Sports fans, absolutely.

In professional football, a trend in paper bag wearing likely began with the 1980 New Orleans Saints.

A 2010 New York Times article said Buddy Diliberto was inspired by The Gong Show contestant, The Unknown Comic, who wore a plain paper bag of his head during the performance.

Diliberto copied the idea, but wrote 'Aints on the bag.

Diliberto, who was a local sports broadcaster, isn't credited in any articles in newspapers.com in 1980, but is mentioned as late as the 1981 NFL season as being the person egging them on.

He may or may not have been the originator, but the bags were absolutely out in 1980.

In November 1980, Robert LeCompte was producing specialized bags for Saints games. An AP article reprinted November 4 in The Town Talk (of Alexandria, LA) said they had black and gold colors and were emblazoned with "0-9", their record at the time. Far from being set in his ways, LeCompte told the AP he planned to update the record on the bags for each home game.

For a November 24, 1980, more fans planned on wearing black paper bags. The article in the Town Talk reminding that this is so fans "won't be embarrassed about showing their faces on national TV." (November 7 Town Talk).

(The Saints finished 1-15 in 1980.)

The bags are most commonly associated with the Saints, but have spread further.

Houston Oilers fans in attendance were said to remove their bags on November 13, 1983, when the team gained their first victory since September 19, 1982 (Detroit Free Press, November 14, 1983).

In December 1985, Phoenix Suns fans were coming to NBA games wearing paper bags because how bad their team was playing (Arizona Daily Sun, December 8, 1985).

This wasn't the first time in the NBA. In January 1981, an AP photographer captured a New Jersey Nets fan wearing a bag, emblazoned with "Give us a break!" Similar to Aints, Nets fans were going by Nots (Mansfield Ohio News-Journal, January 11, 1981).

Since being introduced, paper bags have become part of Saints culture. You'll see them in some crowd images because they are tradition. Sometimes, they return for the same reasons in 1980.

The Chicago Tribune of February 2, 1997, mentions the bags were out in 1996 during a 3-13 campaign.