By Cole Gee | Reporter
It’s been said that, in life, losing builds character. Through loss, we begin to understand our weaknesses and come back even stronger. In the case of sports, some teams don’t learn the lesson the first time. And for fans of those teams, losing becomes not just a one-time lesson but more of a way of life.
Losses begin to pile up, players get frustrated, fans stop coming to games and hope for a winning season seems to melt away like a burning candle. Despite this, there are some fans who cling to the hope that the sports gods will enact some form of divine intervention for their franchise.
That hope doesn’t stem from delusion. It’s because they’ve realized something: No team, no matter how embarrassing, can be garbage forever.
Many Baylor students should find comfort in this idea. Going from a Big 12 championship win to getting blown out by Texas State in the football home opener should justifiably cause some heartache.
Even beyond Baylor, this mindset should apply to fans of any sports team. The finest examples are the Baltimore Orioles and the Sacramento Kings. As any NBA and MLB fan would know, the Orioles and Kings were the laughingstocks of their respective leagues for years. Whenever a different team would have a down season, a common defense would be, “We may be bad, but at least we’re not the Kings or Orioles.” Fast forward to today, and the Kings and Orioles have gone through major revivals — now both at the top of their leagues with amazing young players and management. The fans who suffered through season after season of embarrassing losses were finally rewarded for their loyalty.
Now, this is not me saying you should blindly support and defend everything your sports franchise does. If your team isn’t playing hard or the coach isn’t doing their job, protest and call it out. Any illegal or unsavory behavior by a team deserves to be criticized by its fans, because it’s one of the few ways it can be held accountable.
What I will say is that every championship and dynasty has a beginning. You can’t talk about the ’80s 49ers or the 2018 Warriors without remembering the losing seasons that came before them. Sports is a journey, and for some fans, that journey is smooth sailing, while for others, it’s complete torture. However, the feeling of watching your team climb out of the gutter and back into the spotlight is a glorious experience.
So, whenever you’re watching your team get dusted in the third quarter of a game by what feels like a comical amount of points, try to cling to hope. Remember, every dog has its day, and no team can stay bad forever.
