Brazil’s football team Sports Club Recife has some of the world’s most devoted fans so when the team asked its fans to give their organs after they died by signing organ cards, the response was overwhelming. The Immortal Fans campaign promised die-hard followers of the team that even death won’t  stop them from remaining fans, forever.

Sports is an outlet for us to connect to the athletes we admire and idolize. Athletic achievement makes us want to be that good at something and we are in awe of what athletes can do. And we want to show that awe in different ways, by wearing their numbers on jerseys, the team’s logos on baseball caps and the swoosh on our runners. There’s a connection to athletes–we watch them struggle to come back from injury and defeat and we feel like we are part, even as spectators, when they accomplish their goals and stand on top of the field as champions. On the outside, athletes are in top physical shape, but inside, mentally, it’s a lonely place for them.

Major Sources Cited In This Episode: 
Tomi Wahlstrom Interview September 13, 2021
Mercedes Nicoll Interview September 15, 2021
Perceived athletic competence, sociometric status, and loneliness in elementary school children, Journal of Sport Behavior.