Fort Report

Been awhile since my last post.  Whatever.  As I used to tell newbs in the navy: suck it up nubs (non-useful bodies).  To be honest, I’m thinking about getting back into blogging about soccer, but I don’t really want to run a site like I did before.  So, in the meantime, I can get back to the series I started right here on the Midnight Riders site.

Today I’m going to talk about the essential of clothing which sets soccer fans apart from any other group of fans in America: the scarf.

The tradition of wearing a scarf to football started in England over a century ago.  Fans would wear scarves of the color of their team, and the practice quickly spread to Europe and then the rest of the world.  Why?  Well, probably because they didn’t make many affordable suits and overcoats in the range of colors representative of the clubs who played back then.  Top hats, as any respectable top hatter will note, don’t come in claret.  Eventually, these scarves evolved and club crests/slogans appeared on them.  Essentially, they are very convenient pieces of flair even when not protecting the wearer from the elements.

These pieces of flair are unique to soccer on the American sports scene.  In a crowded sports and entertainment enviroment where soccer is the new kid in town, we fans sometimes feel like outsiders.  By wearing a scarf, you let other soccer fans know that you “get it”.  Bt getting it, I don’t mean you are necessarily high on cocaine, ready to riot or you can name the starting XI at Oldham because you watched a League 1 feed from England.  No, this means that you recognize that soccer is different from the other American sports.  It means you don’t need a noise meter on the scoreboard to make it look like the crowd is into the game coming in from the commercial.  It means you are there to support your team, not to babysit and make playdates for little Lydia and Jacob.  It means you understand why there aren’t 100 shots on net a game.  It means you know the entire game is important, not just the fouth quarter or the last inning.  Basically, it means you get, love, and support soccer, a far cry from the McFandom that has crept into the rest of American sports and tried to running our game.

Rule of American Soccer Fandom:  Get a scarf in team colors and wear it to the game.

I would be remissed if I didn’t give a shout out to the 2009 Midnight Riders scarf available in the Riders shop.  It’s $26 for non-members, $16 for members and looks quite good:

The Revs also offer official scarves in the pro shop.  Personally, I wear a traditional bar scarf with team colors.  I recently ordered a bunch from a site in England and they are currently sold out.  Last time I did that, they weren’t in stock for another 2 1/2 years.  These are the only such scarves with our colors I’ve ever seen, so if you find any, let me know.

Besides the reasons for wearing them above, scarves can be fantastic TIFO displays.  Before and after the game, you should hold your scarf up high above your head to show your pride in your club.  This has become the universal sign of solidarity supporters have with their club.

So if you don’t have one already, get one.  Heck, get extras.  Give them to friends you bring to games.  Sometimes, it is us against them.  The more on our side, the better.