By Jim Popp for MontrealAlouettes.com
Fan support has always intrigued me through the years.
Growing up as an avid NCAA follower in all sports, I have always admired the loyalty of alumni and fans that have lived and died with their team.
Pro sports do not seem to have the same loyalties, except in some particular cases in some particular cities across North America.
So I ask the question to the members of the Alouettes Nation: which fan are you?
Are you the diehard fan that supports our team with a positive outlook, win or lose? Are you a bandwagon fan who will only go to a game if the team is winning? Are you the fan who believes whatever the newspaper or television reports? Or, are you the fan that never goes to a game but has all the answer about anyone and everything that the Als are about?
History shows that supporting your local sports team in a positive manner, win or lose, brings a winning attitude to a city.
It makes for a happier place to be a part of that culture. It makes everyone want to be a part of all sport teams in their city.
Are you a diehard fan?
A diehard fan will cheer on their team, no matter what the score is. This fan is more like a player and coach, he or she will feel great when the team wins and will feel terrible win the team loses.
This fan also feels what players and coaches feel about the next game: we are going to win!
This is the fan that stays after the game and wants to be a part of the team, no matter the outcome.
This is the fan who will travel to watch the team play.
This is the fan who will stop what he or she is doing and turn on the TV or radio to find out the score.
This fan is what completes a sports team.
We the Alouettes are not a complete team without our diehard fans. We need your support through thick and thin. We need the yelling and screeming from the time we take the field in warmups until the final gun sounds to end the game.
This sometiems is what catipults the team to another level.
The team feeds off the excitement of the crowd, like a bunch of piranhas after the flesh of their prey.
I challange the fan to ask themselves the question: Am I a diehard fan or am I that person who pretends to be a fan?
You be the judge.
We, the Alouettes, have an important game this Saturday at 3 p.m. at Olympic Stadium. As important as ever, we need a very loud setting. Let’s attempt to blow the roof off the building.
Go Als,
Jim Popp
