If and When Can You Wear Contradictory Logos?!

[slapshot]

One or the other. Not both. You will look like a tool or a dumbass by wearing both, and be subjected to the wrath of the fans. You would probably get heckled worse by wearing both teams than by just wearing the opponent's gear.

[mitchfig]

A few years ago my wife tried to buy me a Blues cap and Redwings gloves. The guy taking her order asked her if it was possible to be a fan of both teams. Her reply: "My husband is a runner. The hat keeps his head warm. He uses the gloves to wipe his nose, or other areas should the need arise."

Mitch

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

I went to an islanders game last year with a fisherman jersey and a sabres hat.

[BallWonk]

This Sunday I'm going to the Green Bay Packers @ Miami Dolphins game. As most of you know, I'm a fan of both teams. They rarely play each other, so normally this isn't an issue. However, on Sunday I plan to wear a Dolphins shirt with a Packers hat or vice versa depending on what looks the best. Is this acceptable, or do I need to pick one team?

Fans of both teams in a contest have special dispensation to show their support for both teams at the same time. Because this isn't USA versus al-Qaeda, it's a game. And because unlike "sports fans" in much of the rest of the world, Americans are fans of sport first, individual teams second. The fan who wears his support for both teams shows that he's cheering for a good game and that afterward he is not going to get in any knife fights or riots just because a bunch of men he doesn't even know lost a game.

Also, people who wear their support for both teams in a contest are never the obnoxious, loud jerks that everybody else in their section spends the game wishing somebody would punch in the face to make them shut up. Usually, that's a visiting team fan, often decked out in a replica uniform as if he was a player and not a beer-bellied has-been who hasn't worked out since he was cut from the JV squad in middle school, but sometimes it's a home fan getting in the face of a visiting team fan. But that obnoxious drunk guy is never dressed to support both teams.

And no, you won't look like a tool or a dumbass. Anyone who minds -- or even cares! -- at the game reveals themselves to be both tools and dumbasses. At RFK, I once sat with a friend dressed in a red Phillies t-shirt and a red Nationals cap. Of course, another Phillies "fan" a couple rows back started heckling him about his mixed loyalties. My buddy had the perfect comeback: "What can I say? I'm a baseball fan. Why are you here?" End of heckling.

[Lee.]

Now, if you're talking women or pie... the more, the merrier.

What's this "or" crap? Women should always come with pie.

[tBBP]

Seriously, who fu*king cares? You DID pay for the ticket, so you should be able to do whatever the hell you want. If you wanna wear a Packers hat with a Phins jersey go right ahead. The universe wont slit into two and kill us all if you do. Its a frickin sport. Not a war. Do what is the most enjoyable for you. Anyone says anything, tell em to go fu*k themselves.

Boy, you seem more worked up than anyone. Do bear in mind that he's going to sit next to people, and likely be heckled by fans of either team. Of course, you claim to like half of the major leagues, so...

Its called part of the sport. Who cares about the douchenozzles who heckle? Show em your a real man by ignoring them. How hard is it to see that sport is a form of entertainment and not a severe life altering set of events? Theyre defiantely fun, but good lord its nowhere as big of a deal as people make it out to be.

Try telling that to the folks in Pittsburgh, where Steelers football is LIFE--PERIOD! (Oh by the way, the city is alive again, now that the Steelers finally whooped up on somebody...Monday morning the Steeler gear was back out in full vogue, folks was calling off work left and right, and the streets were buzzing again, whereas just a week previous all Steeler Nation was about ready to crucify Ben, flame Cowher, and hang the O-line out to dry.)

What can I say? These folks is something SERIOUS...they live and die with the Stillahz. We'll see if anyone else tries to stab me again come 3 December, when my Buccaneers travel up here. I already almost got stabbed once for wearing my Bernie Kosar throwback when I first moved up here...I'm already prepared to "feel the holistic wrath" of everyone in my school and pretty much the whole city...but THAT WEEK, THE BUCCANEER GEAR COMES OUT FULL-FLEDGED!!! I'M STANDING UP FOR BUCCANEER NATION!

