Fandom’s benefits include distraction, civic pride and life lessons
No harm in Sens enthusiasts following example of a team that didn’t give up
About 15 years ago, on a spring visit to Boston, I overheard two locals talking about the Red Sox. One suggested the team had a chance to go all the way that year. The other replied, in a Boston accent thicker than three-day-old clam chowder, “They’re gonna break your hawt.”
This year, thanks in large part to the Senators, it’s the Bruins who have crushed the hopes of passionate Bostonians.
Meanwhile, much of daily life in Ottawa is on hold for, or at least being planned around, the next game of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Why does the success of a local team matter so much to so many? What will cause thousands of people to gather in an arena in Ottawa Friday night to watch a game that’s happening in a completely different stadium 200 kilometres away?
To anyone who doesn’t follow sports, it seems utterly illogical. I remember the reaction of my parents when the disposition of their teenage son became directly linked to the daily performance of the Montreal Expos. My father often reminded me that “fan” was a short form of “fanatic” (but he still took me to my first game at Olympic Stadium).
No one pretends that a fan’s relationship with a team is entirely rational, or even anything close to it. We attach personality traits to our favourite club, even though the greatest difference between our team and its opponents is often not their character but simply our perspective. Nothing illustrates that better than the different reactions of Ottawa and Montreal fans to P.K. Subban’s penalty for slashing Mark Stone on Wednesday night.
The rosters change regularly — not a single player in Wednesday’s opening game against Montreal was playing for the Senators even six years ago — so are we just, as Jerry Seinfeld once suggested, rooting for an outfit, cheering for laundry? Does it amount to an irrational tribalism, as captured in a classic satirical column in The Onion, under the headline You Will Suffer Humiliation When the Sports Team From my Area Defeats the Sports Team From your Area?
If so, a little civic pride isn’t a bad thing, especially in a city that is often maligned by outsiders and even a few picky residents. Excluding a few rogue Canadiens fans in our midst, the city is united behind the Senators. What else creates that effect, other than frustration over weather or construction?
Psychologists point out that sports are a welcome and healthy distraction from life. A great season or playoff series can be a wonderful drama to witness. And unlike a movie, it comes without the guarantee of a Hollywood ending; so when it happens, like the Senators’ unlikely run to the playoffs, it feels much more authentic.
Beyond that, there are many useful lessons from sports, and they’re not all simply clichés. There were dozens of factors that led to Ottawa’s unlikely finish to the regular season. But there’s no harm in observing the example of a team that never gave up, when they were 14 points down to Boston in the standings, three goals behind Pittsburgh in a crucial game or, in the case of their surprising star goaltender, languishing in the minor leagues. We need such fables and stories, even if they are sometimes distorted and mythological.
Even when a team loses, it’s instructive. Failure is a great lesson in life ( just ask Maple Leafs fans). Twenty-nine NHL franchises won’t hold a Stanley Cup parade this spring. But unlike many other risks in life, the sports fan’s trade-off is a bargain. The rewards can be great — a championship can create memories that last a lifetime — while the consequences of losing are small. We might put our hearts on the line, but when our team fails, another opportunity is always around the corner. As fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers used to say, “Wait till next year.”
Fortunately, it’s much too early for Senators fans to be thinking about October. The greatest lesson sports offers is to live in the moment. When your team is outperforming expectations, you should simply enjoy the ride.