Is it acceptable to have a second favorite team?

[crashcarson15]

When I was younger, as I'm sure some of my fellow members can attest to, I'd root for like 10 teams per league.

Now, though, it's mainly a first, sometimes a second, and often some bandwagon teams. I mean, I own MLB caps for 10 different teams and gear for a bunch across the sports, but that's just because it's my look — and if I like a team's look, I'll typically pick up some "swag."

Jackets / Indians / Browns / Crew / Cavaliers / Villa are definitely my "first teams," while anymore I only have true second teams with the Winnipeg Jets (nostalgia-ness) and the Washington Nationals (because of the bifurcation in the MLB). Then again, I guess I root for every MLS team, so...

[Brave-Bird 08]

I've got a big cluster of friends down here that are from Ohio, so I've kind of taken ownership of the Bengals and Browns as my secondary favorite teams. We just always get into football talk around the brews and obviously Cleveland and Cincinnati keep coming up. I've got no reason to dislike the teams and they only play the Falcons once every four years. My brother even went to school at Wright State so I frequented the area a lot in the past four years. It helps that the Browns are so easy to root for as Under Dawgs (I'm a UGA fan) and that the Bengals have A.J. Green, Geno Atkins (both Bulldogs) and Andy Dalton, who was a guy I talked up before he was drafted...I was in the minority.

On the college football level I root for Georgia State (Sun Belt starting next year) and Georgia Southern (SoCon) simply because of family roots (Dad works at GaState, cousins went to Southern), and obviously Kennesaw State b/c I go there.

So, in one sport I have loyalties all over the place, despite being a declared Falcons and Georgia fan.

[DDR]

"And when it comes to baseball, we've got two favorite clubs: The Go-Go White Sox...and whoever plays the Cubs."

[njmeadowlanders]

Yes, so long as there's no real rivalry. For example: Say you're from Boston and a Red Sox fan and you move to, IDK, Pittsburgh. There's nothing wrong with adopting the Pirates as a second team. But if you moved to NY, you couldn't adopt the Yankees, and you'd of course not want to adopt the Mets .

[OMMF]

I am and always have been a Bruins fan. GF (now fiancee) has always been a Sharks fan. Since we have been together, we have adopted each others teams as our second favorite. However, anytime they play each other, all bets are off. And we're both fine with that. Comes with the territory. But, she was also a fan of Carey Price from his Tri City days. That stopped as soon as she got together with me. No woman of mine is rooting for a :censored:ing Hab.

[Discrim]

Far as the NFL goes, I've gone over this a few times. Just know that two Sundays a year, I'm rather detached...which makes it rather awkward for anybody who happen to be watching Bears-Packers games with me. Yes...I recommend NOT liking your favorite team's rivals if possible. Things are a lot less weird that way (it's way too late for me though). Notre Dame and Wisconsin, different story seeing as they never play each other in football, and probably won't for the foreseeable future with ND's little ACC arrangement. Georgia Tech...they're admittedly a quasi-fandom of convenience: they hate UGA. I also happen to hate UGA.

[wildwing64]

It's perfectly fine to have a second favourite team, but I choose not to. Like I said in another thread, I've grown up in a very one-team-till-I-die culture. So for me, rooting for another team or even the idea of owning another team's merchandise doesn't feel right - even outside the one league I follow the most.

About the only time I'll root for another team in the NHL is when the Ducks are either not in the playoffs or have already been eliminated, in which case I'll jump onto one team's bandwagon before I end up feeling indifferent towards whoever makes it all the way to the Finals.

[njmeadowlanders]

About the only time I'll root for another team in the NHL is when the Ducks are either not in the playoffs or have already been eliminated, in which case I'll jump onto one team's bandwagon before I end up feeling indifferent towards whoever makes it all the way to the Finals.

That's completely different. All my teams suck, so you have to learn to root for a certain team or two in the playoffs, but it's not "fandom". And if anything, it's more rooting AGAINST say, the Phillies or Yankees or Patriots or whomever than anything else.

[pmoehrin]

Depends on the sport I would say.

In college I would say easier to do it then pros just because of how much more varied the opponents are even with teams in the same region. I don't think there's anything wrong with rooting for your alma mater, but also cheering on a school like St. John's or Rutgers or even both just because your from the area. As long as they never play each other or aren't in a situation where they can directly effect the other, I don't really see any contradiction.

Pro sports though I think it gets alot trickier because the seasons are longer and the pool of teams is much smaller. So there's much higher chance that your rooting interests can become conflicted if your pulling for more then one team.

I also think this is something your more likely to do as a kid then an adult, because with most anybody your initial interest in the sport is of individual players and not teams. You may have a rooting interest in a team, but its solely due to your favorite player(s) being on the team. But as they retire and you get older I think that mentality tends to go away and the interest becomes more and more team related and less and less individual related.

[bosrs1]

Yes, so long as there's no real rivalry. For example: Say you're from Boston and a Red Sox fan and you move to, IDK, Pittsburgh. There's nothing wrong with adopting the Pirates as a second team. But if you moved to NY, you couldn't adopt the Yankees, and you'd of course not want to adopt the Mets .

That's almost what my cousin did. He grew up a die hard Sox fan north of Boston. Then went to college at PSU, married a girl from Allentown, and lives in Bethlehem, PA and has become quite the Phillies fan. He justifies it in that they're from different leagues, rarely meet, and aren't rivals.

[TheOldRoman]

"And when it comes to baseball, we've got two favorite clubs: The Go-Go White Sox...and whoever plays the Cubs."

