Renee Rosenow

On Saturday, the No. 3-ranked college football team, the Georgia Bulldogs, will square off against the No. 8-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. Because of the excitement surrounding the game and the importance of a victory over the Tide, the Bulldogs have announced that the team will be sporting black jerseys and have asked that their fans wear black as well. Only twice, both incidents occurring last season, have the Bulldogs donned the black jerseys and asked their fans to do the same.

To some, the decision is simply seen as the Bulldogs making a fashion statement. Others perhaps could care less what either team is wearing when they watch a game. I on the other hand am left shaking my head over the decision, wondering why a team would dominate its football uniforms with a color that is barely visible in the logos. But this is just one minor case in the big scheme of fans and players adapting everything that embodies a sports team for their own personal benefit.

I often find myself wondering if fans realize the full magnitude of what being a fan of a team means. When one declares themselves a fan of something, they should realize they are becoming fans of what that thing embodies. In the case of talking about sports teams, this mostly consists of its colors, its logos and the other tiny details that make each sports team unique.

Mostly the forgetfulness of this choice comes in the form of fashion. A couple of troubling trends have been introduced to the sports culture recently that seriously show the decision to be a fan of a sports team is no longer a commitment but rather a convenience.

The first problem arises mostly with men and their wearing of hats. If wearing hats the wrong way, backwards, sideways or the coolest – slanted – wasn’t enough, now it’s hard to walk around without seeing a male wearing a different variation on their team’s official hat. The other day, while looking for a hat of my favorite baseball team, I was able to find their official hat surrounded by 17 others with various color schemes. My team’s colors are aqua, black and white but somehow I could have purchased a hat with the colors being bright orange, white and blue. Even better, if I wanted to sport my love for them while hunting but didn’t want the animals’ attention drawn to the hat’s bright aqua, I could have purchased a camouflage colored hat.

Additionally, hats now no longer have to consist of the sports teams’ logo being directly in the center and actually being the team’s logo. Now stores offer hats with city skylines behind the logo, logos no longer centered but off to the side and even ones who have logos that look as though they were pumped with the steroids Barry Bonds didn’t end up using this season.

The same can pretty much be said for pants and shirts as well, and this applies to both sexes. Shirts can have different color schemes than the colors of the team they are fans of. Believe me, I get a kick out of seeing Blugold shirts and pants being sold in colors such as hot pink and lime green while containing none of the colors in which our university’s moniker comes from. And as with hats, logos can be beefed up, off center and everything else except for the actual logo of the team in question.

The decision for the Bulldogs to wear their black jerseys was made when the coaching staff was pressured by the seniors. The jerseys, as evident by the scores of the two times they have worn them – 45-20 and 41-10 – bring a valuable motivational tool to the team.

But if the players are more focused on what they are wearing, and actually need to wear a certain color in order to perform better, then they should have chosen a different school to attend. The history of the Bulldogs consists of the colors red and grey, and to switch that up to accommodate the players and fans is dumbfounding.

Part of the problem is on the shoulders of the manufacturers and sellers of these types of products. However, I can’t blame them for selling products that fly off the shelves. Mostly, this problem lies squarely on the shoulders of those who call themselves fans of something.

When a person becomes a fan of a team it shouldn’t come with the option for the fan to change the team to their liking. For better or worse, when someone becomes a fan, they need to realize exactly what they are becoming a fan of. They are a fan not only of the players and their accomplishments, but of everything that encompasses that team.

Color schemes and logos encompass a portion of what makes a team who they are – it gives them an identity. If that identity doesn’t match the color that brings out your masculinity or your gluteus maximus, that is unfortunate. But for better or worse, when someone becomes a fan, they should understand the commitment to that team and know that they shouldn’t change things to better suit their personal preference.

Hansen is a junior print journalism major and editorial editor of The Spectator. “Mmmboppin’ with Scott Hansen” appears every Thursday.