Allure of Sports Teams and Belonging

Most people assume today’s sports followers are the most fanatic and obsessed ever – but they are utter wimps compared to the fans of the ancient chariot racing teams that began around 200 BCE in Rome. In 6th century Constantinople, virtually everyone in the city (and the Eastern Roman Empire) was obsessed with their favorite team, with Blue and Green being the two major ones. With 70 race days a year and each with up to 24 races, the populous had plenty of racing to watch. As Gaius Galen relates at a race (Chapter 3):

​

“The Hippodrome was a continuous roar – a howl of primal desire that broke over the city as if it might topple the multitude of crosses that crowned every house from the tip of the peninsula to the Theodosian Walls to the west.

​

“This roar always both agitated me and settled my core, the sheer concentrated focus of so many on noble victory – over anything, even a different Color – was humbling. To most priests in this holy city the same roar was a cry from Lucifer, our bishops grudgingly allowing us the sinful entertainments of the races and theater. They were the only things some of us had. And as long as we primarily only bashed each other, the emperors tolerated the sport and the occasional fan rioting afterward.”

​

The sport of chariot racing was insanely popular and polarizing in the Roman and early Byzantine worlds. And as Gaius notes, it was easier for a person to change religions than to change Blue or Green team affiliation. While the professional drivers could change colors and did – like NBA and NFL players today – fans stayed loyal to their color often through generations.

​

Sport team affiliation then and now is based on the allure of belonging, the need to be part of something bigger than oneself, something one can believe in as a grounding force of identity. While religion, ethnicity, nationality and clan also nurture our need to belong, these are unions we most often do not chose for ourselves and are also of a more serious nature than sports. But latching on to a team is a personal choice, and at the end of the race or the game, we know that it really was just a game and there will be another one our team can triumph in.

​

Fans are crazy happy with their team’s victory and depressed and angry with their team’s defeat. Chariot racing in ancient times, like football (soccer), American football or basketball today, are popular entertainments. But it is the belonging to a particular team, rather than enjoyment of the particular sport, that creates the depth of passion, excitement and zealotry.