[Reaper]

I think that your best bet for this game is for you to stick with sportswear branded only with the NFL logo or marks. Or you could wear generic Reebok gear (as it is the the official supplier you'd still look football fan-ish without showing your hand). I'm not sure if you can get stuff that general for the NFL (like a hat that only has the NFL logo on it) but that would seem like one of the looks that would cause the least amount of controversy. If you do decide to wear gear from both teams then make sure you include an official helmet in the mix as people will probably be throwing things. Protect your head.

[The_Admiral]

Hey, I'm a baseball fan too, just like Tommy Lasorda reminded me seventy-six times this month, but I'd never show up to a ballgame wearing both teams' apparel, even if I did like both teams. If people are "baseball fans first," why do they wear team-specific apparel at all, or openly favor one team? You don't go to a park and see people wearing MLB Silhouetted Batter hats, or hear "LET'S-GO-BASE-BALL! (clap clap clap-clap-clap)" or "So we'll root, root root for our paaaaaaaaaaastiiiiime." Not even in St. Louis.

"What can I say? I'm a baseball fan. Why are you here?"

Wow. That's not patronizing at all. If you're really there to watch a great game and drop smarmy remarks at superfans, then just don't wear any team stuff at all. As eloquent and usually correct as you are, BallWonk, I gotta respectfully dissent and say no double-dipping with team apparel.

[fonz]

That will look really dumb.

[pittfan11]

You can't be a fan of two teams in the NFL. You can only have one team.

[Gothamite]

You don't go to a park and see people wearing MLB Silhouetted Batter hats, or hear "LET'S-GO-BASE-BALL! (clap clap clap-clap-clap)" or "So we'll root, root root for our paaaaaaaaaaastiiiiime." Not even in St. Louis.

Quote of the thread.

"What can I say? I'm a baseball fan. Why are you here?"

Wow. That's not patronizing at all. If you're really there to watch a great game and drop smarmy remarks at superfans, then just don't wear any team stuff at all. As eloquent and usually correct as you are, BallWonk, I gotta respectfully dissent and say no double-dipping with team apparel.

Have to agree there.

[OB33]

This works better I think.

[rmackman]

This works better I think.

Haha that's prety funny. Wish I had one of those! I do have a tshirt from Super Bowl XXXI with two crashing helmets. I could wear that with a Dolphins hat and maybe it would look a little less obvious?

[hecticbro]

A few years ago my wife tried to buy me a Blues cap and Redwings gloves. The guy taking her order asked her if it was possible to be a fan of both teams. Her reply: "My husband is a runner. The hat keeps his head warm. He uses the gloves to wipe his nose, or other areas should the need arise."

Mitch

The tears from your eyes every time the Wings knocked St. Louis out of the playoffs?

[Mingjai]

A few years ago my wife tried to buy me a Blues cap and Redwings gloves. The guy taking her order asked her if it was possible to be a fan of both teams. Her reply: "My husband is a runner. The hat keeps his head warm. He uses the gloves to wipe his nose, or other areas should the need arise."

Mitch

The tears from your eyes every time the Wings knocked St. Louis out of the playoffs?

I read this and had visions of Yzerman scoring from the blue line as I was chuckling.

[jtthasportfreak]

If I wear a hockey jersey, I'll always wear a hat that is from another sport (Canada red jersey, Trail Blazers cap, for example) but NEVER hat and jersey from the same sport

[oddball]

I have a way to solve this problem. Just show up in Raiders gear, with a shirt that says "Commited to myopia" on the front and "Art Shell will fix everything. Sincerely, Al."

[whchoclte]

Well I'm a Seahawks fan but I also like the Jets, Dolphins, Pats, Bills, Steelers, Ravens, Bengals, Browns, Colts, Jags, Titans, Texans, Raiders, Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs, Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Bears, Vikings, Lions, Packers, Bucs, Falcons, Saints, Panthers, Rams, 49ers and Cards.

