupies a prominent place in college life, but one does not acquire a moral obligation to support a team simply by attending the school it represents.
Virginia fans are fickle indeed, but that's hardly the institutional character defect some students think it is. On the contrary, it's quite a healthy thing that most of us are content to like football without caring about it. Why should a school of 20,000 hitch its emotional wagon to a team of fewer than 100? Why should we fret about football when we can simply tune in for the highs and tune out the lows? Life is full of disappointments we can't avoid. Why add to them the disappointments that come from devoting ourselves to a sport that we don't even play?
Good fans will reply that it's impossible, or somehow unethical, to take a full measure of joy in the victories of a team that one neglects in defeat. They will protest that our team can't reach its potential without the support of the students and they will lament that the University seems destined never to become a true football school. In a way, they're right
Read More
WILLIAMS: Donald Trump will be a threat to student loan forgiveness
By Ryan Williams | 16 hours agoTo be sure, this is not a problem of the University’s making. Nevertheless, understanding the uncertainty of financial accessibility in education, the University must step up to the plate.
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | 5 days agoThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | 6 days agoAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
