Weird to not be a fan your city's teams?

Obviously there isn't a rule book or anything, but is it weird to like teams that are not from your city?

I'll use myself as a example. I live near Los Angeles. For football a bears fan and for NBA I'm a bulls fan. Now, LA does not have a football team, so it's not like I can root for a home team. I'm a bears fan because I love that hard hitting history they have and I think there exciting to watch (I am a recent fan, though). For the bulls I chose them because when I was a kid I was around in the MJ era and honestly when I think of a NBA team, the bulls always come to mind. I also just don't like any LA NBA teams I think. I like watching the lakers, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of them. And clippers I just feel meh about.

For hockey I do like the Anaheim ducks. So there's that. And I never got into baseball, but I'll support either the dodgers or angels if I see them on tv. But I don't have a interest really.

Which sports teams do you root for? Are they all from your city ?

I'm from the UK so unfortunately this will involve a touch of soccer talk.

NFL I support Phili Eagles... the reason being I played as them in the NFL Street demo back for PS2... Pretty poor reason, but gotta choose somehow.

I catch a lot of flack for being from England but not supporting their soccer team (Instead supporting Italy because that's where I got into soccer and bought my first jersey) I've never really gotten the whole country/ city element but I guess that is because I am not super into sports. Enjoy watching, but don't sit on the level of passion that some people seem to for their local team.

Though yeah I'd say to most people it is weird not supporting your local team... I have to justify my choices of team all the time.

I think it's weird to not at least hope that your local team does well, even if they aren't your favorite team.

I've been a diehard Broncos fan since I was in kindergarten. My dad was (is) a huge Cowboys fan and I wanted a team to root for against him because in my 5 year old head it wasn't cool for me to like the same team as my dad, so I chose the Broncos. We lived in Houston, so it wasn't like the Oilers were good, and they moved to Tennessee a couple years later anyway, whereas the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls a few years later (I was apparently an immaculate genius as a kid when picking my new favorite team based on their quarterback and their jerseys, lol). The Texans have been pretty garbage for a majority of their existence, but I'm still a fan. It was pretty exciting to have two good teams to pull for every week for the last few years (2013 not withstanding, because loltexans).

I don't follow any other sports enough to care about or have a favorite team, aside from being all "oh hey, the Rockets are winning, cool" if the game's on in a bar or something.

I don't think it's weird at all. I live near Jacksonville, Florida but I couldn't care less about the Jaguars. My team is the Denver Broncos, don't know why but they quickly became my favorite when I started watching football in my teens. I've been to several Florida Gators games but if I had to pick a college team it would be Vanderbilt, It's always fun wearing my Vandy hat to a Gator game.

It'd be cool if the NFL did actually, one day, bring a franchise to London, and I'll go to some games and sort of support them, but I made my team choice when I started watching the game and I'm not about to change my mind. The Indianapolis Colts will always be my team.

Football in England is a weird case, especially as a Londoner - of the 20 teams in the Premier League, six play in London. Technically the closest one to me would by Crystal Palace - the only Premiership team that plays in South London - but Arsenal is my London team, and I grew up a Manchester United fan. I've never been a big enough fan of football to support a local club in the lower divisions; the closest Football League club to me is Millwall, but a) they're rubbish, and b) their fans have a rather unpleasant reputation for violence and hooliganism.

I think most of it is the whole group think and local pride slowly becoming jingoistic.

It is unacceptable to root for any other team besides your home team. Unless you live in Cleveland. Then you are exempt.

patriotism and racism are supposedly part of the human condition.

even though it makes no logical sense.

ethno-religions and all that.

there can be only one god, yet everyone needs their own racial god.

nobody chose the city they live in.

nobody.

well,unless they moved.

but does that make it OK to like your city's team?

presumably not many people moved to a city just to be near a team.

if a sizeable enough portion of people do this, then it becomes OK to like that team.

until then, it is not OK to like that team.

Baba Booey

It's okay to root for teams that are not your home team, but not if they're the popular ones.

I never understood this concept. Any of it, really. This idea of rooting for your "home team" or just picking a random one in the league and saying "yeah I like them now". I'm not belittling or mocking it, I just don't understand how it actually works in a person's brain. How do you find a sport and go about picking "your team"?

The closest thing I have to a sports team is the Blue Jays. That's not because I like baseball but more because that was my grandmother's favourite team and she and I used to spend a lot of time together watching games and going to games. Maybe that story is far more common than I think?

