“It's a Lot Like Ending Up on the Losing Side of a Relationship”
Academic interest in parasocial relationships has increased dramatically in the past decade. A subset of this broader topic concerns the relationships between sports fans and a host of athletes, coaches, and teams. An overwhelming majority of those studies examine fan reactions following a singular event rather than over an extended period of time. This chapter unpacks the ways in which college basketball fans reacted to the departure of a beloved coach over a period of nine years. Relevant reader comments were analyzed thematically and coded by an expressed grief state using the Kubler-Ross model. The term “parasocial divorce” is introduced to describe the depth of parasocial relationships for highly motivated fans. The findings reveal how fans can come to loathe a particular persona, and the conditions under which that parasocial relationship may be rehabilitated.