20 Things That Sports Fans Need to Stop Doing

Being a sports fan can be a tricky thing. Sometimes, we don't know what is acceptable behavior and what isn't, and with sports culture being what it is today, it's harder and harder to see the lines between bad and good. However, it doesn't need to be so confusing. Here's a few tips to start out: don't buy into the 24/7 media hype cycle, chill on your Twitter presence, and, above all, don't be a troll.

In 2014, being a sports fan is completely different than it was 100 years ago. There are more ways for us to make our presence known than ever before. However, for your own good, think about trying not to be seen. Opt not to scream and shout every time a break doesn't go your team's way. You're better off taking the loss in silence or dealing with it among your immediate friends than crying about it on Facebook.

How else can you be a good fan, though? Great question, and here's your answer: 20 Things That Sports Fans Need to Stop Doing, a list of all the behavior and etiquette that sports fans need to cut out of their systems. Recognize anything on here that you've done in the past? If you're still doing it, then it's time to make a change.

Thinking we're a part of the team.

Hate to say it, but it's time to tell you the truth: Little League is over. Your days as a D-III college athlete are done. High school sports have come to an end. You're no longer a part of the team. Be cautious when using "we" to refer to your favorite team. Maybe hold off on getting that custom-made jersey with your name and number on the back. Think twice about stanning your favorite players on Twitter. Ultimately, all of this is to say that it's important for all of us to realize our place as fans. We're observers. Passionate ones, yes. But at the end of the day, we're still observers. Don't get your role misconstrued. Enjoy the game, but don't take it too personally if the chips don't fall where you hoped they would.

Crying

Dude, it's just a game. If you're past the age of about 10 or 11, it's time to take losing like a big kid. No more crying. No more temper tantrums. Hold the water works, please. Otherwise, your friends have right to take of video of you sobbing and post it on every form of social media available. You need to be shamed out of this habit. It's fun to get passionate about sports, but at a certain point, rational thought needs to trump your emotional involvement. Take the L like an adult and move on with your life.

Trolling sports websites.

Spending your days on messaging boards and social media is a lonely life. Don't live it. More than anything, you don't want to be the guy who is known as a local troll because of your inane contributions to a comments section. You're smarter than that, right? If anything, just be smart enough to realize that you don't need to throw your opinion into every sports argument that comes to light. You don't need to make your feelings known about every single article Sports Illustrated puts up on their website. We all have better things to do with our time than sitting on the Internet for 15 hours a day, including you.

Rioting

What is it about a great win or a bad loss that prompts sports fans to riot? The fact that rioting can occur in either situation should tell you exactly how mindless it is. It's pointless, destructive, and mostly just sad. No outcome is worth flipping over a stranger's car or getting in a senseless fight or setting fire to a trashcan. You won (or lost). It happens. Celebrate your win, have a beer, and hang out with your friends. Go out to the bar if you're really feeling like it. There's no need for it to get much more wild than that.

Trying to be superfans.

In 2012, when Fireman Ed "retired" from his position as the Jets superfan, you'll recall that no one really cared. Why? Because Ed wasn't a part of the team, had no effect on the outcome, and was way more zealous about his sports fandom than any middle-aged man has a right to be. There will come a time in your life when you need to dial back on your love of sports, and focus your attentions on other things. Hopefully, it won't take you as long to see the light of that reality as it did for Ed. Superfandom suggests that you live and breath every match and result for your favorite team. Don't make a game life or death.

Sending hate mail or negative tweets at beleaguered players.

If you're really taking the time to sit down and write a harshly-worded letter or draft an angry tweet, then it's time for you to get a little bit of perspective. First, take a deep breath and count to 10. Feel any better? If not, repeat the process. If so, doesn't it feel silly that you were just about to cuss out a guy you've never met, over a mistake that any other individual could've made? Don't think for a second that you would've done any better! On top of that, don't you think that this guy is already beating himself up about it enough? He didn't get to where he is today without being able to recognize and learn from his mistakes in some way. In any case, he doesn't need you or anyone else amplifying them. We should all be moving on from it. It's a part of the game.

Searching for the next [insert iconic athlete].

There will never be another Michael Jordan. For that matter, you can check Bo Jackson, Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth, and Muhammed Ali off of the list as well. Certain athletes are one-of-a-kind specimens, and trying to copy them just cheapens the value of the current stars of today. We constantly compare LeBron James and Jordan, but at what point do we start to blind ourselves to James' contributions to the game and his star-like qualities? As sports fans, we're often obsessed with creating a legacy for an athlete, but fail to create one in a new mold. We go back to the old heroes too much of the time. It's time for us to realize that these old guys are never coming back onto the court. Let the new generation make their own name.

Dismissing Major League Soccer.

Anyone who still believes that Major League Soccer doesn't have a chance to make an impact in the United States hasn't been paying enough attention for the past few years, and is ignorantly rooted in the past. There are plenty of reasons that you shouldn't ignore the MLS this season, including fierce rivalries, exciting new clubs, and increasing attendence for games. Even more than that, MLS is what allows us to move our sports conversation to a global scale. Soccer is a sport that has worldwide resonance, but for some reason, it has been exceptionally late making its way over to the United States. It's time we bridge that gap, and enjoy a game that's worth watching.

Choosing our fantasy team over our actual team.

It's a cardinal sin in sports, and it doesn't matter if your fantasy league championship is on the line. Don't openly cheer against your team during a game, especially if you're watching it with other fans of the team. If your team loses, and you win your league, then that should just be a bright side for an otherwise disappointing day. During the actual contest, just try and keep your mouth shut. You may be stoked that you started Peyton Manning on your fantasy squad, but everyone else is pissed that he just torched the team for 5 TDs. Be a real fan, not a fake one.

