Liverpool Football Club
“You’ll Never Walk Alone,” Liverpool’s slogan, is pretty apt when it comes to the English football-club fans. With a massive worldwide following, Liverpool fans are absolutely everywhere, and have been involved in several tragedies in which surging fans resulted in collapsed walls and fatalities. Easily riled up on an average day, tensions run even higher when Liverpool is playing one of its rivals, Everton or Manchester United (to be discussed later).
Vancouver Canucks
It’s hard to think of hockey or Canada without the other. The Vancouver Canucks have a massive following at home. But while hockey is notoriously a violent sport, it’s taken to the next level in the stands. Canucks fans are known for biting and hair pulling in the bleachers, and not handling defeat very well. In 2011, after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins, rioting erupted in Vancouver as fans set cars on fire and looted stores (the same thing apparently happened after a Stanley Cup loss in 2004 as well).
Manchester United Football Club
Similar to Liverpool, the Manchester United fan base extends far beyond Manchester’s borders, or even England’s. Fans are notorious for ignoring Manchester United’s frequent inability to convert its talent into wins, and celebrating excessively (and in song – “Glory Glory Man United” being a favorite).
Pittsburgh Steelers
Steeler fans are a dangerous bunch. They’re everywhere. Steeler bars can be found in every major city in the U.S., where you’ll find hundreds of fans waving yellow towels and heckling everyone in sight. On game days, Steeler fans invade other cities, often eclipsing the hometown fan base, and are ruthless in their attempt to distract, demean, and otherwise offend the other team.
Ohio State Buckeyes
Oh, Ohio State. Known as one of the frontrunners in the college football biz, their fans are about as loud as they come. Also, before every Michigan match up (their biggest rivalry), students run and jump into Mirror Lake on campus – in the middle of a frigid Ohio November after drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Buckeye fans are the first to cry foul wrongdoing on other teams, but have racked up their own fair share of NCAA violations.
Duke Blue Devils
Duke University basketball fans are known as the Cameron Crazies (the team plays in Cameron Stadium), and with good reason. Their team is extremely dominant, with four National Championships under their belt, and they always make it far in the playoffs. But Duke fans are notoriously hated, if only for the bandwagoners. Student and alumni fans are accepted, but the number of Cameron Crazies who have no affiliation with the school are the ones despised. But even those who have a reason to support the Blue Devils are a bit out there – consistently painting their faces and bodies and dressing up in absurd costumes (see above).
Philadelphia Eagles
It’s an impressive state that makes this list twice, but Pennsylvania’s fans are just that crazy. Philly fans are known as some of the rudest in sports, regardless of whether it’s football, baseball, basketball, or recess dodgeball. Eagle fans have even gone so far as to boo their own franchise quarterback Donovan McNabb on draft day, to cheer career-ending injuries on the other team, and to boo Santa Claus (don’t ask).
Boston Red Sox
Red Sox fans are impressive in that their love of their own team can only be matched by their hatred of their biggest rival – the New York Yankees. You’ll even be able to hear a “Yankees suck” chant at any event in Boston, regardless of the sport or team playing. Before they won the World Series in 2004 for the first time in 86 years, they’d often be heard lamenting the Curse of the Bambino, blamed as the reason for the long draught (it refers to when Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees from the Red Sox). But now that the curse has been broken and the Red Sox are a frontrunner in Major League Baseball, fans expect their team to win every year – and will turn on their players as soon as those expectations aren’t met.
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wing fans have some bizarre traditions, most notably the “octopus throw.” During playoff games, an octopus is thrown onto the ice for good luck, borrowed from the arena decorations – a giant octopus with red eyes named Al (after Joe Louis Arena Head Ice Manager Al Sobotka). The eight legs of the octopus symbolize the eight wins it took to win the Stanley Cup in 1952. Red Wing fans are devoted. They sing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and loudly chant “Born and raised in South Detroit” in the last two minutes of every game. But it’s this wacky octopus move that gets them on this list.
Chicago Cubs
Cubs fans can be considered for one reason only: their unwavering optimism that one day, some day, the Cubs will win the Major League Baseball World Series. The last World Series win came in 1908, so it’s unlikely that anybody alive has seen one. Regardless, every year, fans will claim that this is “The Year,” and indeed, the Cubs often have the talent needed to win. It never seems to materialize, but the hope in Chicago never dies. Also, if you interfere with a Cubs win – à la Steve Bartman in 2003 – you’ll wish you’d never heard of the Cubs.