I'd think so. I've never lived in a place with a football team (well I guess portland has the timbers now but), but my dad was originally from oakland so he supported the 49ers, which led to me doing it to kind of. Or I would support the seahawks since they're the closest one. Same with the Mariners, I guess.

Though I still support the trail blazers even though I'm pretty sure they're terrible.

hahaha

With the way people move around these days, I dont think it's that strange. People who have a team tend to pick them when they're little, and will keep that team as they grow up and move to wherever their education/career takes them.

Like @oldirtybearon mentions, I have a similar feeling about the now defunct Montreal Expos. My grandfather loved that team, and I always remember him listening to the play by play on the radio. So even though both the team and my grandfather are gone, I always have good memories of that team from childhood.

I would expect anyone to be a fan, or at least be apathetic to the team from the area they grew up in. If you actively root against your home team, then yeah, you're kinda weird and/or a jerk.

"Adopted" home teams for places you move to don't count though.

I live in Philadelphia and I was here when the Phillies won the world cup. Then this happened:

The bank where I worked had all of its windows smashed and the plants inside up rooted, so I had to spend the next two days repairing the place and cleaning up the horrible mess. The damage on broad street (the main street that leads up to the City Hall) looked literally like a war zone. Cars were set on fire, street signs pulled down and thrown through buildings, and worse than all of that, there was rampant physical violence that the police were utterly unable to stop.

Again, this happened when the Phillies WON the World Series. The people became so elated that they destroyed the city who's home team they rooted for.

I don't feel bad at all when actively root against any home team anymore.

The ingrained feeling of us vs. them is the most destructive force in human beings. It enfeebles political progress, it excuses nation's atrocities, and it engenders racism, sexism, and homophobia. The instance on "supporting the home team" is nothing more than an extension of that flawed mentality. It's meaningless and arbitrary, and (as you can see above) can cause mass violence even when the phony group itself "wins".

I think anyone should be proud to not be a part of that.

This isn't to say that sports are bad or cause this behavior, it's the "home team" mentality that does that. So enjoy your sports, root for the teams you like, but like them because of an actual reason, not just geographical proximity.

The bigger the city, the less weird it is.

I live in St. John's on the east coast of Canada. The closest teams in the highest level league of hockey, baseball, football and basketball are in Boston, over 1500 km away. I feel like I have the luxury of not having to root for the local team. I get to choose my teams based on other factors. It just so happens that my favourite hockey, baseball and basketball teams are all in the Dallas area. There are also teams that I like but aren't my favourite for a variety of reasons.

For years the local hockey team was the minor league farm team for the Maple Leafs. As someone who hates the Leafs I would cheer for the opposition every time I went to a game. When they moved we got a QMJHL team that I cheered for, but the city seemed to hate Junior hockey and they moved after 2 or 3 seasons. Now we have the minor league affiliate for the Winnipeg Jets. I'm originally from Manitoba so I do like the Jets so I cheer for them. They are moving at the end of next season though. So I guess I'll keep cheering for the Texas Stars in the AHL and the Medicine Hat Tigers in the CHL.

I like to see athletic excellence and good sportsmanship; I applaud the athletes who deliver on that front. Other than that, I'm not interested. The whole "rooting for a side" is beyond me.

Very very much what this person said. If you like watching a sport, then watch the sport! If people pick on you for not dedicating yourself to the 'home team' then screw those people.
You don't have to like a game because it was developed nearby you.
Don't have to like a movie because it was filmed nearby.
So you don't have to like a team because they just so happened to have formed nearby as well. Like what you like, don't what you don't.

I live in Oklahoma, so, until a few years ago, we didn't have any home teams. I like the Raiders (sweet color scheme and Ronnie Lott was there when I was getting into sports, and that guy is awesome), Yankees (I like dark colors and I'm fat so the pinstripes are nice) and the Thunder (mainly because of Oklahoma City, but also because Kevin Durant is snazzy). One east coast team, one middle of the country team, one west coast team. Don't understand why people freak out when you tell them you like a team nowhere near you. This is a professional sports team playing a child's game. Simmer down.

Grew up in Denver CO and my teams are:

• NFL - Jets
• NBA - Spurs
• MLB - Rockies

I guess when I was younger I went for colors I liked? Green being my favorite color explains the Jets. I've always liked the Spurs since they drafted Tim Duncan then I just adopted them as my team, I was a Karl Malone fan so I also rooted for the Jazz but didn't care for them when he left. Rockies are the only hometown team I ever really rooted for but I just always liked them as far back as I can remember around '95. Probably had to do with collecting baseball cards.

