Now that its playoff time in the NFL, and my team, the Buffalo Bills are out of it (again), I am reminded by what may possibly be my biggest pet peeve in all of sports. This practice of having multiple teams has to end, and end now. I look at my sports teams like a marriage, as long as they are faithful to me, I remain faithful to them. In my opinion there are only 4 circumstances where one can switch their allegiance. The first one is currently taking place as the NFL moves back to LA. If your team moves, you 100% can ditch them. The second circumstance would be a team moves to you. If you are living somewhere, let’s say near LA, and you have been a 49ers fan because they are at least in CA, you can become an LA fan. Doing this requires you give up your allegiance to the original team however. The third circumstance is rarely seen. If something about your team so disgusts you that you just can’t root for that team, you may switch.
The only example that really comes to mind for me was if you are a die-hard PETA member who also roots for the Eagles. When they signed Mike Vick, if you were just so repulsed, that you could not in good faith root for them anymore, that is allowed. The final circumstance is if you are a Browns fan. You can root for anyone at any time because nobody needs that much emptiness and despair in their life. You may be asking yourself if I just compared switching teams, or rooting for multiple teams to adultery, and the answer is yes, yes I did.
Now for clarity, I’m not talking about you picking a team to root for win the Super Bowl. I’m not talking about rooting for whoever plays New England. I’m talking about trying to pass yourself off as a fan of multiple teams. I may be overly sensitive to this right now because I live in North Carolina. Panthers fever has taken over here. Truth be told, I hope they win the Super Bowl because its fun to see everyone all fired up down here. You are free to root for whoever you want. What I am talking about is the fan of (insert team here) who then openly pretends to be a fan of another team. You all know that person that claims to have a NFC team and an AFC team, or an AL team and an NL team. Those people disgust me.
You cannot and should not own fan gear of multiple teams. You should not be posting on social media all fired up when your “other” team does well. I really call this the “we” test. You can only “we” on team. When the Bills win, I can say “We won!” or “can you believe how well we played today”. I cannot turn around and say “We won the Super Bowl!” when the Panthers beat the Broncos in 2 weeks (spoiler alert). I know this is going to hit home to lots of people down here who feel they can “we” the Panthers because they are the home town team, but I am here to tell you that you cannot. You cannot “we” a second team, you cannot fill your closest with jerseys and T shirts of multiple teams, and you most definitely cannot post of social media celebrating a win, they are not your team to celebrate.
I hope that now that you understand the rules a little better, we can all come to an agreement on this. Choosing a team is a lifelong commitment, that should not be taken lightly, but when you commit to that team, with few exceptions, that is your team for life. Think of choosing a team much like your marriage vows. If you don’t agree, remember the NFL wants you rooting for multiple teams because you will buy more stuff, and the NFL is evil. In fact, the NFL even made a commercial about this exact situation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4KUuqGirg4). This is my least favorite commercial ever. I truly hate the people in it. Deadspin even offers a nice commentary of all the people in it (http://deadspin.com/the-worst-nfl-family-in-america-must-be-stopped-1663369466). In closing, pick a SINGLE team, and stay with them. When they do finally win a championship, you will be glad you did because it will truly be all the more sweet.
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