Hacker News Reader

I’ve thought this about sports teams too. You’ll meet diehard, lifelong fans of a team even though the players and coaches have completely turned over a few times in their lifetime. What exactly is the team they love?

I don’t point this out to my friends obviously, for fear of being rude.

View on HN

Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify, because the players are always changing, the team can move to another city. You're actually rooting for the clothes, when you get right down to it. You know what I mean? You are standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city. Fans will be so in love with a player, but if he goes to another team, they boo him. This is the same human being in a different shirt; they hate him now. Boo! Different shirt! Boo!

- Jerry Seinfeld

I think that while the original composition of the team changes the traditions, attitudes and strategy definitely translates across the different generations of players, coaches and staff. It’d be different if a team was completely cycled through to a new set of members every period of time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com