Sports have been a part of human society for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of organized sport can be seen in cave paintings depicting people wrestling in front of crowds. While the sports of prehistory lack the complex rules and regulations of many modern-day games, they were still a significant enough part of society for it to be depicted in the people’s art work. As human civilization has advanced in technology and culture, sports have advanced in complexity and significance as well. This should not come as a surprise as society developed there became fewer threats to a person’s survival, thus allowing people to partake in more leisure activities. As the development in both areas continued, sports became progressively more significant in people’s lives. Nowadays, professional, collegiate, and even amateur sports are followed closely by billions of people around the globe, and in some instances the fandom is nearly religious in nature. But why are sports so important to so many people, and how did this come to be so? There are multiple factors that contribute to the development and the benefits of sports team identification which include family history, entertainment, pride and social identity, and an escape from everyday stress.

When asked what their favorite sports team is, many people can instantly give an answer, it is as if this fact is integral to their identity but when asked why it is their favorite team it is often a difficult answer. For many, the answer may be “it just is,” and they are unable to justify why they feel such a strong emotional connection. While to some it may seem that someone picks a team and sticks with it, it is rarely that simple. There are many underlying psychological factors that influence this initial decision to identify with a sports team. One of the most apparent influences is a fan’s family. As Brett Follett describes it, “Often, team identification is passed down as intergenerational” (Follett 17). This is mainly because a child’s decisions are heavily influenced by their parents. If, for instance, a child’s parent is a passionate Philadelphia Eagles fan, the child is then very likely to become one as well in order to have a stronger connection to their parent. After this initial decision to follow a parent’s example and support the Philadelphia Eagles, watching games on television or attending games together creates a very strong bond between the parent and child. This very emotional bond is very easily associated with the team as well, which results in the child and parent feeling a similar bond to the team. Such a strong bond between family and the team has caused many fans to bring their favorite team into some of the most important moments of their lives, such as weddings and funerals. In “Interaction Ritual Theory and Sports Fans: Emotion, Symbols, and Solidarity,” Marci D Cottingham describes an instance where, “a woman who, at the final request of her late husband, brought his ashes to a Steelers game at Heinz Field,” (Cottingham 178). This act shows how deep a connection to a team can be. The desire for one’s final resting place to be at their favorite team’s home stadium is as dedicated a fan can get. Another example of how family can be a very influential factor in the development and the consequences of sports team identification comes from Dan Weiss’ article “Divorcing Dallas: Our Strange Relationship With Professional Sports.” In this article Weiss describes how he came to be a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, rather than bringing him closer to his family through their mutual love for the same team, his fandom was born through a natural sibling rivalry. He even says, “to be clear, I don’t actually like the Cowboys… but come the fall, I’ll turn on the TV, see the blue and silver and instinctively root for my Cowboys no matter how painful they are to watch.” Evidently, identifying with a sports team is beneficial to familial relationships as it gives families another way to forge a strong relationship that can have other beneficial implications on their lives.

In addition to family, one of the simplest factors that contributes to identifying with a sports team is entertainment. If a person is entertained by watching and participating in events relating to a certain sports team, then they are more likely to form an emotional connection to that team. In a study conducted by D.L. Wann, entertainment consistently scored among the most influential factors on the Sports Fan Motivation Scale (SFMS), which is a scale developed by Wann for his research (Wann 13). A fan’s score on the SFMS scale is formed by assessing their answers to a series of questionnaires. This high SFMS score means that entertainment has a significant impact on sports fans and their team identification. It is not very difficult to see why the entertainment value of watching a certain sports team contributes to the development of identifying with a favorite team. This is because more exposure to the team allows the fan to see the effects of many other factors that influence sports team identification. It is also easy to see the benefits of this for the very same reason.

