Examining the Sports Narrative, Part 4: Bandwagon

My examination of the sports narrative up to this point has largely focused on the types of stories we find in sports, the importance of perspective, obstacles, and pathos as different sources of narrative foundation.  However, the inherent appeal of these narratives is only half the story—equally important is the cultural reaction that surrounds it.

We can craft a narrative out of almost anything (see We Bought A Zoo); but what draws us to one narrative over another?  Why do we flock to see a third Transformers when everyone unanimously hated the second one?  Why does ESPN obsess over Brett Favre like TMZ obsesses over Lindsay Lohan?  Why have the 49ers been little more than an afterthought this season despite their transformation from a 6-10 team last year to this year’s second place team of the NFC, only two games behind the defending Super Bowl champion Packers and coming off a decisive victory over the defending AFC champion Steelers?  Where is the Alex Smith bandwagon, and why does that sound so ridiculous?

The bandwagon is the ultimate crossroads of culture and sports.  There’s a natural inclination toward the underdog in most fights, an instinct derivative of the stories we were raised on, stories of tortoises beating hares, and David defeating Goliath.

But the bandwagon narrative of sports requires more than a mere underdog complex.  When the Saints won the Super Bowl in 2009, they were far from the underdog.  In fact, just like the Packers of this year, the Saints went undefeated for the first 13 games of the season; despite losing the last three, they still clinched the number one seed in the playoffs, and would go on to beat the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.

At no point in their Super Bowl season were the Saints an underdog.  Other than their amazing overtime victory over the Viking in the NFC Championship, there never once appeared any monumental obstacle they had to overcome in order to bring home the coveted Lombardi trophy.  Yet we rooted for them all the way.  For that one season, the Saints’ were America’s team, a bandwagon squad unlike any other.  Yes, it was their first Super Bowl appearance, but that’s not why we loved them.  We loved them because a victory for the Saints was a victory for New Orleans; a symbol that after four painstaking years of recovery, there was hope yet for the city swallowed whole by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

With the Packers’ dream of going undefeated on their way to a Super Bowl repeat now partially dead due to their loss to the Chiefs this past week—they can still repeat, but that’s a far less interesting story than repeating and going undefeated—there’s no real bandwagon team this year.  Detroit would have been the idle candidate—the resurgence of the Motor City in the wake of our most woeful economic time since the first Great Depression—but since starting 5-0, there seems little hope for the inconsistent Lions to make a strong playoff run, assuming they do in fact make the playoffs.  Even though San Francisco’s rise from the ashes is an equally admirable feat as Detroit’s first winning season in a decade, there’s no cultural relevance to the Niners’ success; combine that with a roster of entirely uninteresting characters and we find little room for a bandwagon.

It seems an appropriate time to discuss the cultural bandwagon given that our industry is entering the biggest bandwagon competition of the year: the Academy Awards.  Despite typically finding myself in opposition to the Academy—there habitual disregard for some of the year’s best films and performances, often due to the “politics” of the whole thing, proves unceasingly irksome—it’s always fascinating to observe the momentum that builds around various contenders entering awards season.  Yet much like this year’s NFL season, there seems an unusual lack of enthusiasm surrounding any one film as we enter the season.  Of the front-runners I’ve seen, none have proved particularly compelling, and it seems as though we’re all waiting for that dark horse to crop up out of nowhere—kind of like if the Eagles were to sneak their way into the playoffs.  And yet some of the best films I’ve seen this year have come and gone completely unnoticed, omitted from the discussion entirely.

The bandwagon of all areas of life is like this, with some of the best stories overlooked in favor of the more obvious (and, often, less compelling) options.  The Help is kind of like the Tim Tebow of films this year: full of flaws but understandably easy enough to like, even if we know it will never win the ultimate prize.  Conversely, Another Earth is Alex Smith: completely disregarded despite its accomplishments, and about as unlikely to receive any kudos as Smith is to receive a Pro Bowl bid.

It will be nothing short of fascinating if the Eagles somehow sneak their way into the playoffs.  The prematurely titled “Dream Team” has been the anti-bandwagon all season, the Miami Heat of the NFL.  After being rooted against for so long, after all playoff aspirations ostensibly died months ago, only to be revived just weeks before the playoffs, what becomes of our narrative then?  Are they still the loathsome “Dream Team,” or the neglected underdog that clawed their way back for a second chance?  It would be a fitting tale of redemption, a tale of blown opportunity and resurrected hope, and a tale with which Michael Vick is all too familiar…

For more on Examining the Sports Narrative, check out Part 1: Perspective, Part 2: Obstacles, and Part 3: Pathos.