Do fans take losses harder than players?

[CheckingLineCenter]

You haven’t trained all your life to play in the NHL and then played with an injury in the NHL playoffs, so no, your “job screw up” example doesn’t really have much to do with this.

This handwaving has everything to do with fans only caring about themselves and that they like being outraged at the players who lost.

It’s the same way many fans hate when injuries get mentioned and call them “excuses”. They like everything to be simplistic.

If the players really cared, they would win for us fans. If they don’t perform well or win, they don’t care and we can be angry at them for that. That means they wronged us.

Didn’t read a word I said clearly. Never said the players don’t care. This isn’t about how much they care. I think they care more than the fans about winning or losing and the game; but they also get over it quicker and easier because not getting too high or low is part of doing their job at a high level.

The question was about who takes a loss worse.

Btw… You know other people have trained their whole lives for jobs, college sports, other things right? It’s all very comparable. Losing/failing, learning from it and letting go of it is part of success in anything in life.

Being able to detach from your emotions is actually an extremely important part of being successful at what you do.

 

[acor]

How about: Each player is an individual, different person and each fan is an individual, different person, so the question is pointless???

 

[dukedukowski]

Definitely not true. I remember a story from Doug from Puck Podcast. He had a media pass back then and walked past the Ducks locker room after they lost against (the Kings?) in the playoffs and saw players laughing.

Hallelujah

 

[NVious]

Definitely harder than Auston and Mitch, those guys don't sweat a thing, like water off of a ducks back baby! #BringOnTheNewContracts

 

[LouJersey]

Players are paid employees and mercanaries. Being a fan is like owning a family owned business. I have worked for family owned businesses my whole life. They care alot more about it than I do

I have been heart broken by Brad Park, Pete Peeters, Cam Neely, Joe Thornton and Patrice Bergeron. It's about the crest, not the name plate. So while Bergeron may be "heartbroken" over this loss, he was fine when the Bruins were losing before him. I was not.

 

[tucker3434]

Half joking. Watching the final post game press conferences tells me these guys care quite a bit. But then going and spending a week in Fiji where you can pretend hockey doesn’t even exist probably helps a bit. All the rest of us have to go back to work and deal with Greg from accounting whose team is still alive. I don’t want to talk about it, Greg.

 

[TGWL]

I'm sure players feel bad. I'm sure they're disappointed with how the season ended. At the end of the day, nobody feels worse about what happened than you. But yes, they get paid, they go home, they go on vacation. They go live their summer. Fans are still watching playoff hockey, complaining about every thing, listening to all the fans trash their team, and so on.

 

[tfwnogf]

some fans definitely do, they need to chill and maybe get some more hobbies that don't involve watching millionaires bat a puck around

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Elite athletes typically hate losing more than they enjoy winning, so I'm sure most of them take it hard. However they also have some control over the outcome as it's their job.

A lot of sports fans need to take it less seriously and maybe examine how much their happiness and identity is tied to something that is ultimately entertainment.

 

[ON3M4N]

I'd say on average, players take losses harder while fans let it impact them longer.

 

[TheBeard]

I'd say on average, players take losses harder while fans let it impact them longer.

I also think players are more self-accountable and acknowledge a) sometimes they lose to better teams and b) sometimes don’t play their best. Many fans think there are always external factors out of the team’s control why they didn’t win.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

I also probably wouldn’t care if I got to drive home in a Ferrari on my way to eating surf and turf from my personal chef.

 

[HTFN]

I also probably wouldn’t care if I got to drive home in a Ferrari on my way to eating surf and turf from my personal chef.

Not caring enough is a real quick way to not have any of those things and wash out of the league, so...

This is a bad, bad argument and it really baffles me how many people think it's worth trotting out in here.