I live in Winnipeg. Which I'm sure explains my personality.

The Winnipeg Jets NHL team left here in 1996. They went to Phoenix. I was 10 years old. My favorite player was Mario Lemieux, and I had enjoyed watching Penguins games because they were always a top scoring team. They played all offense no defense and that's what I liked. Then Mario Lemieux retired in 1997, and the entire sport became all defense no offense. I stopped watching hockey altogether until 2001, when Mario Lemieux unretired! I became a full on Pens fan just in time to watch 4 years of cellar dwelling hockey. Last in the league, year after year. Mario retired again. But I stuck with it. They drafted Crosby, and he took them back to the Cup in 2009.

Two years ago, the Winnipeg Jets were reborn. I now live in a city with an NHL sports team. But I just don't care. I was a Jets fan for a couple years as a child, a Pens fan the majority of my adult life.

With all that said, I don't watch Penguins games anymore because DOUBLE FUCK DAN BYLSMA and also because I replaced it with wrestling.

Yeah , I never actively root against California or LA teams. I support them whenever I see them play. But again , LA does not have a NFL team. So I think that gives me free reign to pick any team I want , no? For basketball , I'll support the lakers when I see them play. Clippers too. But I just like the bulls. But it sucks because I can never see them play in person :(

I'm from Toronto and became a huge Red Wings fan. I regret nothing!

@zolroyce said:

Through this reasoning, I've come to the conclusion that the only sporting event I really care to watch is the Olympics, and even then I don't really give a shit how well my country does. I just want to see who is the best at whatever sport/event, weird as that event may be. The year-to-year ups and downs of national-level sports just doesn't interest me at all.

And I'm from Toronto, so even if I cared, all of our teams have sucked for at least the past decade or so. But also I don't give a shit about hockey, football, baseball, or basketball, so this works out pretty well for me.

I'm from NY, so its NY Jets, Yankees, Brooklyn Nets for me.

About riots...I've lived in NY all my life and have seen quite a few championships...9 times the local team has won the championship since 1987 and there's never been a riot. We're too cool to riot, we expect to win.

I've been living in NYC for 8 years and I hate these fucking teams.

Why would this be even remotely weird? I would rather cheer for the team whose players are the most likable or whose organization is the best managed than base my fandom on something as arbitrary as the town I'm from. But then again, sports fans are weird about this stuff.

I'm from Indianapolis and I hate the Colts with a passion. Blame my Dad I guess. Also, the Colts sucked when I was young so, as kids do, I became a fan of a successful team... the Denver Broncos. The last two weeks haven't been great. At least the locals have to shut up about Manning being the greatest qb ever. (It's actually Montana. That 's the answer until someone else is as clutch in as many big games. Elway's probably second though.)

Depends, my Mother grew up in the Upper Peninsula about 100 miles from Green Bay and 600 miles from Detroit so she's a Packer fan and as a result I am also a Packer fan. That seems perfectly legitimate. On the other hand I'm also a White Sox fan since I was like 5 or 6 and that's my favorite team in any sport; but it wasn't like I jumped ship from Detroit (I still like the Tigers a lot, but they're still not my favorite) because they sucked or jumped back over when the White Sox started sucking; so that seems fine too. The main thing people object to is jumping on/off bandwagons.

For individual sports it doesn't matter at all who you root for, pick according to taste (though I suppose at the Olympics rooting for one's heritage is desirable). I don't root for US Male Tennis players because none of them are particularly good and thus not interesting, also Americans don't pay attention to Tennis in general.

@fredchuckdave: Tennis is definitely a sport where I root for players completely regardless of any national ties. I rooted for Djokovic against Murray in the Wimbledon final, not because I hate Murray or am a party pooper, but because Djokovic is the tennis player I like and respect the most - mild-mannered fun loving goofball off the court, uber-athletic cybertronic tennis machine on the court.

Boo this man.

I'm from Portland and I don't give a shit about the Trailblazers or the Timbers. It's probably because I don't like basketball or soccer, but still.

@atlas: Best thing about Djokovic is his awesome badass nationalist Dad. I like Federer personally, though I don't actively dislike Nadal if Nadal didn't exist Federer would have like 25-30 grand slams; also his play always looked cleaner back when he was a machine (also he played better in this match), I guess defense in Tennis isn't all that glamorous (see for example David Nalbandian). Djokovic certainly has much more personality than seemingly every other Tennis player combined other than Lleyton Hewitt the Come-On master himself.