Nice reference. I would go along with the sentiment that it's okay as long as you don't have half a dozen teams in each sport, each located in random locales. I don't have any "second favorites" per say. There are a handful of teams which I tacitly root for, but don't follow on any regular basis. In baseball, I always have a soft spot for the Astros (due in part to pity over their best team ever running into a better team in 2005). I used to pull for the Cardinals in the playoffs, but not so much this year. I also root for Texas in the playoffs. In football, I really like the Giants (based on them twice taking down my two most hated teams in the playoffs), but I wouldn't say that I'm a fan and probably won't root for them at all after Eli and Coughlin are gone.

[sportstar1212]

I find it perfectly okay to have a second favorite team as long as they aren't arch rivals of your favorite team, eg. Red Sox fan having the Yankees as their second team. Of course, I'm the biggest hypocrite as in baseball, my two favorite teams are the Red Sox and Blue Jays. Granted, they're not the biggest rivalry, but they're still in the same division.

[Maz]

Like others have said, it is perfectly okay to have another team or two per league you prefer. It's a nice departure from the usual hometown team business.

In Pittsburgh it's always been "STEELERZ OR DIE". In recent years the Steelers' overwhelming influence on the city's culture has begun to, for a bunch of reasons, really irk me. This causes me to care about them less each year, it seems, which is ironic considering I loved them dearly up until recently. Now don't get me wrong, I'll still put them above any team in the NFL when it comes down to it. However, thanks to multiple defeats in the playoffs to the Patriots and a general hatred of Tom Brady, my hate for the Pats overwhelmed my love for the Steelers in 2008 when the NY Giants ruined the Pats' perfect season in Super Bowl XLII. I fell in love with the Giants that night. I was even more excited about that win than when the Steelers won the following year. I bought a locker room Champions t-shirt and have followed them casually ever since, and over that time I began to appreciate various other things about them. In fact, my fantasy football team is made up of a few Giants and their defense.

In baseball I tried to adopt the Red Sox as a second favorite, but it never really stuck. I have teams I prefer over others, like the Nationals, Red Sox, Rays, and Jays, to name a few, but the Pirates, no matter how awful they have been, will never have a #2 behind them.

The Penguins, however, despite being my #1 team above all others, do have a #2 behind them in terms of hockey. I always try to keep it in the West, though. Originally it was the Detroit Redwings until the Pens lost to them in the Finals in 08. Right then it became the Chicago Blackhawks, but I'll admit I've fallen off that wagon and hopped on to the Kings'. It's honestly not because of the recent cup win (however awesome it was). I always liked Anze Kopitar, one of my favorite Penguins in Rob Scuderi went there, and I have always been a fan of the black-and-silver color scheme they recently have brought back (jerseys also play a big part in my second favorites). Combine them all, and boom. Secondary fanhood.

[mjrbaseball]

In college sports, it is OK to root for another team in your conference once your team is eliminated. For example, in basketball I will support Princeton or Harvard if Penn doesn't make the NCAA tournamenbt. However, in pro sports, you can never root for a rival. I am a Yankees fan, and because of geography I kind of follow the Phillies too. But ask me my second-favorite baseball team and I will say "whoever is playing the Red Sox".

[The_Admiral]

In college sports, it is OK to root for another team in your conference once your team is eliminated.

No, this is the dumbest.

[rmackman]

There's nothing wrong with having a second-favorite team.

There IS something wrong, however, with having a thirteenth-favourite team. (Like some people around here.)

I have two favorite teams in every league because I'm split between FL and WI. At least it's got an easy connection. I just don't like it when people's favorite teams are the San Francisco 49ers, Minnesota Twins, Ottawa Senators, Atlanta Hawks, and the University of Miami or some random group. It's completely arbitrary.

I also you'll often see if a guy marries a girl who is a fan of different teams, he'll start pulling for his wife's teams as second favorites.

[Arts11]

There's nothing wrong with having a second-favorite team.

There IS something wrong, however, with having a thirteenth-favourite team. (Like some people around here.)

I have two favorite teams in every league because I'm split between FL and WI. At least it's got an easy connection. I just don't like it when people's favorite teams are the San Francisco 49ers, Minnesota Twins, Ottawa Senators, Atlanta Hawks, and the University of Miami or some random group. It's completely arbitrary.

I also you'll often see if a guy marries a girl who is a fan of different teams, he'll start pulling for his wife's teams as second favorites.

There are just so many mitigating factors in fandom that it's definitely not as simply as I once thought. Growing up, the rule was: root for the local teams, no ands, ifs, or buts. As such, I've retained the same teams I had when I was a kid, despite having moved between a number of cities/states since then. But it was definitely hard back then before the internet and specialized cable channels became as readily accessible as they are today. I remember after I first moved, I had to get my fix from the short game recaps in the sports sections of the local newspaper. Plus, being a kid and being the only fan of a particular team amongst all your new classmates was sometimes rough. And now, with my longtime future plans still being pieced together, I have no idea where the wind will blow me next. All I know is, I might have to consider getting a more stable "2nd favorite" team wherever I end up settling down, just so I can set some roots down.

[IceCap]

At the end of the day I'll echo what infrared said in another thread. You're allowed to root for who you want. I have a rule that says the second team you decide to root for has to be in a different conference, but that's just a personal thing.

[Sec19Row53]

I've always thought that if you have two favorite teams, it really means you don't have any. You might just be a fan of the sport, but doesn't favorite imply one? Obviously not the common opinion in this thread.

[rmackman]

I've always thought that if you have two favorite teams, it really means you don't have any. You might just be a fan of the sport, but doesn't favorite imply one? Obviously not the common opinion in this thread.

See to me having two favorites is like having two loves...or three loves. I mean, you love your mom, your sister, and your wife. They're all different versions of love, but you love each one. I think you can be the same way with teams. You have your #1, but you can care for other teams.