Root, Root, Root for the Both Teams
Most times when I am watching a sporting event, especially in person, I have a rooting interest. Though my four favorite men’s college basketball teams have limped out of the gate to a combined 5-37 mark (Fordham’s 2-8 record being the best of the bunch), with the Yankees winning the World Series, the Packers have made the playoffs and the Mavericks are off to a fast start, so I’m ok there. Even though I have some other pro teams I like, there is a clear hierarchy and when push comes to shove I can cheer for my favorites.
Usually, if I don’t have any natural affinity for either team — say, in a bowl game or a playoff game that I’m watching for love of the sport — I’ll create a rooting interest. Maybe one team is the underdog, or one team has a neat story to root for. Of course, if I’m working the game, I’m not displaying any preference for either team, at least consciously.
It doesn’t happen often, but once about every couple of years I watch a game where I have too much rooting interest — that is, both teams are my favorites, and I can’t cheer for one over the other — more precisely, I can’t root against either. The first time was a few years back when Fordham, my alma mater, played Siena, coached by one of my best friends, in men’s hoops at Madison Square Garden. I have bled Maroon and White ever since I stepped on the campus more than 20 (!) years ago, but also felt a close affiliation with Siena because of the connection with my friend. So I wore a Fordham sweatshirt and Siena ball cap, looked kind of strange rooting for both offenses and was ultimately ok, I suppose, with the Rams’ win.
A couple of years ago, UMBC, where I worked for four-plus years in Sports Information and still have many friends, including the men’s hoops coach, advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Great, except that their first-round opponent was Georgetown, to which my friend from Siena had moved as assistant coach. Again the rooting felt strange, and although I would have been happy to see the upset, it was OK that Georgetown pulled away for the easy win.
It happened again today, as I watched the Fordham women play UMBC in the Bronx. I never want to see a Fordham team lose, and I’ve become friendly with the coaching staff, but I have a good friend who is an assistant for UMBC, and great memories of my time there. I was happy to see a competitive game, in which the Retrievers rallied to beat their hosts with a flurry of threes, showing resilience in winning for the second straight day in which they had trailed by double-digits in the first half. And I was pleased to overhear a comment passed on from one East Carolina player sitting in the stands a row in front of me to another, calling the UMBC team that beat them the day before “relentless” as they watched them stage the rally.
But I’m glad that the rest of this year’s schedule doesn’t pit any of my teams against each other. When it happens again, I’ll just root for everyone.