I live in Cleveland and I'm not a Cavs fan at all.

I personally have no problem with it. There's so many different ways to acquire a favorite team - through your parents, by proximity to the team, first exposure to the sport, etc. that I don't find it that odd anymore.

All of my teams reside in Chicago (Bulls, Sox, Bears, Hawks). Though I live near Chicago, my favorite teams probably wouldn't be who they are if my father wasn't a fan of theirs when I was growing up.

Only if you were born there.

I don't get why anyone has a team anymore. Players are traded so willy nilly and everything is so different from year to year that they are all new teams each season. Maybe it's just my mindset since there is no sports teams of any kind here, and that I'm no longer into them that makes me feel that way. When I was a kid though I was really into hockey and baseball.

Fans accomplish literally nothing and therefore have no reason to boast about anything. And the players themselves who actually do all these (admittedly) incredible things, are playing a pointless game and have done nothing of real value. I understand this is a fucking video game site forum and we all play pointless games, but I don't gain a billion dollars and a nations adoration for doing so, nor should I. Go cure cancer or end world hunger and maybe I'll muster up a cheer for you.

I don't think it's weird, but I personally root for my local teams. Although, I only really care about football and basketball, so Giants and Knicks (I'm coming around to the Nets though). Unfortunately they're terrible right now. I would say Yankees if I cared about baseball, but even I don't like the buy your way to championships thing they do.

@raven_sword:

No it isn't weird, a lot of people are transplants these days to their cities plus there's a good chance your local sports has no locals on it anyway. And then a lot of people like yourself root for National powerhouse teams. There is some snobbery in sports, so that is looked down upon by diehards as bandwagoning. But it certainly is not weird as it's a very prevalent practice. Just look at TV ratings for major fanchise like the Yankees and you'll see they have national fan bases.

Personally I root for my local teams since I'm back where I grew up and grew up with these teams, but if I moved away today from where I live they'd still be my teams.

@devil240z: @slag:

Well, I wasn't born IN Los Angeles the city. But I've always lived in Los Angeles county. I just don't like the teams that much outside of the ducks. I'm gravitating toward Chicago teams because I love that city as a sport town.

I like sports for the spectacle, so I don't really have any team allegiances. I probably have some deep seated allegiance to the NY Mets because of my Dad, but I learned a long time ago to just let that go (for obvious reasons)

@atlas: Football in England is a strange case. You mention Manchester United, which I am sure is the most popular team in the world, yet the majority of their fans are not from Manchester (I heard).

And the fact that some cities have more than one team makes things just sorta weird because it becomes not about your city but which part of your city. Then when it comes to international games we forget all about that and become best friends. When will we have a forum about if it is normal to not support your home planet?

I don't think it's weird. People are mobile enough that fans spread out while keeping their allegiances. Also, every team's on TV enough that you can see your favorite team almost every game, even if they're from the other side of the country. I don't really follow pro sports, but I know that when my child is growing up he or she will be a fan of Alabama football regardless of where we live.

Also, I tend to pull for my local teams because when they win and score a certain number of points, pizza is half price the following day. Clearly the cost of my pro sports "allegiance" is fairly low.

I don't even care for sports. Let alone my home teams in Detroit.

I only care if the local team is doing good. For example, I don't give the slightest shit when it comes to football, especially college football but that changed to me giving the slightest shit when FSU kept its undefeated winning streak

That's totally cool man.

I was just trying to say it today's world it really isn't socially odd as it used to be. I was being supportive of your fandom choice.

Especially when it comes to NBA, it's understandably hard to justify rooting for the local team when only 8 different franchises have won the championship in the past 30 years if your local team isn't one of those 8.

I can't blame anybody for liking a team that actually has a reasonable chance to win.

I always thought it was a little weird. Isn't the whole point to root for your "nation"? I don't know anyone who supports other countries in the Olympics for example.

Rooting for a fighter (UFC and all that) that's not from your city/country seems more normal, because you can tie a personality to it, you can say: "This guy is from around here, but he's a complete dick." Which I suppose can apply to individual players, but not to an entire team.

That being said, over here in Quebec, you will find PLEEEENTY of people who cheer for the Bruins and not the Canadiens, which just always seemed to me like a deliberately contrarian opinion.