Why do you really defend your team?

Most arguments are dumb and get nowhere, but sports-related ones are particularly obnoxious.

First, let’s figure out the correlation between who you are and the team you “love.” Nearly all evidence will point to the fact that you love the team you do because they’re based in or near the town you lived for a large part of your life.

Now, I don’t fault anyone for taking pride in their hometown and essentially their upbringing, but let’s be honest: If I didn’t live 30 minutes outside of Baltimore, do you think I would ever give the Orioles the benefit of the doubt or have any invested interest at all? I can give that a definitive no.

Take the classic rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. By the end of the day, is all that deep-rooted hate you have for the opposite team actually supported with some semblance of reasoning?

Or is it just that it’s a big team from a city other than your own, which poses a threat to your hometown heroes, so you are effectively going to maintain a bitter position until your dying days? I say the latter.

Rivalry is fun, don’t get me wrong. If everybody was apathetic towards the outcome of a game (as I usually am), sports would cease to have the fun and energy level that it does. And while I’m generally indifferent toward sports, I applaud people who are interested in them for pursuing one of the few remaining facets of entertainment that isn’t scripted or programmed these days. That being said, I don’t see what gets resolved when people involve themselves in such frivolous shouting matches that veins pop out of their necks.

Additionally, if you’re adamant about the outcome of a game, and are clearly wrong as your team loses, you will do one of two things- you will blame it on the horrendous officiating and attribute the loss to bad calls, or you will assume the role of Nostradamus and be convinced by your own brand of bogus that your team will “definitely” win next time, remaining just as certain as you were before.

The solution? Put your money where your mouth is to end all these unfounded arguments.

Evan Seaman is a senior majoring in marketing. He may be contacted at eseaman@themiamihurricane.com.