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Favorite Sports Team

I like sports. I like playing several of them, and I like watching professional teams, as well. In fact, I follow several local teams, and I am more than happy to devote a few hours to watching a game. On a basic level, it's just flat out fun to watch someone do something wholly unexpected (like Baron Davis dunking on one of the better shot blockers in the league in a play off game). But there's also a whole level of drama involved, like when a guy who has been injured hits a home run to tie the game for his team. Just watch the reactions from everyone on that last link, the entire stadium went nuts at that point. So yeah, it's fun.

However, there are a variety of unspoken rules about rooting for athletes and teams. The most basic of these is that you're supposed to pick a team and stick with it. If all you ever do is just wait until the post season and pick a team at random, you're not really a fan. It's like picking a new favorite color every year because that's the new "in" color. You don't really like that color, you're just claiming you like it when it became apparent that it would be popular. Now, you're welcome to do this if you like, but I'm also welcome to judge you just a little bit.

You can, of course, root for a different team if your team is eliminated. If it doesn't involve my local team, I will happily root for whoever is playing one of our rivals. For example, it doesn't matter who the Los Angeles Dodgers are playing, I will almost reflexively root for the team playing against them. That's acceptable, since I'm not really picking a new favorite. I just can't exuberantly celebrate the same way if the team-playing-the-Dodgers wins. I can't claim it's "my" team, either.

All in all, it's pretty straight forward. I pretty much root for the local teams. There are certain other players and coaches I like to root for if the local teams have been eliminated (e.g., Tim Duncan), but I stick to the local teams. My whole family does pretty much the same thing. My siblings and I all grew up rooting for the San Francisco Giants, San Francisco 49ers, and Golden State Warriors, right alongside my father.

However, something recently has changed that. At the beginning of this football season, the San Francisco 49ers moved their stadium from San Francisco to Santa Clara. My dad was not particularly happy about this turn of events, and he voiced his displeasure on more than on occasion. In fact, he has decided to root against the 49ers. Yup, he routinely roots for whoever happens to be playing the San Francisco 49ers, as if they were one of the hated rivals. I am not on board with this plan.

We all rib him a little bit about this, but he takes it all in stride. In fact, he dishes it right back. I recently had the following exchange with him:

Me: "Oh, hey dad. You're just in time for the 49ers game."
Dad: "Go Broncos"

As it turns out, that whole smart aleck thing might very well be genetic.
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