Pride and social identity are other factors that contribute to the development of a strong emotional connection to a certain sports team. These factors undoubtedly are involved whether it be choosing a favorite team based on the past accomplishments that give a person pride, or it is the community that surrounds the team that helps develop a person’s social identity. It is unlikely for a new fan to choose to support a team that performs poorly and has a negative social image. This is because in most cases people want to take pride in their support for an organization. In the same study conducted by D.L. Wann, group affiliation, which is how a person interacts with others who have a common interest, scored highly on the SFMS. This means that, like entertainment, group affiliation has a large impact on sports fans, specifically football and basketball fans, which are two of the most popular and well followed sports in America. In fact, only two factors consistently scored higher on the SFMS than group affiliation, namely the the aforementioned factors of family and entertainment. The benefits of developing pride and social identity from sports fandom are that these factors can give an otherwise timid person more confidence and raise their self-esteem. This is done through multiple ways, the first being the confidence through the feeling of belonging to a group. While amongst this group, a person may come out of their shell, which can transfer to other situations. Another way in which it is done is through a phenomenon called BIRGing, or basking in in reflected glory, “The BIRG effect refers to an individual's inclination to share in the glory of a successful other with whom they are in some way associated,” (Campbell, et al. 1). The success of a person’s favorite team or player, and the resultant confidence associated with this success, can rub off on the person and translate to higher self-esteem, which has clear and well researched benefits in other areas of the person’s life. 

Another prevalent factor in sports team identification is the ability to escape from the stress of everyday life. Many people work hard every day at their menial job to support their families, and often these people are barely able to get by without going into extreme debt. Closely identifying with a sports team allows these people to forget about the harsh world and immerse themselves in the world of sports. Rather than worrying about if they are going to be able to pay the bills, or have food on the table, they are able to focus on if their favorite team will win the game. This brief reprieve from the stressors of their lives can do a lot of good for people. While some stress is necessary as motivation to accomplish certain things, “an extreme amount of stress can have health consequences and adversely affect the immune, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and central nervous systems, (Alvord, et al.). While one can argue that being highly identified with a sports team can lead to other stressors, these are usually relieved at the end of a game. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as eustress, which is actually beneficial to the experiencer. The escape from daily stressors is also another factor that scored highly on the SFMS scale and it was commonly cited as a reason for identifying with a sports team or player, especially when referring to golf, football or baseball (Wann 13). The relief of stress is something that is very important to a person’s health, and sports fandom is an inexpensive and readily available form of stress relief.

Not only are there many factors that contribute to the formation and benefits of a sports fandom, but, many have even compared people’s obsessive following of sport to the following of a religion. There are quite a few similarities between the two. For instance, both have symbols that represent who they are, and these symbols are treated as sacred. Another similarity is both worship the great people who are part of them. While star athletes are not as universally renowned as religious prophets, they both receive the praise and admiration of their followers, and both are treated with great respect. In “Fandom affiliation and tribal behaviour: a sports marketing application,” Dionisio, Leal, and Moutinho suggest that religion is a tribal instinct that helps to bring together a group of people, they go on to add that sport fandom is just another more modern way to this. Both religion and sport fandom fulfill many of the same roles in a person’s life, they each give people something to believe in and a medium through which they can socialize.

While there are evidently many benefits to the development of sports team identification, some may argue that it can lead to some negative effects as well. One commonly cited negative effect is the potential for sports gambling and an addiction to gambling. Although an estimated eighty five percent of American adults have gambled on sports at least once in their lifetime, only two to three percent of these people meet the criteria for a gambling problem (ncpgambling.org). This is a very low figure, and is in no way indicative of a problem with strongly identifying with a sports team. Most cases of sports gambling involve placing a small bet with a group of friends, not wagering large amounts of money that can get a person into serious financial trouble. 

Sports team identification is not something that can be summed up into a single origin and is not something that has a single consequence. The development of fandom for a certain team is actually something that is quite complex. Many factors including family, entertainment, pride and social image, and escape are responsible for the conception of a fandom and the growth of it. Clearly sports team identification is something that is beneficial to the person who participates in it.
