General: The sad state of teen sports fans

I'm drug-free and like sports.

I suppose teenagers like me are a rare commodity nowadays. Now think about that for a moment. How many teens actually like sports?

Seriously speaking, there is less interest in sports amongst teenagers than ever before. I know this firsthand because I attend an adolescent asylum that is called high school.

Three years in and I'm hard-pressed to find any real sports fans from my school. Granted, I do have a few friends that I can hold a coherent conversation regarding certain sports, but once I start talking about the results of the Kentucky Derby or potential superstars in the NFL draft they tune out.

With so many indulgences made readily available to teenagers (think alcohol, nice cars and a certain plant that grows well under "special black lights"), it's easy to see why teens wouldn't want to spend their precious hours watching some silly games on the ol' picture box.

Of course my ramblings are not scientific, but, then again, teenagers don't follow logic now do they?

To reiterate my point I'll give an example of just how brain-dead students at my school are when it comes to sports (and, no, prep sports don't count unless the conversation starts with LeBron).

A couple of weeks ago my physiology teacher asked the class if we knew who Rudy Tomjanovich was. Two people raised their hands, and I was one of them. In case you don't know how packed southern California classrooms are, two out of an entire high school science class is a pretty damn bad. On a side note, it's worth mentioning that the other person who raised his hand is a friend of mine whose basketball savvy I respect.

The fact that most teenagers don't have enough knowledge about sports bothers me a bit -- as if you couldn't tell that from the article. But, what really ticks me off, is when I see the fake fans. You know what I'm talking about: the ones that waves flags out of their cars during the playoffs, the ones that decide to wear their team jersey only during the finals, the ones that never attend regular season games, but still buy $500 tickets from a scalper during the World Series. Teenagers go all out with this kind of baloney.

Am I the only one that believes all this is nonsense?

I personally feel that you have to stick with your team through the ups and the downs (as a Clippers fan I would know), and not just ride out the good waves. I saw this type of junk around my campus last week. Suddenly it was cool to be an Angels fan and to flaunt Angels gear. Last time I checked, it was never cool to be a fan of Anaheim, or according to some freshman's worn out sweater, the California Angels.

If you're going to jump on the bandwagon, you should at least buy the latest gear, right? But, I guess that if the home team actually starts to win, it's cool just as long as you cheer for them.

Maybe I'm just being too critical about teenagers in general. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough for true fans in my own school. Or, ... maybe I'm right.