Fantasy Sports

Fantasy sports have gotten to be a big part of sports in the past decade.  Chapter fourteen of Billings, Butterworth, and Turman’s book Sport and Communication talks about four different types of motivations for fantasy sports participants.  First would be the people who play for the camaraderie of it.  This type of person plays because they want to be a part of something that many other people are doing at their work, in their family, at their gym, etc.  As one that enjoys the camaraderie, you want to keep up with your team so you can share in that same rhetoric.  The second motivation would be that enhanced enjoyment.  This type of participant plays in order to make games more meaningful and provides more of a focus to what you’re watching.  In other words, you are watching games and rooting for your hometown/favorite team as well as watching your fantasy players closely.  The third factor in fan motivation would be autonomy.  This is the very simple and common idea that you could run a team better than your team’s current coach/general manager.  It’s a thought that is in all of our heads, especially when we as fantasy owners make an ingenious pick up of a player who ends up having an unexpected, break out season.  The final motivation for fantasy players is that addiction aspect.  There are certainly many people out there that have become addicted to fantasy sports; I may even be considered one of them.  Some addicts start betting large amounts of money on their fantasy leagues, games, etc.  Others just put a massive amount of their time and effort into it.

            So, those were the four motivations of fantasy participants that were the main focus of chapter fourteen.  They compare extremely well to the Sport Fan Continuum that was discussed all the way back in chapter three.  There are three fan types in the continuum.  Social fans are those who are just into the game or the sport simply for the interaction and connection with the other fans.  Focused fans are those who have a moderate investment with a particular team or sport.  The vested fans are those with significant emotional attachment to the success/failure of their favorite teams.

            I believe strong comparisons can be made between the motivations for fantasy participants and the fan sport continuum.  First off, the person who participates in fantasy sports for camaraderie would be similar to the social fan in the continuum.  They both play and watch their sports/fantasy sports in order to participate in a certain rhetoric and interact with others in that particular group.  This would be people who love to tailgate with their friends more than actually watching the game, just like these people at this Steelers tailgate outside of Heinz Field.

The next motivation would be enhanced enjoyment, and that would most appropriately compare to the focused fan in the continuum.  Both types of people are focused on particular things within the sport they are watching.  These are the fans that really take their time and study, study, study for a fantasy football draft, or take time to really analyze how your favorite team did in their last game like these people are all doing in the picture below.

The third comparison would be the addiction motivation to the vested fan on the continuum.  These types of people would be those highly invested in their teams, sports, and fantasy teams.  They are the people who dress up in crazy costumes for all the games they go to in order to support their favorite team, just like these Seattle Seahawks fans are doing in this picture.

Since there are four motivations for fantasy participants and only three aspects on the sport fan continuum, I would insert autonomy in between the focus and vested fan.  These are the people who think they can do better at creating a winning team.  They aren’t necessarily a vested fan, but they are certainly more than just a focused fan.  The comparisons that can be made between the motivations for play and the sport fan continuum are pretty cool to see.  This shows how sport communication works pretty similarly in most aspects of a sport culture.

Forgettable Apologia

The instance that first came to mind when we were given this assignment was one involving a very popular and successful NBA player.  Many people have forgotten about this whole situation or may have never known about it in the first place, and that is why it was so intriguing to me.  The occurrence that I’m referring to is obviously the one involving Kobe Bryant.  Back in 2003 he was implicated in an incident in which he was accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old girl.  This is obviously a huge crime to be accused of, and it has the possible sentence of life in prison.  Yet, we as fans seem to have totally forgotten about it.  That is the angle I will be looking at in this blog.

First of all, Bryant utilized denial as his resolution strategy.  He wanted to change the meaning/connotation of the accusation.  So, he denied the fact that the events of the night were against the will of the girl.  However, he did not ever deny (in fact he confirmed) the fact that he did have relations with the girl.  It’s not surprising that he chose that strategy, but I’m here to analyze the fans reaction to this instance.

I’ve read several comments and articles reacting to the accusations and the aftermath.  I’ve deduced that there are about three categories you can group the reactions into: Support, Forgive and Forget, and Disgust/Disbelief.  At the time of the accusations including the ensuing year or two, the majority of fans reacted in a way that showed disgust/disbelief.  An article written by MSNBC states, “Bryant was loudly booed in Milwaukee and San Antonio before getting a less-severe treatment in New Orleans and Memphis.”  It should be noted that he played almost every game in 2003-04 even while having various hearings he had to be at, so naturally the ‘boos’ were going to be raining down on him.  Remarkably, there was still some support during those first couple years, mostly from Laker fans.  This was not the overall feeling of fans throughout the country though.

