For us truly loyal sports fans, there are few things more tiresome and irritating than dealing with an obvious bandwagon fan.
We stand by our teams through the good and bad, but some of you simply choose to just cheer for whichever team is winning, and then you’ll eventually leave them for the next best team.
At any given time, there are a handful of especially annoying fanbases in each major sports league that especially get under the skin of true fans. Without further ado, let’s dive into the 10 most annoying bandwagon fanbases in sports right now,
Dallas Cowboys
Who else could we have possibly started the list with?
Everyone gets irritated with bandwagon fans of teams who always win. Ask a New England Patriots bandwagoner to name one guy from their Super Bowl 36 championship team other than Tom Brady. Or a Golden State Warriors fan to name their head coach before Steve Kerr. You get the idea.
There’s no stopping fans who jump on the bandwagon of a team that never stops winning. But it’s arguably even more annoying when a bandwagon fan acts as though their team is a legit winner…when in fact they haven’t been in years.
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Take the Dallas Cowboys’ MANY bandwagon supporters, for example. If you don’t follow the NFL at all, you’d think this team would have three Super Bowls over the past decade with the way their fans hype them up.
Every time the Cowboys beat a one-win team in Week 14, Cowboys fans scream “This is our year.” Like we haven’t heard that every year since 1996.
Tony Romo was supposed to win a bunch of Super Bowls in Big D. Dak Prescott was supposed to have multiple rings by now. That’s according to the mouthy Cowboys fans who only like this team because of their history and overexposure on national television.
Here’s a message for all you bandwagon Cowboys fans: You should probably stop trash-talking until your team wins another Super Bowl. The only thing this team does consistently is fall well short of meeting your expectations every year.
Golden State Warriors
The Chicago Bulls were the NBA’s ultimate bandwagon team of the ‘90s, and it wasn’t particularly close. In the 2000s, it was the Los Angeles Lakers…or the San Antonio Spurs or LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers. Take your pick.
From 2011 to 2014, it was LeBron’s Miami Heat. After he went back to Cleveland? It became the Warriors.
And the reason why Dubs bandwagoners are so annoying? It’s like any other bandwagon fan. They weren’t supporting this same team before their dynasty years, and they’ll just bandwagon hop to the next team once Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are gone.
Unlike other dynasties and super teams, the Warriors themselves are actually pretty likeable. Hate on them all you want for adding Kevin Durant to the star-studded roster in 2016, but they at least won two championships without him.
But man, is it annoying to listen to these cocky and obnoxious Warriors fans who act like they’ve been fans of this team since day one. Here’s a test for all you bandwagon Dubs fans: Name one player who played on the Warriors in the ‘90s. We’ll wait..
New York Yankees
There’s no official way of counting bandwagon fans. But based on their long and successful winning history, it’s safe to suggest that the Yankees have the most un-loyal, bandwagon fans among all American sports franchises.
They’ve always been a winner, plain and simple. We all know plenty of so-called “Yankees fans” who aren’t from New York. They just love them because they know by supporting the Yankees, their team will always have a chance.
It’s also easy to attract fans when you buy superstars the way the Yankees have since the ‘70s. Reggie Jackson, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, CC Sabathia, Gerrit Cole, Mark Teixeira…on and on it goes.
You’ll meet people who claim to be life-long Yankees fans, and a lot of them technically are. But their love for the Pinstripes started because of the franchise’s winning ways. If the Bronx Bombers had endured a lengthy losing period of some kind, these many bandwagon fans would be cheering for the Boston Red Sox or someone else.
The bottom line: You Yankees bandwagon fans are quite annoying. We can’t wait to see what you do when your team finally sucks…if that day ever comes.
Kansas City Chiefs
The actual loyal Chiefs fans in Kansas and Missouri deserve full credit for their devotion and passion. This franchise went a half-century before Super Bowl championships, but Kansas City fans still brought a playoff-like atmosphere for every home game.
With the New England Patriots’ dynasty over, bandwagon fans need to cheer for the new No. 1 team in football. Since the arrival of Patrick Mahomes, that No. 1 team has been the Chiefs.
Mahomes is the game’s best quarterback right now as well as the new face of the NFL. Guys like Mahomes, Tom Brady, LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sidney Crosby always draw bandwagon fans.
Mahomes and Andy Reid are two likable dudes, and the Chiefs’ loyal fans deserve this degree of greatness. But you random people walking on the street with a Mahomes jersey…you definitely have a Brady Patriots jersey and a ‘90s Cowboys jersey as well. You know who you are!
Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers bandwagon definitely declined after their 2010 NBA Championship, the last of the Kobe Bryant era. The team returned to relevance when James left the Cavaliers to join the Purple and Gold in 2018 free agency.
Like we just mentioned with the Chiefs and Mahomes, a prominent athlete like James brings a ton of bandwagon fans with him wherever he goes. So that meant we had to go from being irritated with Miami fans, to annoyed with Cavs fans, to now being bothered by Lakers fans. Yippee.
As if the old Lakers’ bandwagon fanbase in the 2000s wasn’t annoying enough to begin with. You just know the non-loyal Lakers fans were probably cheering for the Warriors or Cavs before LeBron came to La La Land.
The bandwagon fans were repaid with a championship in the 2020 Orlando bubble. Congrats to them. But who are you fans going to cheer for next? Whichever team Zion Williamson is on? Or whoever the next dynasty team is?
