Annotated Bibliography for genre piece on fan identity with NFL teams.

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Garrett Walker
Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1102-016
30 October 2014
Annotated Bibliography
How do Americans identify with professional football teams? How do fans show their
support for their team? What effect does fan support have on the team's or player's
performances? What makes one more "hardcore" than other fans?
DiCesare, Vincent. Method and system for promoting fan identification with a sports team.
US20060155659 A1. US Patent and Trademark Office. 13 Jul. 2006. Web. 22 Oct.
2014.
DiCesare discusses the methods of which sports fans identify with sports teams as well as
how to market products to the fans in order to maintain existing fans while adding new
fans simultaneously, thereby driving profits for the organization. He mentions how the
number of fans a team accumulates has a direct effect on the quality of players a team can
attract which generates additional fans for that organization. His patent utilizes a
business model to intensify merchandise sales through the use of personalized
memorabilia targeted at groups of fans for a specific team. DiCesare’s reasoning behind
this patent promotes his belief that, “fan identification can be generally described as the
personal commitment and emotional involvement customers have with a sports
organization or team.” In addition, he believes that greater levels of fan identification
results in increases in both attendance and team merchandise sales (0003).

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These claims provide an obvious correlation between fan identification and the symbols
of support that fans use to represent their affiliation within their specific club. It seems as
those the bigger the personalized connection with the team, the more support the
individual will give in return. It is through this concept that DiCesare focuses his entire
scheme. DiCesare’s genius devised a way to spur a seemingly endless cycle of profits
with unlimited potential (barring a league salary cap). His theory provided a way to
circumvent profit boundaries due to the limits of stadium seating by presenting an
alternate source of income through personalized memorabilia. With the additional funds,
teams could spend more money on higher quality athletes, leading to more team victories.
More team victories not only leads to higher levels of support from existing fans but it
attracts new fans as well. More fans provide more targets for sales, which leads to more
profit and continues the cycle. With all of this taken into consideration, it would appear
as though fan support is a substantial factor in a team’s performance (as long as the
managers are using money gained to bring in the best available players). It could also be
viewed that a fan would be considered a “bigger fan” or a “more hardcore fan” based off
of the amount of support that fan provides to the team. Finally, one factor contributing to
how teams generate fan-bases lies within the team’s performance.
How well must a team perform in order to add to its fan-base?
How do Americans identify with professional football teams?
Gee, James Paul. “Identity as an Analytic Lens for Research in Education.” Review of Research
in Education. Vol. 25 (2000 - 2001). 99-125. American Educational Research
Association. Web. 01 Sep. 2014

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How do fans show their support for their team?
Mosley, Matt. “NFL's best fans? We gotta hand it to Steelers (barely).” ESPN.com. ESPN. 11
Aug. 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.
<http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3530077&type=story/>.
Mosley’s piece dealt solely on ranking the National Football League’s teams by how
great the fans are. Mosley, along with seven other collogues, made up their own rules on
how the fans should be rated. They took into account seven factors that they considered
to encompass NFL fandom: stadium factor (the loudness or atmosphere), live and die
factor (it’s good if fans take losses hard), travelling road show factor (presence in another
teams stadium), loyalty when team sucks (fans sticking with their team during the tough
times), hate factor (it’s good if a team’s fans are hated by other fans), tailgate factor (the
team has a good turnout for tailgating), and home fans’ creativity (wacky ideas,
personalities, or costumes) (2). After tallying scores using these factors, they determined
which team had the best fans.
Even though it seems as though the criteria for “best fans” is somewhat arbitrary in this
article, this information still appears to be relevant. All eight of the individuals
participating in this ranking system have a considerable amount of history dealing in their
respective divisions within the NFL (even if they are only blogging for ESPN). For that
reason, I took their ranking criteria and examined it further in hopes of extrapolating
some underlying information involving how fans show their support. From what I
gathered from the article, fan support can be broken down into two categories: the level
of participation from the fan and the emotional impact the team’s performance leaves on

