A Burning Question

Why do callers on sports radio stations refer to the teams they follow as we? For instance, I was listening to NFL Radio on Sirius yesterday and a guy called in and said, "I think we made a good choice of Heyward-Bey in the 1st round. We need a guy who can out run the defense and who JaMarcus can't over throw. We get him signed and in camp, I think we'll be fine." Other examples: "We need to run block better." "We need a Mike backer who can go sideline to sideline." "We need to listen to the coach and we'll be fine. What we don't need is another cancer in the locker room. We got torn apart by that last year." 

I understand what it means to be a blood loyal fan, since I've followed the Raiders and A's and Warriors and Lakers literally my entire life (Laker games used to come in on my AM radio as a kid in Walnut Creek, otherwise I'd root for only shitty teams, so I got lucky there), but I've never had the mistaken notion that I was actually on the team or running the team, even while screaming at the television. (My brother-in-law Dustin-- Linda's husband -- actually, I believe, has this delusion. He literally coaches the team from his living room, always screaming the same thing, no matter the sport: "In and out, in and out!" I'm not sure what this means in football, but he seems to think it has some importance and that the Raiders should employ it on offense...and defense, too) But when you listen to these callers on talk radio, it's as if they've all been tutored by the same life coach and have disassociated themselves to the point that they no longer follow a team, they are the team. (Isn't it odd, incidentally, that the team you root for is selected at age 8 or 9 or so and if you happen to change allegiance at some later point in life, like say when you're an adult, you are somehow viewed as a turncoat? I can't think of another thing that you begin to identify with at such a young age that becomes permanent like that, can you?) I'm going to start referring to authors I like in the we voice: We think we could write another Frank Bascombe novel. We feel pretty strongly that we could write a sequel to The Things They Carried. We were upset with the review Michiko gave us last week.  

Comments

[Pete]

When I hear people talk like that, I want to ask them, "Uh, do you also get paid millions of dollars a year to hit/carry/throw/shoot a ball? No? THEN STOP SAYING 'WE'!" I don't even refer to my alma mater's sports teams as "we."

[kryme_dog]

When we picked Heyward-Bey in the first round, it was probably one of the dumbest moves our uncle Al has made in several years. Although Vitaly likes to wear sweatsuits and uses Al as Vitaly's fashion inspiration, Vitaly is very much disgruntled with the way our beloved Raiders have been playing on and off the field.

Vitaly is also wary of the fact that when Vitaly wears our team gear, Vitaly is really worried about getting put on blast by the offspring of the bus boys at our former resturant Rubys where we make delicious burgers and breakfast.

[Edward Foy]

For people of a certain age, Marvel or DC was a choice made about the 8 year mark. God knows what kind of kid was reading Charlton.

[Kirsten]

If you get a chance see a movie that was a Sundance this year called Big Fan, written and directed by Robert Siegel (he wrote The Wrestler and I am guessing you saw and liked that?) and starrting Patton Oswalt. You'll get a kick out of it given the above mini-rant.