However, we saw a shift in the fans treatment of Bryant by 2006.  This is when the comments and reactions started to lean toward the “Forgive and Forget” ideal.  A couple things happened, for one, he changed his number.  I feel that he was trying to start fresh by getting rid of all the negative associations brought forth by his old number, 8.  Secondly, in those few years from 2003-06 he won many games with the Lakers (no championships, but a lot of wins still).  I think time and winning have a huge impact on what fans choose to remember about an athlete.  This was reflected in the comments I found attached to one article from Pro Basketball Talk.  The comment was from joshm5683 and it said, “It is crazy how winning and time changes people’s perceptions.”  Seemingly, from 2006 to present day the majority of fans have totally forgotten that anything even happened.  We love and idolize Bryant even more than we did before.

This whole situation reminds me of one other athlete who previously faced criminal charges many years ago but is now held in high regard: Ray Lewis.  He faced murder charges back in 2000!  However, we seem to forget all about that now since he’s won a Super Bowl and has had an amazing career.  I say ‘we’ in the most general sense (excluding Pittsburghers) because most of us Pittsburghers will always think of him as a criminal simply because we are rivals.  The fans reaction is eerily similar in both Lewis’ and Bryant’s cases.

All this just means one thing; Bryant’s apologia was successful.  Some might argue that it wasn’t his apology that worked, but it was simply time that healed the wounds.  I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that, but there is one important thing tied to that and it is the fact that it all started with his apology.  We were able to forget about the whole situation for three reasons.  1) He apologized.  2) The case was ultimately dismissed.  3) Time healed all the wounds.  Maybe a fourth reason, the fact that he was a superstar on the court, could be considered as well.  In any case, I feel his apologia was successful.  It made the majority of us forget it even happened and that’s amazing that could even happen.

Athlete or Scholar?

          Athletes are expected to perform to a certain level of greatness.  NFL-ers are supposed to be tough, gritty, and mean; same with NHL-ers.  Soccer players are supposed to be quick and full of finesse.  Now, within each sport there are expectations for certain races and genders and that is what I will be focussing on.  Myron Rolle was a safety for the Florida State Seminoles from 2006-08.  There are a couple important things you should know that will pertain to this narrative.  First of all, Myron Rolle is an African American athlete, was one of the premier defensive players in college football at the time, and was set to be a high pick in the 2008 NFL draft.  In addition to all that athletic stuff, he had a great mind as well.  He finished his bachelors degree in Pre-Med in two and a half years and with a 3.75 GPA nonetheless.  His success in the classroom earned him a Rhodes Scholarship.

          When we think of black athletes performing their identity in college football or the NFL, words such as strong and dominant come to mind.  The book states it in a similar way, it says, "Conventional stereotypes hold that African Americans are physically dominant while white athletes are mentally superior" (Billings, Butterworth, and Turman).  Words like smart and intelligent usually aren't included in that same discourse with African American football players, but Myron Rolle showed us how they can connect.  In the book the authors talk about being able to fully connect with two different groups.  In Myron's case he had to fit in as an outstanding athlete and a top-tier student.  Lets just say his performance on the field didn't hurt his performance in the classroom, and vise versa.

          He exemplified what it meant to be a successful African American Student-Athlete.  Up until that point people just thought success was measured on the football field or the basketball court.  After this made national headlines, as seen in the clip above from ESPN, people changed their frame of mind to be more accepting and to realize that African Americans can be smart as well as good athletes.

          You know how I said that he was slated to be a top pick in the draft coming out of college, well, he passed on that potentially lucrative deal and took a year to study in Oxford on the Rhodes Scholarship.  He ended up getting drafted into the NFL after he came back from the year in Oxford, but one of his main goals in life is to become a neurosurgeon.  That just goes to show you how performing race in sports doesn't always have to go along with the stereotypes.

NFL Players: Heroes or Celebrities?

