Hockey... wow, after last year's strike my appreciation of the game had reached an all time low. Yet for some reason as soon as the Edmonton Oilers (hometown team) started winning in the playoffs, I have to... NEED to... watch or at least listen to their games. Actually just finished watching game 5, which the Oil managed to win on a short handed overtime goal... what a great game.
This got me thinking about the weird euphoria that takes over people whenever their team is winning, while sometimes I think it's just an excuse to get drunk and party (like people need an excuse) but being a bit optimistic I think it's a way of bringing people together who have nothing else in common but cheering for the same team. Sure there may be some people who take it to excess, for example the Whyte avenue riots, but overall it's just a way of celebrating one's city.
That said, I have a bit of a problem with the 'bandwagon' thing... where people who just start liking a team and buying official merchandise because it's the fashionable thing to do. It really annoyed me when I was in Calgary for the Flames playoff run, not just people jumping on the bandwagon, but the belief that rapid consumerism was required to prove ones team loyalty. People were selling (and buying) tons of Flame crap, knockoff Flame crap and just plain stupid Flame crap. There is just a fine line between ardent fandom and for lack of a better term - fucking nuts. I guess what really bugs me is how spending money is just tied into everything... to support your team you have to buy loads of crap, to lead a good life you have to buy loads of crap, ect. ect. Oh well, can't do much about it I suppose, meh, as long as the team is doing well and everyone is happy, guess it doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things. Still it would be nice to see a good ol hunger strike to support a team, or maybe playoff penances... where people would give up alcohol for duration of teams playoff run - that would be true fandom.
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