If you’re gonna hop on the Lakers’ bandwagon during the LeBron years, you oughta stay loyal for the post-LeBron years. It’s only fair.
Alabama Crimson Tide
The Crimson Tide are the college football version of the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick-led New England Patriots: The evil empire that wouldn’t stop winning. You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em.
And unless you attended Alabama, were born there or have ties there, you only like Nick Saban’s club because you’re a bandwagon fan. That’s how it goes.
The Crimson Tide are in contention for the national championship every single year, and that’s the main reason why fairweather fans want to be members of the Roll Tide squad. The main thing is everyone loves a winner, and as much as you non-Crimson Tide fans hate to admit it, winning is all Alabama does.
And with their long winning tradition and history, the Crimson Tide will continue to win over countless bandwagon fans. Unlike the other sports teams on this list, you just know the wave of bandwagon hoppers for Alabama won’t stop.
So they’ll remain one of the most annoying and irritating fanbases until the end of time. At this point, you just gotta live with it.
Vegas Golden Knights
The Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins would have occupied this list some years ago, as both teams won three Stanley Cups over an eight-year span between 2009 and 2017.
But the ‘Hawks are now back to being one of the NHL’s most dysfunctional and disgraceful sports franchises, and the Penguins’ run of success is over. Hence, the many bandwagon fans have slowly but surely hopped off and found new teams.
That makes the Vegas Golden Knights — the NHL’s second-youngest franchise — by far the most annoying active bandwagon NHL fanbase. You see, it was understandable for some hockey fans to decide back in 2017 that they were going to be Vegas fans.
But then something odd happened: The Golden Knights immediately became a powerhouse and reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, losing to Alex Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals in five games.
That caught the attention of many bandwagon fans who were looking for a fresh start. And the Golden Knights bandwagon grew from there. You see, it’s easy for people to hop on an expansion team’s bandwagon when they’re winning right away. And that’s exactly what Vegas was doing.
Their run of dominance continued with trips to the 2020 and 2021 Conference Finals. And then in 2023, they reached the pinnacle by winning hockey’s most coveted prize: The Stanley Cup.
So for many fanbases — especially long-suffering ones like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks — it was agitating to see this expansion squad become a winner right away. And some of the fans of those teams, no doubt, packed up and joined the growing list of Golden Knights bandwagoners…
And to be honest with you, it’s hard to blame them.
Los Angeles Dodgers
It felt like for the longest time, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were far-and-away the two biggest MLB bandwagon teams. But over the past half-decade or so, it’s the Dodgers bandwagon that has taken off.
The Yankees have been annual postseason chokers since their last World Series championship in 2009. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, bandwagon fans almost always cheer for a winner—and not a team that always falls apart in the postseason.
Well, the Dodgers have had their fair share of shortcomings — but their World Series championship win in 2020 further cleared the path for more bandwagoners to come aboard.
It’s not just the winning, but the fact that seemingly half the active MLB stars have played for the Dodgers at some point since 2017: We’re talking Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Walker Buehler, Kenley Jansen, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Cody Bellinger (BELL-IN-JUHR), Corey Seager, and Justin Turner…to name just a few.
Yes, the Dodgers have drafted and developed many of their core players over the years, but they’re still going the ol’ Yankees route by trying to buy championships. And un-loyal fans love a super team that lands all the stars.
But bandwagon Dodgers fans: Where were you before 2016? Probably somewhere with your Yankees or Red Sox jersey, if we had to guess.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers were one of the most irrelevant franchises for over a decade before Tom Brady came along in 2020.
The Brady bandwagon is a powerful and mighty one alright, so of course many fans had to become Tampa — or shall we say ,TOM-PA — Bay fans when he and Rob Gronkowski went there together.
Then something else happened: The Bucs became great and won Super Bowl 55. So we got to listen to the Brady fans and Bucs bandwagoners pretend that they were always Brady supporters and never true New England Patriots fans. Oh joy.
Signing Antonio Brown didn’t make this Bucs’ bandwagon fanbase any more likable — especially since the organization and many fans automatically forgave Brown and overlooked all of his off-the-field troubles.
And here’s the thing: Now that Tom Brady is gone, the Bucs’ fanbase will likely go back to being very small and quiet outside of Florida. You just know this is a very temporary bandwagon fanbase. Once they all jump off, there will be countless so-called “Bucs” fans exposed as true bandwagon hoppers.
Brooklyn Nets
Like the Bucs, the Nets were largely irrelevant and had very few fans outside of Brooklyn following their relocation from New Jersey.
But oh, then you know what happened. The Nets signed Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant — two of the league’s more polarizing players— in 2019 free agency. Brooklyn made a trade for former MVP James Harden to complete the big three, only to eventually flip him to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Ben Simmons trade.
This was a super team that was suposed to take the NBA by storm. And all of the NBA bandwagoners seemed to sense that, because it felt like they were all getting behind KD, Kyrie, and the Nets.
But, wouldn’t you know it? This expirament combining two of the most polarizing stars in the today’s NBA never ended up working out…
In fact, it was a complete disaster, as the Nets’ constant failures eventually forced the team to deal both Durant and Irving prior to the 2023 trade deadline.
It kind of makes you feel bad for all of those Nets bandwagoners who kept trying to tell us their team would dominate the NBA… But then you remember who these fans really are…and the fact that they’ll probably have a new team by next season.
That’s what really makes these Nets bandwagoners so annoying right now.
