a cautionary tale about sports fanaticism (aka the clipper darrell story)

this is clipper darrell:









darrell is a super fan. darrell has made a name for himself as being the most over the top, well known, well loved l.a. clippers fan in the world. in fact, he may be one of the more well known fans in all the nba. clipper darrell has spent years rooting for a franchise that hasn't had a lot to root for. the clippers have always been synonymous with losing and are constantly in the humongous shadow of the l.a. lakers.

but through it all, clipper darrell remained true to his heart and stuck by his team no matter what. he was always out in the spotlight rocking his crazy colored suit and sharing his love of the l.a. clippers with anyone and everyone.

so this season the l.a. clippers finally got it together. all of the sudden they have a couple of star players and they look like contenders. more people are suddenly watching and paying attention and wanna know what's going on with the l.a. clippers.

l.a. clippers management, noticing the success, decided now would be a good time to ask their #1 beloved super fan if he would stop referring to himself as clipper darrell. here they are finally getting a sniff of some success, and they're gonna go after their #1 fan. classy move.

their pr staff will tell you that clipper darrell is making money off the clipper name. and hey, maybe he is. but he's been at it for so long. he was a clippers fan when it never made sense for anyone in their right mind to root for them. clipper darrell is all you want in a sports fan. he doesn't abandon you when times get tough. he's there through and through in suit and character.

so now he's just darrell bailey. and that's alright, i'm sure darrell bailey's a swell dude.

but the problem is, here's a guy who spent a good chunk of his life building his whole reputation and personality around a sports team. he's well known by thousands (possibly millions, especially since espn's picked up the story) as that super clippers fan. that's his everything and the people who run the team took that away from him.

i'm sure he'll still be known as 'clipper darrell.' just because the team asked him to stop using it doesn't necessarily mean the rest of us won't call him that. but should he want to be known as that, after all he gave of himself for the team, and team management deciding it meant nothing to them?

clipper darrell could've used his time and dedication elsewhere in life. he could've been known for something different or pursued other passions. maybe pursue passions that mean more to darrell bailey the individual than clipper darrell the sports nut. it's one thing to be a fan and hoot and holler, but when the game's over, step out of the fan zone and back into the other aspects of your life.

the saddest aspect about sports fanaticism, in my eyes, is that people can truly love a team, but no matter what they do, that team can't reciprocate and love them back. it will always be a love that leads to emptiness and abusiveness. that sports team won't love you back, but maybe if you buy more tickets or memorabilia, the team will see you differently. keep spending... spending time and money, trying your best to impress something that is totally incapable of ever loving you back.

so go on, like sports. but don't let it own who you are or define you as a person. there's so much more depth to the human character. we could be so much more than super fans and sports junkies.