It's Hard Being A Fan Today

​Being a fan of a sports team is unlike anything else. As extreme as it sounds, your happiness throughout the week can be heavily influenced by how good or bad your team does. As a Chicago Bears fan, you might can imagine how my mental health is during the NFL Season.

My allegiance is divided among several teams and athletes: the Carolina Tar Heels, Oklahoma Sooners, and Chicago Bears, just to name a few. Of course, each of these teams has its natural rivals: the Duke Blue Devils, Texas Longhorns, and Green Bay Packers. I have a healthy disdain for all three. 

In today's political climate, I have found it difficult to hop online and participate in what we sports fans know to be friendly banter, especially in public message boards like X (formerly Twitter). 

When the NC State Wolfpack made it to the Final Four, as a Tar Heel fan, I had to make sure "Little Brother" knew that even after this run, the Heels were still better, and they just had a good run. Now, any Wolfpack fan will hit me with something slick because Carolina didn't make it past the Sweet 16 this season. This is what us sports fans call friendly banter. It's fun, and it's what makes sports rivalries fun. 

Where the issue with this banter comes into play is that people who likely haven't sat down to watch a single college basketball game in their lives see the two of us slinging friendly insults at one another about our teams and think that 1. we are serious and 2. we are what's wrong with this country and are the reason why there is so much hate in the world. 

Now, am I serious when I say, "NC State isn't as good as UNC, and State fans will talk about this run for 40 years before doing anything relevant again?" Yes. Yes, I am. But any smart NC State fan can hit me with something just as insulting, and neither of us will take it personally. We understand that this is all in good fun. 

Some of my best friends are fans of rival teams. Sometimes, I get along with them better than fans of the teams I like because we can throw insults at one another and understand that they aren't meant to be taken personally. So, that all being said, if you see Carolina and State fans online bashing one another and you're a political junkie that watches CNN or Fox way too much, just stay out of it. Let us have our fun hating one another.