Overly investing ourselves in statistical analysis.

Sabermetrics is an interesting subject and has had a serious influence on how baseball GMs have been building their teams for the past decade. Likewise, in basketball, a statistical approach to team-construction has allowed certain managers to get a leg up over their competition. However, you're not a GM, and if you start rattling off stats about WAR, UZR, and BABIP, most people won't really know what you're talking about. Honestly, they shouldn't have to either. Those stats have their place, but don't start rattling off a bunch of obscure numbers and expect a major response. At the end of the day, fans just want to watch the game. It doesn't take much analysis to do that.

Hating on PED users in baseball.

In some form, cheating and baseball have gone hand-in-hand with one another since the days of the Chicago Black Sox, and probably even before then. Over the years we've seen spitballers, amphetamine users, and all sorts of guys who were looking for some way to get an edge. However, the steroid era has gotten the worst of the collective anger about cheating in baseball. We're unable to forgive guys like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Roger Clemens for reasons that are weirdly personal. We feel lied to by these guys, but should we really care so much? They were fighting for a job and a legacy and relevance on a scale that we can't even imagine. The sport has been tainted for a century now, and they're the latest ones to stir the pot, but let's not act like they're the first.

Cherishing the "purity" of the NCAA.

At this point, anyone who really believes in the concept of "amateurism" in collegiate athletics needs to get their head checked. The NCAA is a multi-billion dollar organization. Money is getting spread around in all sorts of shady ways, and the players are seeing the smallest amount of it. If you really believe in trying to protect the integrity of the game or some other similarly outdated notion, then you may need to realize that you're fighting a losing battle. The NCAA has been crooked for years, and it doesn't come down to just a few bad apples. Corruption has presented itself in a number of different forms.

Cheering on multiple teams in one sport.

Pick a team and stick with them. If you're watching the Super Bowl, and your team isn't playing, then go ahead and cheer on whoever you want. But don't suddenly claim that you've been a Seattle Seahawks fan all your life while you're doing it. Oh, you visited Seattle once when you were a kid and fell in love with the team? What's that you say? Your second cousin-once-removed is from Seattle? Dude, we're not buying it. Switching sides or having multiple allegiances is the mark of a bandwagon fan.

Railing on athletes even though they have no actual effect on our lives.

Unless you're gambling on the outcome of a game, there's really no reason for you to curse Johnny Manziel's name or to declare a blood feud with Sidney Crosby. Even if you are gambling, well, that's your fault for putting money on the line. Sports can be a true test of someone's character and inner strength, but that doesn't just apply to the athletes. If you feel like you have a personal beef with a guy on your favorite team because he didn't come through for you, then that just tells everyone that you're taking these things a little too seriously. Try finding another hobby or something.

Buying into the hype.

The 24/7 hype cycle of sports is one of the worst technological advancements of our era. As the 21st century has worn on, ESPN and other sports media outlets have gradually started to make their coverage longer and longer into the day. Suddenly, it's eating up every hour and every minute of the week. However, this doesn't mean that you need to be watching every moment of it, or participating in every single argument that gets brought up throughout the cycle. In fact, you're much better off not doing that. Being a sports fan can be emotionally and mentally exhausting enough sometimes. You don't need Skip Bayless or Stephen A. Smith getting you even more riled up.

Complaining about our team's owner, but attending games anyway.

Knicks fans, here's the thing about James Dolan: as long as you guys continue to fill the Garden, he's going to continue to run the team however he wants to run it. With millionaires and billionaires, you have to hit them where it hurts the most: their wallets. Otherwise, don't expect the fortunes of your team to change at all. These people have trained themselves to block out criticism. It's how they got to where they are today. Unless you start going after their bottom line, they'll continue to make bad coaching hires, lobby for junk GMs, and generally run your team into the ground. Don't buy season tickets. Don't buy single-game tickets. Don't even buy tickets for the nosebleeds. Suck it up and watch it at the bar or at home. You're doing the right thing.

Clapping when a player from the other team gets injured.

If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. The same rule applies for clapping. If you want to be that guy who cheers at the sight of a wounded opponent, then by all means, go ahead. But you're creating a negative reputation for every other fan of your team. No one wants to be associated with someone who doesn't know how to be a good sport. Kicking the other man while he's down qualifies as poor form for any sports fan.

Getting embarrassingly wasted during the actual game.

If you think you're in the clear to do what you want just because you made it into the stadium, think again. Drunkeness in stadiums has only become a larger issue in the past decade, culminating in a gut-wrenching moment this season when an intoxicated Bills fan fell over the railing at Ralph Wilson Stadium and suffered a head injury. For your own good, be smarter than this dude. Also, consider the fact that beer is about $7 a cup for any pro sports event, and then ask yourself if you can really afford to be getting wrecked at the stadium.

Getting embarrassingly wasted during the tailgate.

Tailgating at college football games is a given, and there's little that can be done to stop college campuses from blowing up every Saturday aside from implementing Draconian drinking laws and effectively sapping the fun out of everything. However, tailgating for pro sports is a completely different story, mainly because you're probably too old to be making a fool of yourself in public, and you don't really have a good excuse to roll into the office hungover on Monday. Throwing back a couple beers with your friends is fine. Taking multiple keg stands, passing out in your car, and missing the game altogether? C'mon, man, you're better than that.

Excessively painting our bodies.

Do you see these guys above? You never want to be these guys. After college, this move stops being acceptable. School spirit is one thing, but after you leave the university stadiums, suddenly you're just some dude with a beer belly and an obnoxious amount of love for his team. Keep your shirt on. You aren't letting anyone down by doing so.