BIRGing and CORFing

BIRGing
The act of BIRGing is an acronym for the statement “basking in reflected glory” and is an act done by someone who is affiliated with someone who has been successful. This is done in a sporting sense when a fan of a team or athlete uses the success of the team or athlete to improve their esteem and social identity. The person that is participating in the act of BIRGing will pride themselves in being affiliated with the success of the team or athlete such as a fan painting themselves in a teams colors or wearing the teams paraphernalia.

Anaheim Ducks fans dress in Ducks colors for the game.

These fans dress like pro golfer Ricky Fowler to show support.

CORFing

CORFing is an acronym for “cutting off reflective failure” and is done in sport when a person wants to distance themselves as far as possible from the loosing team or athlete. Fans can CORF when the team that they are following is loosing so they will not affiliate themselves with the team until they are winning again. Fans can also use a teams win to boost their social identity. For example, if a 49ers fan is watching a game and the 49ers have won, they will often refer to the win as “We won and they lost” as a form of CORFing