Webster’s dictionary defines a fan as “a person enthusiastic about a specific sport, pastime or performer,” a definition most people would undoubtedly agree with.

Sports fans — at least the true, die-hard ones — are the pulse, heartbeat and lifeline to the teams they support. Sure, the word fan derives from “fanatic,” but after all, there are plenty of people found in the seats of many arenas and stadiums for whom the word fanatic would fit perfectly.

How many people have the gumption to be the guy in the mezzanine with the beer hat, the red hair and the numbers of Chicago Bulls players painted on his face? We have all watched SportsCenter and seen the people dancing in the aisles and standing on their heads trying to spark a rally from their home team.

Where would teams like the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys be without their fans? Where would the Cleveland Browns be without the Dog Pound, the Chicago Bears without the south endzone of Soldier Field?

Truth is, when teams are trying to rally and make a comeback or drive for a score, they need their fans to rally behind them. Good fans add energy and excitement to any sporting event. Bad fans prove the need for good fans.

A fan is not only one who knows the current roster, record and coach. A true fan remembers that Otis Wilson had three sacks in a 1985 game against the Dallas Cowboys.

True blue fans don’t cheer for a team only when they start winning. A real supporter remembers when Ennis Watley was toiling at point guard for the Chicago Bulls. Real fans remember when the Ice Man was the man for the Spurs.

Fair-weather fans make real fans sick, and turncoat fans aren’t much better. If you hate the 49ers, then hate them — don’t change up because the Broncos trade Terrel Davis.

You can’t become a fan for a team after they win a championship or because they acquire your favorite player. If you do, all the self-respecting fans will never respect you.

Being a fan isn’t all peaches and cream. Sometimes you have to go through years or generations of your favorite team’s mediocrity. Sometimes you have to experience more bad times, like free-agency, new coaches, bad records and crappy seasons (just ask a Raiders fan).

When was the last time you saw Wrigley Field empty during a game, even in the middle of the week?

Cubs’ fans are the most exemplary of all sports fans; they skip school, work and family functions to go to games. Pregnant women have gone into labor at Wrigley Field. Couples get engaged in the bleachers. Sure, pulling your kids out of school just to see Sammy Sosa may not be a great example to set for your children, but at least they will understand the proper way to yell at the home plate umpire.

But all that is easy to live with. All that is simple to put up with. After all, you love your team through thick and thin no matter what the consequences. Or do you?

Isn’t it good to see John Elway sporting a Super Bowl ring? Doesn’t it make you smile when you see the Vikings and the Indians in the playoffs? These are the rewards for being a true fan. What happens when the players you admire and the teams you support can’t communicate? Is it your problem?

Does it affect you? What about when the teams and players begin arguing about contracts, free agency and, above all things, money? Now what do you think?

How does it make a fan feel when his idols, men who are already gazillionaires, squabble about money? Let’s think about it — do men like Jerry Reinsdorf, Michael Jordan and Karl Malone really have something to complain about?

Right now the NBA, its teams and owners are in a lockout due to conflict about their collective bargaining, free agency and base salaries.

What kind of sense does that make? Millionaires are battling millionaires over millions of dollars. Sounds like big business, which is just what the NBA has become.

There once was a time when the NBA was struggling to gain a fan base and was finding difficulty in even getting on television. But thanks to real die-hard fanatics, the NBA stayed alive.

At a time when the American professional athlete is viewed as a whiny, overpaid, spoiled crybaby with enormous talent and a future, work stoppages such as this in a professional sports league don’t help change the athlete’s image to the public.

Just in case they forgot, the public is the most important part of an athlete’s life. The NBA had better get its act together because field hockey is looking better than ever right now.

I’m out.

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Rhaason Mitchell is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Chicago, Ill.