ABSTRACT
While families are an essential part of becoming and maintaining a relationship with a football team (as established in the previous chapter), this is not the only means of developing or maintaining fandom. Being a fan of a team also makes you part of a community grounded in shared interests and passions. These communities can be defined in a number of ways. At its most basic level, a fan community frequently is geographic—based on where you are from or a place for which you have a certain affinity, such as a parent’s hometown or a favored vacation spot as a child. Furthermore, fan communities can be communities of practice, engaging with each other in shared rituals and routines that establish and communicate membership within a specific fan community. These communities of practice often inform key elements of fan performances, including favored chants and cheers: “Who dey?” is an instant identifier for Bengals fans, whereas “Who dat?” demarcates the caller as a Saints fan.
