Bandwagoning is a problem.

In every sport, people just naturally want to cheer for the winning team, regardless of if they even knew of the team’s existence beforehand. Whether it’s suddenly chanting Go Pack Go, buying a Bruins jersey or leaving your Facebook status as “PUJOLSSSSSSSS”; bandwagoning is annoying to the real fans.

For example, the 49ers just upset the Saints to go on to the NFC Championship. Cool, but I see a number of people who were Raiders fans suddenly cheering on the San Fran team. As a Blackhawks fan, I can say first hand that there is nothing more annoying than being the product of waves of bandwagoners. It’s like I was on the broken and dead ship before it suddenly got renovated; now everyone wants to ride on it. So I have no patience for the Raiders fans that pulled a Benedict Arnold… until I thought about it.

That’s right, in the minutes after the 49ers win; I have come up with ten rules for bandwagoning. While bandwagoning is a pestilence in sports, there are cases where it is excusable, and some where it is not.

Excusable

1.If you are a native to the city, regardless of if there are two teams; you are welcome to cheer for the winning team. This may make some people angry, but there is nothing better for a team than a unified city when they need it.

2.If your spouse or family member is a fan of the winning team, you are fine. If you ever cut ties with that person, you have no excuse. If the family member talks trash the entire year, see rule 6.

3.If you have money on the game, you have a 1 game pass to be a fan.

4.If you are the fan of the losing team’s rival, you have a 1 game pass.

5.If you ditch your other team to cheer for a team with a losing record, and that team becomes a winning team, you are fine. You can’t just suddenly jump back to the other team.

Inexcusable

6.If you have talked extremely ill of the winning team within the span of 2 years, you cannot bandwagon onto that team.

7.If the winning team is your rival, you have no excuse. You cannot bandwagon. This is the most serious of offenses. AKA, if you are a Bears fan, you can never be a Packers fan.

8.If you do not know atleast 5 players on the winning team and you do not apply to rules 1-4, you cannot cheer for that team.

9. If you haven’t watched atleast 50% of the team’s games, you have no right to cheer for that team. If there’s a regional problem like you don’t get the games on TV, atleast 10% is fine or you had to have made some attempt to watch 50%.

10.If you have said you did not even care about the sport, you have no right to cheer for the winning team in that sport. This really applies mainly to hockey.

So there it is. The almighty rules of bandwagoning, if you have any problems with it, just leave a comment or send me a tweet.

@JakePayneSports