Red Rowdies essay
Youth as the most sensitive and responsive group was the first group which accepted new forms of development in the area of leisure with all positive and negative effects. Existing conventional entertainment and ways to spend free time can not meet their necessities up to the end and that’s why young people invented their own way how to make their leisure time more interesting and bright.
There are those who only walk to the stadium and those who sit in the front of TV at home, but there are also more active people, who are ready to do their favorite sport on their own or become active sport fans for their favorite team or sportsman. Usually these people are trying to show their love to favorite team on the highest level and nothing and nobody can stop them in their wish to support their idols. Thus, we are going to discuss behavior of sport fans and the main issue of this paper is that: Is the Red Rowdies an important factor to the Houston Rockets?
Let us begin this paper from the term ‘fanaticism’ definition. Fanaticism – is the degree of commitment to any interest or team that is taken to extremes, accompanied by intolerance of rivals. The fan movement is mainly related to football (but in our case we are going to tell about basketball) and is organized within the active community of fans, living by own rules and traditions.
Fans are mostly teenagers and young men, although among them there are also adults. Half the fans are not engaged actively in sports, and the rest have very low skills or even absence of them. Fans exposed to gang influence, therefore, all of them are dressed in the colors of their favorite team. Many of them emphasize the importance of unity. Their level of culture is usually low, and the range of their interests is also restricted: usually reading of fiction is away of their group interests, they can live without newspapers and magazines. According to Crawford, participating in fan movement, sport fans compensate for their lack of realization and credibility in other areas of life (many say that being a fan is a part of prestige for them) (Crawford, 2004).
Thus, it becomes obvious that the man, who got into a subculture, becomes its single entity. He takes all orders, laws and principles of a new society; he changed the system of values and world view. Someone changes the subculture, such as gloves, just for the sake of their external manifestations of shocking others, not delve into the essence, and philosophy, which to a greater or lesser degree is a part of every informal movement (Crawford, 2004). Even those who are faithful to one informal organization often do not understand it. Most often, such people could be met exactly among the younger generation. Do not talking about basketball fans, but using other group as example, we see that teenagers who listen to heavy metal can arrange mass fights and riots, behave like hooligans, be rude to older people and assume that they behave themselves as true heavy metal fans. They did not understand that this movement is based firstly and foremost because of the music and a special attitude to it, and not because of the desire to destroy everything around it.
Observing Red Rowdies and their importance to Houston Rockets we should say that according to the official website of Houston Rockets, “The Red Rowdies are a diverse group of Rockets fanatics who unconditionally love and cheer on the Houston Rockets. They are the craziest and rowdiest bunch of Rockets fanatics you will find in the world! The Red Rowdies are back for another action packed season with a bunch of new characters to look out for! You can always hear and feel the energy of the Red Rowdies before the game during their ROMP that starts 30 minutes before tip at the LaBranch entrance and during the game in the Red Rowdies section 114” (www.nba.com). Using behavior of Red Rowdies as an example, we see that in a sporting event the result is more important for most fans, they need to see not the content of wrestling, but to look after the competition where their favorite team will win. So, it explains the fact that they experience the pleasure only in the event of a victory of their team. Sports fans are maximalists by their nature and it allows to suppose that exactly this maximalism explains joy after winning or angry after the defeat of ‘their’ teams, and violent (aggressive) way of defeat expression when they arrange riots in the streets and in public transport (Westerbeek and others, 2005).
Thinking about the way how people became real fans of Houston Rockets we see that “each participant in the original tryout, held in late August 2006, was asked to show off why he or she is the greatest Rockets fan. Entertainment ranged from speeches, scream shows, and re-enactments of the greatest moments in Rockets history to singing, running, and Indian, Hoola, and break dancing.” (thedreamshake.blogspot.com)
Houston Rockets need their fans like any other team, because exactly reaction of their fans inspired sportsmen to become the best of the best and win. For example, “since their inception in 2006, the Red Rowdies have set a benchmark on crowd participation and fan enthusiasm, not only in Toyota Center but throughout the entire league. They have been featured on ESPN’s Cold Pizza, TNT, FS-Houston, NBATV, YouTube, and numerous other TV and radio stations across the globe!” (www.nba.com)
Discussing psychological characteristics of sport fans it is necessary to mention that in many cases, the fans are behaving like an aggressive crowd. There were also defined a special group of fans, for example, football hooligans. Crowd behavior has a number of features from the standpoint of social psychology. Sense of belonging to the mass gives a person a feeling of strength and righteousness, self-confidence of impunity. The unconscious in mass, including aggressiveness, comes to the fore. All these points lead to actions that are impossible for a certain individual. Individually rational man, poured into a mass, dramatically changes his behavior, obeying the inspired action of the crowd. However, in contrast to the street crowd, disorganized in its essence, the crowd of fans is well-organized group of active supporters and has its leaders.
Aggression and antisocial behavior of fans is now a serious psychological and social problem. Wann and others stated that American psychologists have found that many athletes do not like the most ardent fans (Wann and others, 2008). One reason for this – is fickleness of fans, who praise their favorite athletes when they win; and in a case of defeat – at best, deprive athletes of their support, and at worst, can resort to physical violence (Mirares, 2010). For instance, in one Latin American country football fan shot the football player who cut the ball into his own gate, because of what the team of the country was defeated and eliminated from the World Cup tournament. In addition, many fans believe they have the right to claim part of the free time of their idol, creating a last inconvenience in personal lives.
In fact, subculture (in our discussion the Red Rowdies are observed as a part of subculture) – is a huge bright world, opening all shades of life to us. Every subculture has its own color and its smell, so, every Jack has his Jill.
Thus, taking everything into consideration it is possible to say that fans are big power, because their energy have both positive and negative character, but thinking about Red Rowdies we see that they are a little bit crazy in their love to Houston Rockets, but exactly their true emotions and preparation for future games allows athletes to be sure that somebody needs their success and to do their best for the sake of people who wait their wins.
In conclusion, using different information about sport fans and examples from real life we proved that the Red Rowdies are important to the Rockets.
