Prologue : five days in March -- Preface : they didn't listen to Jesus either -- Fandom is folly -- The factory of sadness -- Lose yourself -- Me and Mrs. Jones -- Ventura highway -- The politics of nostalgia -- Beautiful losers -- Living your gimmick -- Warrior-poets -- A song for you -- Bending the knee -- The merit myth -- Varsity blues -- After the gold rush -- Onward Christian soldiers -- Being there -- Celebration day -- OK boomer -- A flag is down -- Bacon and the patriarchy -- Upon further review, every man kills the thing he loves -- A meaningless game -- The end of the world as we know it -- Hotel California -- The flight tracker -- An acute limited excellence -- Duende -- A season without sports -- Tangled up in blue -- The circle game.
Summary:
"Sports fandom is defined by obsession, irrationality, and a love of rabbit holes. But in 2020, most professional sports had few games and no fans present. This led lawyer and University of Michigan superfan Paul Campos to ponder the ways that fandom is conditioned by social circumstance and collective psychology. In limning the structural unhappiness of a fan's life, he found deep and resonant political and personal meanings to loving a sports team-some obvious, others revealed only over time. Campos's own lifelong obsessions help him index fandom-related manias and provides an entry point to grasping their history, nature, and surprisingly broad import"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.