The Roller Coaster Ride of Sports Fandom
- Andrei Ojeda
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
What Drives Us? Patriots and Seahawks Fans Are You Ready to Ride That Roller Coaster On Super Bowl Sunday?
Super Bowl XL will pit the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. In their previous meeting against each other during Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, the Seahawks were on the verge of back to back Super Bowl triumphs when on 2nd down and 1 yard from glory, with 20 seconds remaining, Malcolm Butler made the pick that enabled the Pats to win their 4th Super Bowl, casting a pall among sports fans throughout the Pacific Northwest. For Patriots fans throughout New England, it had to be absolute euphoria.
The Thrill of Victory. The Agony of Defeat. The roller coaster of emotions the hard-core sports fans experience, especially during high-leverage games, is real. From healthcaretoday.com, “Whether you’re a fair-weather, “ride or die' or bandwagon fan (or your loved one is), we can all agree that sports have become somewhat of a religion in American culture. For many, it’s more than “just a game.”
Some of you may have quipped about your blood pressure rising during some of your team’s high-intensity moments. During a blood pressure check not long ago, after a second check, the nurse at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles, noticing all my Dodger Blue, also quipped that it may be the excitement of the pennant race that could have raised my BP.
I also spoke with several other staff members and doctors, and almost everyone confirmed that it is common for rabid sports fans to have elevated blood pressure. Perhaps it was no coincidence that the day I had my blood pressure checked, patients waiting to be checked in urgent care were, you guessed it, dressed in Dodger Blue! It would not even be a stretch to say that sports fans at times can put their hearts through the ultimate test, according to the American Heart Association.
However, putting your heart through the test isn’t such a bad thing. “Life in general is stressful. There’s good stress and bad stress, and if you avoided everything in life that could give you a heart attack, you'd have a very boring life,” said Dr. Robert Kloner, chief science officer of the Huntington Medical Research Institutes in Pasadena, California, September 2018.
Almost 40% of Americans say that they follow sports somewhat or very closely, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center poll. And about 7% of them are superfans who follow sports extremely closely and talk about sports every day. You might know some of those superfans, or maybe you’re one yourself.
So, whether it’s college sports, the NFL, the WNBA, or Major League Baseball, what drives sports fans to become so passionately attached to their teams? Is being a fan good for your mental health, even when your team is losing? Why are some people fair-weather fans, while others love to root for the underdog? What about aggression among sports fans? Why do some fans behave badly? Can playing in front of a big, supportive crowd of fans actually affect a team’s performance? In other words, is there really a home-field advantage? Is the psychology of sports fans more complicated than it needs be?
It’s my personal belief that the topic of being a die-hard sports fan is simple yet complex. There’s no one simple reason why we became fans of said teams. Though the results of a high-impact game will have minimal to no impact on most of our lives, it does not stop us from displaying total elation or extreme dejection. I won’t lie. I still ride an emotional high when replaying Freddie Freeman's grand slam from Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. And what blue-blooded Dodger fan will ever forget that memorable 9th inning of Game 7 of the 2025 World Series? Also, there’s nothing wrong if you mourn with an entire country the loss of a tightly played World Series, as evidenced by the display of somberness by Blue Jays fans.
Super Bowl LX. For New England, it’s a chance to capture an unprecedented 7th Super Bowl trophy. For Seattle, it’s a chance for some redemption from Super Bowl XLIX. For Seattle, it’s a chance to reach that much needed high after witnessing the Mariners fall 8 outs short of their first World Series appearance.
Where will you be watching the Super Bowl? Will it be at the local sports bar with fellow diehard friends? Will it be at a Super Bowl party with a bunch of casuals and folks just wanting a reason to party. Honestly, if your team is playing this Sunday and you're a true diehard I would highly recommend avoiding the latter.
The Super Bowl will bring out the best and worst emotions from everyone involved, be it the players, coaching staff, front office or fans from Puyallup, Washington to Burlington, Vermont. And if there’s ONE conclusion we can all agree it's the impact of sports bringing communities together. Communities that will come Sunday night into Monday are riding that sense of accomplished glory or the Monday morning withdrawals that will come with sports fan depression. Should Seattle fall short once again how will they cope with sports fan depression for the second time in 4 months?
Sports fan depression. In addition to being “rewarded” with 3 World Series triumphs this decade, as a 49ers fan that’s seen my team come up short in their last 3 Super Bowl appearances, I can tell you firsthand that sports fan depression is real. Emotions are so real regardless of the outcome I would request the following day off work. Wanting the day off after the Super Bowl has become a recurring theme for sports fans, particularly in places starved for a title-winning team such as Seattle. In 2022, school districts throughout Cincinnati cancelled classes the following Monday to give staff and students a day to recover.
From my experience, one day was sufficient enough for recovery. For some fans, 2 days max to heal the emotional psyche.
So, before you tune in to the big game, for possibly your sanity, you may want to check out more on why die hard sports fans, including yours truly and I’ll guess some of our fellow SJ writers and editors as well, invest so much emotionally in “our” teams, check out this read, The Psychology of Sports Fans, With Daniel Wann, PhD. You can also listen to the podcast as well.
And remember Patriots and Seahawks fans, regardless of what happens Sunday, there’s 30 other fan bases that would like to be in your position. Embrace the moment. Use that well earned PTO come Monday ! And if your team comes up even 1 yard short, you can always take comfort that there’s always next year !
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