Should be a good season for me.

[IceCap]

IMO it's only acceptible if teh second team is from the same city, just a different sport.

For example, I always wear my Blue Jays hat with my Leafs jersey.

I also like the NY Rangers, but I would never wear a Rangers cap with a Leafs jersey, especially if they were playing each other.

So I would say pick either Miami or Green Bay, not both. Honestly, I think people who go to a sporting event and wear stuff from both competing teams look like morons. If you honestly can not bring yourself to pick one team or an other, don't wear any appeal, like TCR said, and just enjoy the game.

[BallWonk]

"What can I say? I'm a baseball fan. Why are you here?"

Wow. That's not patronizing at all. If you're really there to watch a great game and drop smarmy remarks at superfans, then just don't wear any team stuff at all. As eloquent and usually correct as you are, BallWonk, I gotta respectfully dissent and say no double-dipping with team apparel.

Well, I did find the Phillies/Nats mix offensive, and kidded my friend about it before the game, but not because he was mixing logos. There's just no excuse for anyone to support the Phillies in any case.

My point was that if you show your support for both teams, and somebody in the crowd rags on you, it's because he's a jerk, not because you're a tool. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with being patronizing and smarmy to jerks.

And on a slightly serious, somewhat non-sarcastic note, "superfan" does not describe any person who heckles other spectators at a sporting event. The word you're looking for is "hooligan." Having spent a fair amount of time in European football stadiums this decade, I really believe there is a crucial difference between the way most American fans relate to sports and the way most European fans do. I have never had to talk my way out of being beaten up by a mob on a public street for wearing the wrong color shirt leaving a ballpark in the United States, as I once had to do in Scotland. (Even angry, drunken Glaswegian soccer fans will forgive a lot once they hear your American accent. "Stupid Yank," they say, and start looking for other green things to break.) Why is this? Outside of Philadelphia and the campus of the University of Maryland, why don't Americans generally threaten violence to each other over sporting events? Simple. The folks in Amsterdam don't show up at Ajax games because they're soccer fans and Ajax happens to be the local team. They're members of the Ajax tribe, and it really wouldn't matter if Ajax was playing roller derby or competitive knitting instead of soccer, just so long as the fans could spend two hours together every week experiencing the joys of semiviolent mob behavior.

I generalize wildly, of course, and in fact very many Ajax fans in Amsterdam are great people who love soccer and they're really great neighbors who totally don't judge you for spending two years watching Ajax games with them at their favorite brown cafe without ever really learning to speak Dutch. But, critically, these tend not to be the folks who actually go to the stadium on game day.

Americans, on the other hand, by and large, and with many exceptions, blah blah blah, tend to be fans of sport as a concept. This is easily demonstrated by the prevalence of guys spending all day Sunday watching three football games, at least two of which involve only teams they really don't care about one way or the other. Take me: I don't even like football, as a sport. But if a neighbor invites me over for a cold one to watch a game, do I grab a six-pack from the fridge and head on over for the game? Darn right I do. Now, sure, some of that has to do with my interest in cheering for or against a select few loved/hated teams. But mostly, we Americans just have a culture of loving on the sports. I mean, you can take children reciting letters from the dictionary, throw in an announcer a microphone, stick it on ESPN and call it a "sport," and millions of Americans will tune in.

Or, even more to the point, televised golf: Ridiculous on its face. And by and large, Europeans can't be bothered to watch golf on TV. There are no tribes to join, no hate songs to sing, no flags to wave, no gang colors to wear. But in America we see televised coverage of four guys taking a walk and we say, "It's a sport, it's on TV, save me a spot on the couch."

So I say we have a patriotic duty to defend the rights of our misguided fellow fans to support both teams. Because we have a word for spectators who heckle other fans for what they're wearing, and that word is French.