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Is using "we" acceptable when talking about a sports team?

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Comments

  • dragonslayerdragonslayer Posts: 697 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    I was present at all of those games. Also at the 81, 82, 83 Sugar Bowls.

  • mattmd2mattmd2 Posts: 2,384 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    Flip this around too..

    When talking to my UT friends (secret confession, I have a few living here in TN)...

    I say "hey, how do you like your new head coach" or "how good do you think y'all will be this year."? Obviously my friends aren't on the team, but when you become a fan, you take a sense of "ownership."

    I also work in automotive so I work with a lot of people from Michigan, so I say "Man, y'all really sh*t the bed against Florida didn't you?" knowing dang well they didn't suit up on the football field.

  • texdawgtexdawg Posts: 11,566 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    You have been tortured my friend.

    I was at the 81' sugar & 84' cotton bowl and those turned out great.

    Maybe I should attend more bowl games.

  • dragonslayerdragonslayer Posts: 697 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    Yes, the 81 was the good one. Forgot to include this years SB.

  • TNDawg71TNDawg71 Posts: 2,218 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    I don't like it when someone says they when the team is struggling and we when things are going well. But it's a sport, it's entertainment, we enjoy it.

  • WCDawgWCDawg Posts: 17,293 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    I'm fluid. Within a paragraph I'll sometimes use both we and they. Is it acceptable ? as long as ''we'' don't grab ''their'' arse without permission, I don't see why not.

  • DawginSCDawginSC Posts: 792 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    Neither answer works for me.

    I believe it's odd to say "we" about a professional sports team. But on the flip side... I think anyone who went to a college is fine saying "we" about anything relating to their college. They might not have been on the football team or the quiz bowl team or whatever... but they are by definition a part of that school.

    So yeah... WE won the SEC championship in football in 2017, WE'VE had 24 Rhodes Scholars and WE had 10 gold medals in the 2016 Olympics.

    I'm a Georgia Bulldog. I have the degree to prove it. That makes me part of that "team" and allows me to say "WE" about all the things the University does.

  • donmdonm Posts: 10,241 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    Of course it's fine to us "we". You have formed a bond, while not the same as a teammate, a bond nevertheless. You rejoice when the team does, you hurt when it does. To me, that earns a "we".

  • RetiredRedcoatRetiredRedcoat Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    No, you're not on the team, you don't get to use that word.

    Can I qualify my "no?"

    If we're pulling for a victory or mourning a defeat, sure. In that case it's "we." Being emotionally invested is why we're here in the first place.

    But when it comes to bellyaching about football decisions that go against fan desires...I think then it is appropriate to draw the line and make a distinction between what the fans may want at any given time and what the best football decision is. Those two are not always the same thing. We are not "we" in the sense of the word that we bear any real responsibility for those decisions.

  • WCDawgWCDawg Posts: 17,293 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    I think WE can expand the idea of being a part of a college program, especially good ol State U just by being from the state the school is in. If fans didn't feel a part of something these 90K stadiums wouldn't be filled on Saturdays.

  • JoelSidneyKellyJoelSidneyKelly Posts: 3,678 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    I try not to do it. I don't hold others to that. But I do chuckle when fans say, "If we don't stop focusing on ND Vandy is gonna sneak up and beat us."

  • sarceansarcean Posts: 192 ✭✭✭✭ Senior

    We is fine to use in a casual conversation assuming whoever your talking with knows you are a fan of the team. Stop overthinking it.

  • PTDawgPTDawg Posts: 2,169 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    I only use "we" to refer to the Dawgs, not any of the pro teams that I follow. I'm a multi-generation alum, marched with the Redcoats for 4 yrs and am a season ticket holder. I feel just fine saying "we" when talking about the Dawgs.

  • Red_N_BlackRed_N_Black Posts: 353 ✭✭✭✭ Senior

    I never really thought about this before. It's always been "we" going back to when Wally Butts was coaching. Still "we" with Johnny Griffith, Vince Dooley, Ray Goff, Jim Donnan, Mark Richt and now Kirby. Right or wrong, I kinda doubt I'll do any changing now.

  • RandomFanRandomFan Posts: 536 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    It's always we. The entire basis for the desire to support any team is based on the sociological/psychological concept of ingroup loyalty and outgroup hostility. It's evolutionarily ingrained in us. We identify with certain groups that we establish as "in" groups, everyone outside of that group we tend to view very very differently. That's why family matters to people over some random stranger.

    The double edged sword of that though is that any member of the "out" group makes it easy to dehumanize and disparage them. It's why we hate Florida and Tennessee as badly as we do; same thing with the opposing political party, or pretty much anything we view as being outside our ingroup.

    So yeah, it's always "we" because people view themselves as a member of that ingroup. If you don't see it that way, you probably don't strongly identify with or associate yourself with that group in the first place.

  • texdawgtexdawg Posts: 11,566 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    You sir should absolutely say we. You are as big a part of that team as anyone. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

    The band, cheerleaders, drill team are all part of it. They put in just as much work as the players.

    I remember walking onto the practice field the same time the band was and walking off the practice field and the band wasn't even close to finished.

  • Denmen185Denmen185 Posts: 7,397 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    edited July 2019
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    Are fans not an integral part of the branding?

  • texdawgtexdawg Posts: 11,566 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    "We" is completely fine if you love the team

    Dang. Really intelligent post.

    Your new name is "smarty pants" /s


    Anyway, really well said

  • cory430cory430 Posts: 913 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    edited July 2019
    No, you're not on the team, you don't get to use that word.

    I do not say it. Been a fan all my life, but at the end of the day, I'm just another grown man hoping 18-22 years olds win football games. And I haven't done crap to help them win other than cheer in front of my TV.

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