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the fan. From these two classifications a level of belonging can be somewhat measured
for the fan, and after calculation of that belonging a level of support can be deduced.
How does professional football affect people's personal lives?
Why are Americans so interested in professional football? What does it take for a team to
gain support from the public? How does location, family and friends, and team history
affect team fan bases?
Jesseb. New Orleans Saints – Logo. 11 Oct. 2010. JPEG file.
<http://www.talkandroid.com/wallpapers/images/40937/medium/1_Saints_Football.jpg/>
Unknown Author. Carolina Panthers wallpaper. 2014. JPEG file.
<http://sportlogofree.net/wp-content/photos/2014/10/Carolina-Panthers-wallpaper.jpg/>.
Unknown Author. Jacksonville Jaguars Grunged Logo Cover Picture. 2014. JPEG file.
<http://cmster.com/media/otAo27wRE6t4pSe3xfHwdEsfUPqvGWiZVeMFO7X819zQps
1vhtbMQunjBdUlQBKr.jpg/>.
Varinder. 3d Seattle Seahawks Logo Wallpaper. 06 Oct. 2014. JPEG file.
<http://www.onsecrethunt.com/wallpaper/seattle-seahawks-logo-wallpaper/66559/>.
Walker, Garrett. “Annotated Bibliography Links.” Garrett Walker’s Portfolio Page. Wix.
Online Blog. 01 Nov. 2014. <http://gewalker5625.wix.com/urwt-fall2014#!annotated-
bibliography-links/cavp/>.
This source was actually a compilation of several NFL team forums where I asked a
group of generic open-ended questions anticipating to receive some raw information from
fans across the NFL. On the Seattle Seahawks forum, Volsunghawk responded to my
three part question involving who his or her favorite player was, why, and how it effects

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the team he or she roots for: “That's a tough one. I could easily argue for Russell Wilson
or Marshawn Lynch, but I'm going to go with Richard Sherman. He's my favorite
because he's not supposed to exist. He was supposed to be too big to play CB, too slow.
He wasn't supposed to have the impact he does as a 5th round draft pick. He talks a big
game, but he works his ass off to back up that talk, and the results are visible to everyone.
That's admirable. As for how it impacts what team I root for, that's backwards. It's team
first, not player first... there will be NFL players I admire, but I will never have a favorite
football player who isn't a Seahawk.” Erebus, another member of the Seahawks forum,
said the reason Americans are interested in football is because, “it is the ultimate team
sport, it's fast-paced enough to keep people interested…” “…the season is so short, each
game is hugely important. As for it being the ultimate team sport, in no other sport is
everyone on the field as dependent on one another as in football.” Interestingly,
Bonecracker89 a Carolina Panthers fan, and a member of a completely different forum,
echoed Erebus by saying, “Unlike soccer, basketball, or baseball, it's really easy to be
invested in every game; whereas, in other sports, individual games don't bear as much
significance because of their long seasons.” He also mentioned how the salary cap
provides every team with a chance to be competitive in the league, and how a team can
rise from nothing and be a champion in the same season. It is though those aspects that
keeps the drama alive in the league. As for the ways teams gather fans to the cause, it
gives the impression that most teams acquire fans through geographical location with
some exceptions. Jaguar Warrior, a member of a Jacksonville Jaguars forum, had this to
say: “I became a Jaguars fan because I was born and had family in Jacksonville, despite
not living there as a child (I lived in Atlanta). I didn't really become a football fan until

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my early teens, but when I did I automatically knew which team I was going to root for.
Also, I loved the uniforms.” In addition, Lee909 said that listening to the Saints’
Superbowl run and the story of rebuilding New Orleans after the hurricane was what
hooked him into becoming a Saints fan.
This collection of forum posts provided loads of data in the aspects of NFL fandom.
Both Volsunghawk and Bonecracker89 spoke about underdog stories which are the
backbone to most of America’s heroic tales and folklore. Americans love the thought
that someone appearing to be insignificant can achieve the impossible even when the rest
of the world doubts that person’s abilities. Football provides hope through its underdog
stories, and hope is something everyone can relate to. Opposing this view, Erebus sees
football as being a captivating series of fast paced plays where everyone must do their
part to produce a solid product. The fate of the team rests in the hands of each team
member equally. For that reason, no one knows what the outcome will be which is the
biggest part of the entertainment value. Adding to this collection of information, both
Jaguar Warrior and Lee909 provided material associating the methods of which
organizations compile their followers. A conclusion can be drawn that fan-bases are
developed through an array of circumstances to include location, family affiliation, team
storylines, and visual appeal.
What happens when a team loses the majority of its fans?