How to Cheer for a Bad Team

[text_output]Hey everyone, I probably grabbed your attention with that title.

Now that you’re gathered around my proverbial campfire, let me tell you how to handle your favorite team (or teams for some us) being objectively terrible.

Now, you may ask, “Hey guest writer, you dickhead, you don’t know me. You don’t know bad teams.” However, I think I have some qualifications.

Until 4 years ago — when I really got into hockey and this wonderful Rangers team and family — I was an Orioles and Ravens fan. I’m a 21-year- old a B-more homer if you will, and boy howdy were those some bad teams for a lot of my lifetime.

If you don’t believe me, please, look at the Orioles before 2012 and the Ravens before Flacco and Harbaugh. And bear in mind that I was a bit too young to really enjoy the Ray Lewis-led Ravens of pre-2003. Further, I currently attend the University of Minnesota, which, shall we say, is among the chokiest (that’s not a word but y’all get me) sports programs that I can think of on the men’s side (shout out to those monster women’s hockey and volleyball teams).

From here, I hope you believe me when I say that I can help you, oh noble fan of a long time great Rangers team, or other sports teams be they the coin flip San Francisco Giants, the unable to do it right Cleveland Indians, or the 1 st / 2 nd round meme city of Washington DC.

I can help you cope with loss in a way that only someone growing up being prodded by the AFC North and the AL East can give you. Here is my 3-step plan for coping with the loss of a good franchise or the lack of a good one to start with:[/text_output][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h5″ looks_like=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Step 1: Learn to Love the Little Things[/custom_headline][text_output]This is crucial as the season will be filled with terrible things, awful things. Latch onto the little things that go right. Be it magically beating the Yankees in a no point September game to not get swept, or even just “Hey the guy whose jersey I own just got a nice 15 yard gain.”

Anything.

The worst thing you can do as a fan is become so disgruntled that you can’t see the pinpricks of hope shining through the darkness. Even if you have to go on Twitter to make jokes like “OK so, Syracuse beat Clemson, and we beat Syracuse, so that means, we are the best team besides Bama!”.

Just keep the hope alive.[/text_output][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h5″ looks_like=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Step 2: Don’t Interact with Angry Homers[/custom_headline][text_output]These people are terrible. The team is bad. you know that, everyone knows that, and you don’t need to be told that over an over by some drunk 50-year old dude at the ballpark yelling about the good old days with Ripken and how this is terrible and burn it all down.

Its fine. Everything is fine. Teams get good and teams get bad.

Sometimes they’re bad for a long time (Cubs, Red Sox, uhhh I don’t know sports
sometimes, etc.) before they get really good. Just chill, you can’t be mad at a team that’s just bad for awhile.

Sure, if your team should be good but everything is going wrong, get as pissed off as you want in the short-term. But being unhappy long-term is bad for your fandom and bad for your health. Like, dude, chill, its not life or death that the Flyers are bad a lot. You don’t need to throw garbage at your own team.

Scratch that, the entire city of Philadelphia needs to chill. Too many people get hurt at sports events there.[/text_output][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h5″ looks_like=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Step 3: Lower Your Expectations[/custom_headline][text_output]Not every year has to be a championship year or even a playoff year.

Personally, the most incredible year for me as an O’s fan was 2012. We didn’t win the World Series, but god damn it was a fun ride in the playoffs. We did something the organization hadn’t done in a long time and, it wasn’t perfect but damnit we were happy.

So just because your once great team isn’t so great now, that’s ok. Try to set more
realistic expectations and allow yourself to be excited when small stuff happens.

This echoes my first point but I think they work in tandem. If you have low expectations, you won’t ever be disappointed and can always be happy when good stuff happens.[/text_output][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h5″ looks_like=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Conclusion:[/custom_headline][text_output]So now here we are as Rangers fans, dealing with a team that has, to this point in the season at least, greatly under-performed the expectations the vast majority of the fan base placed on them.

I am fairly certain this is the whole reason why you are even reading this piece right now. But if you are reading this sentence and saying “AHH BUT I HATE (insert thing you may hate),” just reread my points and meditate on them a bit. Its fine. Everything will be fine. Stop freaking out so badly.

If the Rangers start playing better, that’s fantastic! But I am here to tell you to please keep this all in mind. It might be another 40 years until we have a cup and you can’t be angry for 40 years. Otherwise you’ll be that old homer I mentioned above.

I leave you with one parting note, something my girlfriend always says to me when I am having a bad day:

Shhhhhh bb is ok.

How to contact Rex:

Twitter – @therexologistMD[/text_output]