BIRGing vs. CORFing

People are drawn to sports. Some like to play them, and others simply like to watch them. We often see spectators develop relationships with specific teams that they consider to be superior to the rest. There have even been a couple terms coined about these people who enjoy watching sports. The first is BIRGing. BIRGing stands for 'basking in reflected glory.' This is when people associate themselves with the success of a team to make themselves seem or feel more successful or accomplished. They do this by doing things like wearing shirts and hats with team logos on them or celebrating and bragging to people about the 'big win.' We sort of see this in Stephen Colbert's Comedy Central clip where he talks about the bet between the governor of California and the governor of New York. While they are betting on their team, a considered part of 'BIRGing,' what they're betting makes it seem like they don't have too much faith in them, but still enough to make the little bet. The second term is CORFing. CORFing stands for 'cutting off reflected failure.' This happens when a team isn't doing so hot so the specators start to distance themselves in order to avoid being embarrassed or made fun of to protect their self esteem. We also see this in the Comedy Central clip when specators stop showing up to the Jacksonville Jaguar football games because the team is so bad. The stadium is even trying to combat this CORFing by replacing stadium seats with swimming pools. They're trying so hard to get people to attend them games again they even said they'd have TVs near the pool with games being played by teams that aren't even the Jaguars.