The Homer Syndrome

Recently I was bashed on an email list of Texas graduates for questioning whether the Texas Longhorns deserved to be in a BCS bowl this year. I felt as an objective fan of college football that if Utah defeats BYU this weekend that they deserve one of the at large bids into the BCS over a Texas team that needed all 60 minutes of their game to come back and beat a below .500 Kansas team. I feel vindicated that I am not alone in thinking this way. This is the exact scenario that the BCS contemplated when they adjusted the BCS formula to allow a school that is a part of a non-BCS conference to automatically qualify for a BCS bowl if it is in the top 6 of the BCS poll.

But this explanation fell onto def ears. I forgot that my audience was a group of “homers.” In The Simpson’s, a “homer” is described as a noun to describe an “American bonehead.” I can think of no better definition for fans of teams that believe that their team has some sort of entitlement despite lacking accomplishment.

This “Homer Syndrome” has become a chronic problem across the country. “Homers” have made it increasingly painful for unbiased, objective fans of sport to attend sporting events, watch games at bars, or watch games with large groups of fans.

Typical “homers” include people that paint any part of their bodies, people that shave their body hair in the shape of their teams symbol, people that co-ordinate their shirts to spell something out, the people they interview outside the stadium and say things like, “We’re going to beat them REAL bad, WHOOOOO-WHOOOOO!” and anyone from Texas A&M. These are the people that make me cringe even when I am comfortably sitting at home simply watching them on TV. “Homers” can also appear in the form of regular fans. These are the “homers” that are most dangerous and annoying. They look like they can be reasoned with and see the “big picture” of the entire sport, but their looks are deceiving. They are the most unreasonable people of the whole lot and have a stronger belief in their entitlement than anyone else.

However, the real problem with “homers” is that they don’t listen to reason. No matter how many logical arguments you make to them about how their team is not in contention for the championship, they will respond with a laundry list of “what ifs” and inconsequential stats. They only read articles that pertain to their team and don’t realize that the majority of the country doesn’t care about what happens to their team. The way “homers” think is eerily similar to how people believe in religion. They don’t need facts or reason to explain what they believe, they just believe.

I understand that this problem will never go away and these people will probably only get worse as time goes on, but one can dream for a better tomorrow without the “Homer Syndrome.”

Z