ABSTRACT
I was enthralled by the energy at the stadium. I was captivated by the visual choreography and visceral energy of fans chanting, jumping and shouting together. For me, the anonymous individuals at the stadium were the spectacle. In graduate school, I learned systematic approaches to research, but the tools of analysis never interested me as much as the thing itself – the social life that occurs in and around a stadium. My goal was to get to the heart of football fandom in Rome, plain and simple. Ultimately, I tried to conceptualize the culture, and wrap my findings into an academic narrative that expresses how important fandom is to the people in the stands. Football fandom is about passion that transcends rationality, and makes life more meaningful for those who partake. The question of how to articulate that phenomenon is an open one. This essay grapples with that question.