Heroes in sports are something that has been talked about for years.  Are they actually Heroes or are the just glorified celebrities?  Drucker states his opinion in the book saying, "Celebrities are manufactured for the purposes of spectacle, whereas heroes earn public admiration by being authentic” (Billings, Butterworth, and Turman 72).  This is an interesting thing to think about when looking at professional athletes, especially in the NFL.  Troy Polamalu is certainly one of these players that have been called a hero.  We have all watched him wreak havoc on offenses throughout the past several years.  In 2012 he was number nineteen on the NFL’s Top 100 players countdown, and in the video his peers even considered him to be more than human.  Jacoby Jones called him a “different breed,” and Rashard Mendenhall said, “He’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a superhero.”  This type of dialogue happens a lot; apparently even players think of each other as superheroes.

If you actually think about it, we allude to athletes as being transcendent of sport all the time.  ESPN does it every Monday morning when they’re recapping the top plays during the football season.  Nike even played on people’s allusions with this advertisement that was used to create hype when they were unveiling the new NFL jerseys before the season started.

They depict players as superheroes.  When they put on their uniforms – much like a superhero puts on his cape – it transforms them into something greater.  It ‘manufactures’ them into a celebrity, or does it?  The chapter also throws out a thought that we may have to adapt our standard for a hero.  Drucker and Cathcart say, “…contemporary figures such as sports stars may meet a redefined standard of heroism” (Billings, Butterworth, and Turman 73).  It could be argued that the NFL was/is actually playing on these emotions people have about sports heroes (ie. Nike’s advertisement above).  Even magazines such as Time dubbed an athlete, Mark McGwire, its “Hero of the Year” (Billings, Butterworth, and Turman 73).  Ultimately, McGwire fell from the hero ranks when he was found to have been on steroids.  And that really tells the tale for almost all sports heroes.  There is a cycle explained in the book that says we identify, celebrate, destroy, and rehabilitate a hero, and we are notorious for our unpredictable relationships to heroic figures.  We haven’t given up on Polamalu just yet because we, as Pittsburghers, love our sports and players no matter what.

As a culture seek to have people to look up to.  We put athletes on a pedestal and regard them as ‘our hero.’  But it is still up for debate; are sport stars really heroes or celebrities?  You could paint a picture to argue either way; however, kids and adults alike will look up to professional athletes and deem them heroes.  The thing is, they’re no different from any of us.  They are human just like us; despite that, we like to have heroes in our lives.  It’s all part of the spectacle that is in fact sports.

Cameron Crazies

There are obviously many crazy fan bases throughout the world of sports, but towards the top of that list would have to be the Cameron Crazies.  They are loyal student supporters of the Duke University Men’s Basketball team.  Cameron Indoor Stadium is home to Duke’s entire basketball program.  The coined phrase, “Cameron Crazies,” has been used to describe the Blue Devil’s devoted fan section for many years.

            As you can see from the picture, they have many rituals such as making it seem as if they are about to suck the opposing player into their clutches or something.  They obviously have other chants and traditional fight songs like any other renowned University.  Now, this group is pretty much made up of all student season ticket holders.  Chris Cusack wrote an article for The Chronicle and he said, while the number has declined, there are still about 650 students who have season tickets and attend each home game.  There are also 550 general admission tickets for the student section that they sell each game because their goal is to fill the 1200 seat student section with rowdy Cameron Crazies.  Those tickets aren’t necessarily cheap either, so we would classify these fans as first-person supporters.  This mode of fan consumption means they love being at every game and witnessing events first-hand.  “First-person supporters often consider themselves to be ‘true fans’ because they are there in the down times as well as the good” (Billings, Butterworth, and Turman).  This perfectly sums up any season ticket holders of any team, just like the Cameron Crazies. 

            Now, there are different motivations for fan consumption as outlined in our book by Billings, Butterworth, and Turman.  Behavioral motivations such as companionship and group affiliation are both motivations that can be applied to explain why Cameron Crazies choose to be so crazy.  First of all, those are both very similar and can be interrelated.  For example, you find companionship with the people you meet at the game and in the student section, and you’re obviously part of a large group of 1000+ other crazies.  Only people in the group know the different chants and hand signals, thus bringing them closer together.  They also feel as if they are there to complete a mission or goal, and that is to help their team achieve victory!  Fandom brings people closer together and makes them feel part of something bigger than themselves, and The Cameron Crazies are the epitome of dedicated sports fans.