Justin Bieber, the Stanley Cup, and unwritten rules in sports

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Poor Justin. The kid just can’t catch a break in the sports world. He’s gone and made the entire city of Chicago mad at him for doing this:

https://twitter.com/PJHASSEN/statuses/354762301523513344

Come on now, Justin. People tell me you’re a hockey fan. I’m not a hockey fan and even I know that you don’t touch the Stanley Cup unless you’ve earned the right to hoist it over your head as a champion. It’s an unwritten rule. It’s a pretty well-known unwritten rule, but it’s still an unwritten rule. And he broke it.

But he didn’t stop there.

I guess that’s a thing. An important thing. In his defense, though, why on earth would you put your team logo on the floor if you don’t want anyone to walk on it?

That being said, the guy does claim to love hockey. I would think he would know about this unwritten rule about staying off a team’s logo. I could be wrong. Do hockey fans generally know this unwritten rule? I mean, I totally understand why someone would be angry if an opposing team stomped on your logo but this sounds just a little bit excessive. 

So with all the sports-related fauxpaseses (I’ve decided that this should be the plural of faux pas. I know it’s not the real plural of faux pas) that Justin has committed, it made me wonder what are the unwritten rules in sports that every fan should know. I’ve come up with a few, but I’m looking for help.

The first rule of no-hitters: Don’t talk about the no-hitter

I know this is a rule for players. But I’m pretty sure it applies to the fans, too. Baseball has a whole lot of unwritten rules. This one’s probably the most famous. When a pitcher’s in the middle of pitching a no-hitter or a perfect game, you don’t talk about the fact that this is happening. And you definitely don’t mention it to the pitcher. It throws his game off. Or something like that.

“Over-rated” (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)

I think this is just a rule for college basketball. If the visiting team is ranked higher than you in the polls and you beat that visiting team, you spend the last 30+ seconds of the game chanting about how their team is overrated. Yeah. It’s kind of dumb. I would think you would want to talk more about how your team had been under-rated and not getting enough love from the press. But I guess it’s more fun to mock the opposing team.

To rush or not to rush? That is the question

This one’s up in the air. I think each fan has his or her own unwritten criteria for when it is OK to rush the court and when it is expected to remain in your seats. I wrote mine down once. I think I still agree with them.

This one? Definitely in the YES category.

Don’t leave early

Let’s say your team is down just a few points in the waning second of Game 6 of the NBA Finals. What do you do? Well, you don’t leave to try to beat the traffic. You stay and cheer your team to victory.

That’s right. I’m looking at  you, Miami Heat fans.

Some people argue that there is a point in a game where it’s acceptable to leave the game early. I disagree. If you’ve paid that much money for a ticket, you’d better squeeze every last ounce of value out of that experience. Stay till the bitter end. Unless it’s a preseason game. You can wander around aimlessly through the arena’s concourse after the first few minutes, wondering why you had to pay full price for such a meaningless game.

That’s all I’ve got

I know there are more unwritten rules for fans. What are they?

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Matt Todd

Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"
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