After each off season in football, baseball and basketball, there is a season that avid fans follow, it's called the off-season.
For some fans, it is almost as exciting as the season. It involves trading, drafting and free agent signings. The off season is packed full of rumors with fans and media alike reading too much into players selling houses or making visits to teams.
For the players, they know once they sign their first contract, they will have the chance to become a free agent. It can be an exciting part of their careers when players become a free agent for the first time, as they have the choice of where they want to go, provided their ideal destination shares the interest. One thing to consider, when players become free agents for the first time, it is their first experience with freedom. Up until this point they have either been drafted or traded in most cases without their consent.
While it has become accepted that players will change teams to get a bigger payday, get closer to a championship, extend their career, or get closer to home, it has become less acceptable for fans to become free agents.
I wonder why that is. If a player chooses a team via free agency and that team implodes and is moving more towards a rebuild than a championship, fans understand if that player asks for a trade.
Why can't fans do the same thing.
For me, growing up I was a 49ers fan. My all-time favorite player was and forever will be Joe Montana. When he was traded by the 49ers, it hurt, but I understood the move. As such I had a harder time identifying or wanting to follow the 49ers once he left the team. I jumped ship. Mind you, the 49ers won a Super Bowl shortly after trading Montana, so jumping ship for me was not about leaving because things had gone bad.
So I moved on from the 49ers to the Chargers. I left a team that had 4 titles (5 if you count the one that Steve Young helped them win) for a team that had been to one Super Bowl and losing badly in it. Some would say I traded down. I was happy with the decision, I liked the direction of the Chargers.
Fast forward to today. The Chargers have moved to Los Angeles. A move that I am not fond of, and now the team may look a whole lot different next season. Phillip Rivers is a free agent and while I loved watching his career, it is time to make a change and move on. Melvin Gordon is a free agent and Austin Ekeler is a Restricted Free Agent so they could potentially have a brand-new back field.
So I have changed teams a couple of times. From 49ers to Chargers and from Cougars to Utes. When I was growing up, I was a BYU fan. Why, only because I was born in Provo and the Cougars played in Provo. I was a fan all through High School and into College. My first semester at the University of Utah in 2000 is when I changed. I had a public speaking class. I was in class the day I had paid my tuition, and I thought to myself, I have no connection to BYU, I am paying all this money to this school, there is no reason why I can’t cheer for this team. It helped that in that class were two players on the football team, it become easier for me to follow and cheer for the team. Especially since one of those players, Jordan Gross went on to play in the NFL and play in a Super Bowl.
We as fans should be able to change teams just as much as we have the right to change the store we shop in or the brand of toothpaste we use. What it does come down to is why.
I remember in 2003 when the Red Sox lost a game 7 in the Division Series to the Yankees, I had a friend that was a die-hard Red Sox fan. He said, "that's it. I am done. I am sick of losing, I am going to become a Yankee fan." It is within his right to change, I just question his motivation.
I remember wearing Red Sox apparel prior to 2004. I could go months without seeing another person wearing Red Sox apparel. Now I can go scarcely a week, without seeing someone else wearing Red Sox gear. I keep asking myself, where were you people prior to 2004?
So as a fan, do I have the right to change team? Yes I do. However, what I am unclear on is why and when can you change teams. When does it become “acceptable.”
Here are some reasons I think you should be able to trade teams. I think each of these reasons make it acceptable to trade team(s).
1 - A team changes locations - with the Raiders moving to Las Vegas and becoming closer to where you live, does that give one enough reason to trade teams. I would say yes. Also if you are say a San Diego native and your team moves away - you should be able to change teams.
2 - Your favorite player retires or changes teams. Let's say you are a big Bryce Harper fan. He leaves the Nationals for the Phillies, that would give you the right to change teams.
3 - Team undergoes new ownership.
4 - Team consistently underachieves consistently. See Cleveland Browns.
5 - Some controversy - It could be something like Bountygate with the Saints, Sign Stealing with the Astros, Black Sox scandal with the White Sox.
I guess what it really comes down to is, why are you changing teams. If the team you are jumping on is winning…..is that wrong. That’s up to you. As for me, I am taking a wait and see approach with the Chargers. I am not jumping ship but will be weighing my options. It is after all, the offseason and I as a fan am a free agent.
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