A Losing Mentality

There are lots of things I still don't understand about being a sports fan, even though I've been watching the Canadiens for long enough now. Here's one thing from that list, thanks to :

The team loses. Fans are ready to jump ship, trade away most of the roster, or tank for the rest of the season in an attempt to Fail for Nail. They'll do just about anything but cheer for a losing team, as if they forget that sometimes teams lose, and yes, sometimes they lose a lot.

Then a player uses the word "losing" in an interview and it's the end of the world. Fans are suddenly upset because Mike Cammalleri said the team doesn't have a winning mentality. As if he were criticizing his team, and not stating a fact. Instead of using this statement to reflect on the state of their team, most fans are flying off the handle, probably getting ready to burn their Cammalleri T-shirts or something. We, as fans, already know that this team isn't playing well. Cammalleri, as a member of the team, obviously knows, even better than we do. And maybe he has a better idea than we do of why the team isn't winning. Fans: you can't actively wish for a team to fail, and then whine when a player admits that his team isn't doing well.

Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to turn against our own players. After all, this is usually the team that we schedule our lives around. We either love them or hate them, and somehow there is no middle ground. Be happy when they win; be disappointed when they lose. But be a fan, no matter what. (Otherwise we'll start begging for you to be traded to some other fanbase. How does Pittsburgh sound?)

We'll do our part to support the team, and hopefully the team will do their part and work out whatever's plaguing them. It's the best that we can do, in order to help our team be the best.