Cialdini raamat
sports. The actions of the athletes are not the issue, though. After all, in the heated
contact of the game, they are entitled to an occasional eccentric outburst. Instead,
it is the often raging, irrational, boundless fervor of sports fans that seems, on its
face, so puzzling. How can we account for wild sports riots in Europe, or the mur-
der of players and referees by South American soccer crowds gone berserk, or the
unnecessary lavishness of gifts provided by local fans to already wealthy American
ballplayers on the special "day" set aside to honor them? Rationally, none of this
makes sense. It's just a game! Isn't it?
Hardly. The relationship between sport and earnest fan is anything but game-
like. It is serious, intense, and highly personal. An apt illustration comes from one
of my favorite anecdotes. It concerns a World War II soldier who returned to his
annaabi.ee 