 

[Oilslick941611]

I think fans are more irrational about it. Whether or not a team wins or loses the cup doesn't affect daily life. Being a fan a team that won the cup doesn't make you a better fan or person. It brings joy and happiness for a little while. Beyond that it doesn't affect them. Whereas a player winning is an accomplishment and life goal that the player gets to put on their mantle and resume and turn that into money, fame and renown. The fan doesn't get that. So fans being upset and taking the frustration of losing out on the players or anything around them is just irrational.

 

[The Red Line]

I mean imagine you have a bad day at work where you underperform and your "punishment" is a paid multi-month summer vacation where you get to fish and golf and stay at your vacation home. How pissed would you really be?

 

[BB79]

I'd be pissed or disappointed for a day. Then enjoy my summer off with my hot wife sitting by the pool behind my mansion and taking fun vacations all summer. Maybe spending some time planning for when I retire wealthy at 38 years old. Tough life.

 

[SmoggyTwinkles]

After reading this site and others, I think it is safe to say that fan take losses harder than players.

Why is this?

How many dollars do you have in your bank account?

If you go to work and do a bad job, maybe not even your fault, and at the end of the day you still have a job and get paid insane amounts of money, would your be all that sad?

I actually don't know the answer to the question because I'm not capable of being a very small percentage of people who can play ice hockey at a level where they pay me millions of dollars per year.

It's an entirely other world.

It's like asking if I would be sad if someone stole my Ferrari. I have no idea it's insured was I happy with my spec? Like that.

 

[kingsholygrail]

I think it depends on the situation. Imagine being Bill Buckner for all those years dealing with Boston fans after flubbing a soft hit to 1st in the World Series. Fans take harder in general when it comes to sports, but I think players take the big moments harder than the fans especially if they feel responsible for a huge mistake.

Of course some players it doesn't bother them at all.

 

[Givememoneyback]

I think fans are more irrational about it. Whether or not a team wins or loses the cup doesn't affect daily life. Being a fan a team that won the cup doesn't make you a better fan or person. It brings joy and happiness for a little while. Beyond that it doesn't affect them. Whereas a player winning is an accomplishment and life goal that the player gets to put on their mantle and resume and turn that into money, fame and renown. The fan doesn't get that. So fans being upset and taking the frustration of losing out on the players or anything around them is just irrational.

Can't put it better. Adding to that, players get the bounce, turnover, or whatever that led to a loss. Do they like it? Of course not.

 

[BLNY]

Publicly? Yes. Fans take it worse, in large part because they've had a vested interest far longer than the players on the roster (usually).

Privately? I'm sure most of the players take losses hard - especially if they legitimately felt like they had a chance to go all the way.

 

[tarheelhockey]

A lot of them do, yes. It feels bad to fail at your job, but isn’t devastating unless you really put your heart into it. This is a job for the players, but not necessarily a passion. For the fans it’s a passion and sometimes an unhealthy part of their identity.

 

[Canes]

Depends on the player. Depends on the fan. Depends on the circumstance.

As I've gotten older, I certainly don't take losses hard any more as a fan, maybe for an hour or two if it's a particularly big game. Then I move on.

 

[v00d00daddy]

After reading this site and others, I think it is safe to say that fan take losses harder than players.

Why is this?

If you’re a long time fan you’ve dealt with more tragic losses than any player of any franchise.

As a leafs fan for the last few decades I can say I’ve been upset more times than any 1 Toronto maple leafs player.

Add how long it’s been since success here and how it is, by far, the most followed team in the city/country and hockey is canada game. It’s a perfect storm

 

[Canadienna]

There's different levels to it.

When the Habs lost in the Cup Final, Nick Suzuki got out of his gear, and went and sat on the Habs bench alone. He just sat there and watched the whole Tampa Cup celebration.

That's some kind of psycho shit and probably cuts a lot deeper than the sky is falling reactions from fans.

 

[HofT]

After reading this site and others, I think it is safe to say that fan take losses harder than players.

Why is this?

Fans = Fanatics. And fanaticism is driven primarily by pure emotion rather than logic. Additionally, the media seeks to maximize audience engagement.