The Steel Pulse

What is a REAL Yinzer?

You think you know, but DO you?

Am I the only one to pick up on how many people are quick to say, “A REAL FAN would blah blah blah?” That phrase gets a boatload of play whenever somebody wants to be critical of how somebody else chooses to root for their team. For sure it gets tossed around around like a flea-flicker in a run-and-shoot offense. And for every person, rest assured there is a different explanation of what a REAL fan actually is. Each person is self-assured that THEIR definition is THE working definition of REAL. No other explanation is quite as accurate.

I decided to research this phenomenon across the past four years. I wanted to gather as many explanations as I could, as I anticipated a quite vast variety, and not the monolith people seem to assume exists. What I found was that there is no real way to express your fandom, much to the chagrin of many rabid Yinzers. I was able to categorize the over one thousand responses into distinct categories of criteria for appropriately and acceptably rooting for your team. In other words, you tell a real fan based on their level of the following (included are some sub-categorical factors pulled from comments on social media:

LOVE OF TEAM	CONSISTENT THRU GOOD/BAD TIMES	EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION	MUST KNOW TEAM COLORS	LIFESTYLE	EMPHASIS ON LOCAL	LOYALTY	LONGEVITY	COMMITMENT
* love our team	* no bitching about losing	* love our team unconditonally	*Black and yellow vs. Black and gold	* Bandwagon a no-no		* Never predict a loss
* watch all the games	* Longevity	* makes you part of the team
* focus on Steelers	* Commitment	* way of life
* No matter what	* not care about about other teams
* Loyalty	* endure good/bad times
* FOR LIFE

Some even thought there really is no true distinction between the levels. To them, fans are fans, regardless of their position within any of the categories I mentioned. But, most seem to have definitive definitions they were working with. Just nothing consistent, other than the lifetime commitment a devotee proper must have. THAT part was clear. There were literally hundreds of combinations of things people thought “real fans” needed to keep it real. Some thought that it is possible for a “REAL” FAN to be openly critical of their favorite team, while others found that sacrilege. Some thought it imperative.

 I say to each their own. What say Yinz? Are there rules to this? Or can you root how you feel?