Fan is just short for Fanatic so that pretty much answers the question of it being a mental desease. The question should be is it a BAD thing? Personally I don’t think so. Those who can’t get emotionally involved or excited in things beyond themselves worry me.

Be it sports, games, TV Shows, Movies, Books, Comics, Camping, Hiking, Climbing Mountains, Politics, or what have you I personally believe it’s a GOOD thing to be a fan. But, just like everything in life, you can take things too far.

Getting emotional about something that matters. Sports in the end doesn’t matter a jot.

A few weeks later my wife and I were driving across the south Texas desert at night and I tuned into AM radio by chance and heard the last quarter of the Giants-Patriots regular season game (I believe it was #14.) The Patriots were miraculously coming back after a tremendous effort by the Giants. I found myself getting so excitied I pulled my car off the road. The wife woke up and together, in the desert, we listened to one of the best games (next to the subsequent Superbowl rematch) that we had ever heard or seen. I was in tears.

I suppose somehow sports grabs our hearts because it is the mataphor, the rehearsal of what life is all about and what stirs the heart of everyman – the epic battle in life between right and wrong, between good and evil. Some live that battle and sports innocuously confrims it. Some have sat out the battle on the sidelines and for them sports is their only experience of what true life is about.

Either way, it’s magic. (Go Spurs.)

Much of your writing infuriates me, but I must say that this piece was accessible, fun, and reminiscent of the must-read sports memoir, “To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever,” Will Blythe’s look at the UNC/Duke hoops rivalry.

Have a look at the book if you haven’t already, and please expand your sportswriting jones.

Generalizing is usually just fine if not for all the exceptions out there!

One reason Sports are popular is that they are the only real drama available on TV. Lets face it, T.V. “Dramas” are anything but. How often do the good folks on “CSI: Albuquerque” or “Law and Order: We decided to make another one” actually loose? You know darn well the murderer is going to get caught; same as when Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and some unknown actor in a red shirt beam down to a planet you know who WON’T be back on the Enterprise for dinner that night. Given how the news is stage managed these days, and “reality” TV is anything but, sports are the only thing on television where the outcome is not pre-ordained. In that respect sports is “the best thing on”.

Another reasons Sports are such a good conversation topic is that they are totally irrelevant. This utter lack of importance was best summed up by a football coach (sadly I forget his name) a few years back. When asked if the upcoming game was “a must win” he replied “No. World War Two was a “must win’. This is only a football game.” Since nothing that really matters is riding on the outcome of the game, one can relax and enjoy the contest. Unlike religion or politics, disagreeing over sports is not (or at least should not be to a sane person) personally offensive.

To the extent that such a disagreement is personally offensive, when the Fan is attempting to live vicariously through his athletic hero; Fandom becomes rather sad. My father-in-law put this in perspective one night when we were out to dinner and a loud and obnoxious fan was disturbing our dinner by yelling “WE won! WE won!” My father-in-law went over and said “NO. The HOUSTON ROCKETS won. YOU just sat here on your fat ass watching them. There is NO “we” involved; so shut the heck up.”

To that extent fandom is rather sad… in that it is a substitute for “having a real life”.

Dave is right to say that ” Fandom” is that part of a male psyche, as many if not most males use sports and their participation in sports as a way of proving their “manliness” to themselves. In our current era of an all volunteer military, where fewer and fewer men actually serve, I think this particular use of sports has increased. This may also be where the obsession with it comes from.

Here again Fandom becomes sad, in that you get the 43 year old who’s proudest achievement in life is that he scored three touchdowns in the game against Hays High a quarter century ago. That’s not just sad, it’s really not healthy.

So in the end, I have to agree with AJ. Is Fandom a Mental Illness?
Yes.