I think a fan of the game would still acknowledge a talented team, and whether you hate them or love them, you can't deny the Patriots have a ton of talent on their roster.

I'm also pulling for the Cardinals in their match up, at least we can agree on that.

And Denver doesn't...? The team is higher seeded despite being in a tougher division and has players who aren't confirmed cheaters. There's no objective argument to root for the Pats in that game unless you're from New England or have been a lifelong fan of the team

Case in point.

Fair enough. I'll be pulling for the Patriots today regardless. I understand that they're one of the most disliked teams in the league, and in professional sports for that matter. I personally find them to be a lot of fun to watch. To each his own.

Being a fan of the team from the city you grew up in = illogical to Frownland. Ok

Seems more logical than appreciating the complete farce that is 4'33" but whatevs fam

New England isn't a city so that would be an illogical reason to like the Patriots.

Remove the element of it being a social construct and you'll find that there's little meaning to it.

Yeah, this whole fan of a team thing always strikes me as incredibly absurd.
I get being interested in the sport and enjoying a game for the skill displayed, but getting all worked up because you side with some team for totally arbitrary reasons? I can understand that it might make things more interesting, but how do you even do that?

Ask soccer fans all over Europe, Central, and South America. Or baseball fans in Japan or Cuba. It's common all over the planet. I grew up in Boston which is one of the biggest sporting hotbeds in the US and has been for generations. Sports were huge when I was a kid. Everyone played and everyone had their idols. It was just the way it was.

During my lifetime the 4 major Boston Sports teams have played in the big game 37 times and have won 25 championships.

If you don't get it that's fine. But I and many millions of others will continue to dig getting passionate about "our" teams.

Duh.:laughing:
I know how it is. I live in Germany after all. People are crazy about soccer.
Just weird how even people who don't care a bit about patriotism and such stuff are able to work themselves up about something so similar, but even more absurd than that.