Boston: The Best of Fans, The Worst of Fans

When they lose, it is all about how they had a bad day or how the officials screwed them and it is never their own fault (or in the case of the Celtics when they were bad, many fans just chose to ignore the team).

When they win, all I hear is a lot of talk about how it is no surprise they won and how they are the greatest franchise and greatest sports city in the world. And how they do not understand how people cannot root for their teams because they are obviously so much more superior than everyone else.

But the worst is when they apologize to me for not being born into the Red Sox (or Celtic or Patriot) Nation.

Listen, I am happy for you that your team won. It is a great feeling personally when the team you follow religiously succeeds (I know, I have been close a couple times). But don't give me that crap about how unfortunate it is I wasn't born to follow your team.

Every fan thinks that their team is the best team out there. And many will argue until they are blue in the face, but most can appreciate, and more importantly understand, that there is no correct answer; that it varies from fan-to-fan, team-to-team, sport-to-sport.

But it doesn't appear that way for these Boston fans. They get legitimately angry when I tell them that I love the Bears (or the Mets or the Bulls) and am not depressed since I don't follow their teams.

And what is more, when I talk with a Boston fan about sports, many become condescending. It seems like they walk around with a sense of entitlement because their teams are winning.

And I guess that's fair to some degree. The Pats have three Super Bowls, the Sox have two World Series, and the Celtics have a championship—all in the past six years—so they do have the right to be proud and boast about their team's success.

But just because their team wins does not give them the right to sit there and pretend they know everything about sports. And it also doesn't mean that everything in sports revolves around their city.

Do some Boston fans know more about sports than me?

Without a doubt.

Do I know more about sports than some other Boston fans?

You betcha. But I don't walk around like I am better than everyone else.

And maybe it is just because the Boston/New England teams have such solid fan bases that it seems worse because you find so many of their fans outside of the New England area.

And some of them are just those people who jump on the winning bandwagon every year so they can feel like winners. Only problem is the fact they stay on that bandwagon while the team stays good. Since the New England area teams are in the upper tier in the three (four, including hockey) major sports in the U.S., there are more than a few posers who place themselves in the fanhood circle.

And that is sad because it reflects badly on the real crazed fanatics that live and die with each win and loss the Red Sox go through. Or the true Patriot loyalists who hope every home game is a snow storm with frozen turf. Or the many Celtic followers who act like they are celebrating St. Patrick's Day 82 times a year (more when they make the playoffs).

While I don't care for half of them due to their obnoxious attitude, I have no problem admitting they, the real fans, are some of the most loyal fans in the U.S.

But the Celtics...first let me say the Celtics do have a good fan base. Loyal, knowledgeable, and are green through and through.

That said, there are fewer die-hards than one would expect. And I think I understand why.

My theory is that when the Celts went through some miserable years in between the Pierce/Walker days and the 2008 team, there were other teams in the area that were far more successful and enjoyable to watch (Pats, Sox, BC) so some of their fans became less and less interested in the goings-on in the world of basketball.

I say this because many of the Patriot and Red Sox fans I know never really said much when it came to basketball season.

That was until the Garnett trade.

Then all of the sudden they put the Celtics in there with the Sox and Pats and claim to be die hard fans.

And I guess some are, but then my buddy came up with two questions to spot a fake:

1: Who did the Celtics trade to the Timberwolves to get Garnett?

(Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair. Plus a conditional first round pick, but we settled for just the players.)

2: Who has scored the most points in Celtic history?

(John Havlicek)

Now we tested this theory at a local Irish pub during the Celtics' playoff run this year, figuring it would be the best place to find a group of them.

If they got both questions correct, then we gave them props. The second questions is a little trickier for the younger fans, so it might be excusable, but if they miss the first question, then they didn't suffer through those years of hardship.

If you don't stay by your team in the bad times as well as the good, you aren't die-hard (there were quite a few who missed both questions and took great offense at us for asking).

And for the record, this article doesn't come from some angry Laker or Colt or Yankee fan. This doesn't come from a jealous hater. The Boston area teams haven't faced the Bears or the Cubs/Mets in any postseason that I have been alive for (I was born a month after the Bears won Super Bowl XX).

And sure, the Celtics beat the Bulls in the playoffs this year, but that was one of the all time great series and I can honestly admit that the Celtics were the better team and deserved to win.

I hold no hard feelings there. It was just so much fun to watch.

So let me say that the New England-area fans are some of the more fanatical found this side of the Atlantic when it comes to sports. But respecting some of them (AGAIN, not all of their fans are like this) is very difficult considering their attitude.

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