Teams you Love to Hate

Teams you Love to Hate
By guest blogger Joe Brackets

I saw somewhere earlier this week that, in general, casual fans have been more interested in college football this year than usual. Why? The reason is pretty clear. Notre Dame. Notre Dame’s good for the first time in a long time and will be playing for its first “National Championship” since 1988, which means the Notre Dame fans and the Notre Dame haters are all coming out of the woodwork.

Notre Dame is the most polarizing team in college football. People either love Notre Dame or love to hate Notre Dame. There’s no in-between. Notre Dame football is the New York Yankees. Or the Dallas Cowboys. Or the Los Angeles Lakers. Or Duke men’s basketball. No matter what, these five teams will make headlines one way or another. Win or lose. But when they’re good, there’s no denying it’s good for their sport. Because people are going to talk about them. They’re either going to say how much they love them or how much they hate them.

But why do some people hate these five teams just as much as others love them? What do the Yankees, the Cowboys, the Lakers, Notre Dame football and Duke basketball have in common? For starters, they all have a long tradition of excellence. Back in the days before every game was on TV, there were only a few options. These are the teams that were always on, so it became very easy to develop a rooting interest.

At the same time, familiarity breeds contempt. It’s understandable that some fans would grow tired of seeing the same teams win year after year after year. This can lead to resentment, especially when the “popular” teams are on instead of your favorite. (That’s why Dallas gets so many Monday night games, folks.) And that makes it very easy to root against them. Rooting for the team that always wins can get boring after a while, too. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so fun to root for the underdog, especially when they’re going against a powerhouse. How many Lehigh fans-for-a-day were there during the Mountain Hawks upset over Duke in last season’s NCAA Tournament?

Likewise, every great team has star power. Some of the greatest players in the history of their respective sports have worn these five uniforms. Fans like watching stars. If your favorite player happened to play for the Cowboys, it’s only natural that you’d become a Cowboys fan, as well. (Why do you think I became the world’s newest Denver Broncos fan a few months ago?) And chances are, that loyalty carried over long after Mickey Mantle or Tony Dorsett or Kareem retired.

Fans come out to see the stars. (Why else do you think the Yankees and Lakers are always among the league leaders in road attendance?) And this abundance of stars works both for and against all five of these teams. On the one hand, it makes recruiting would-be freshmen or courting free agents a lot easier. But that also leads to increased expectations and extra scrutiny. Especially from the fans and the media. Sometimes these players themselves are unlikable (see: Rodriguez, Alex), so rooting against them becomes a sport in its own right. And, more often than not, these teams and their fans are viewed as elitists.

There’s also the perception (whether it’s accurate or not doesn’t even really matter) that the deck is stacked in their favor. Every year you hear the griping about the Yankees “buying” their team, and more than a few people found it ultra-convenient that the Lakers found a way to get both Dwight Howard and Steve Nash during the offseason (that’s why the Miami Heat have quickly become the second-most hated team in the NBA). Or that the Cowboys are either the late game, Sunday night gme or Monday night game seemingly every week, whether they’re 10-2 or 3-9.

The favoritism calls are loudest when it comes to Notre Dame. There’s a lot of bitterness in the college football community about how much power Notre Dame acually holds. And it’s a lot. Any discussions regarding the BCS involve the six major conference commissioners and Notre Dame. Notre Dame’s the only school with a guaranteed path into the BCS, and they get the same payout as the conference do. But most of the crying foul is about Notre Dame’s independent status. Since the Irish have been able to avoid joining a conference, they get to negotiate their own TV contract (that’s why all the home games are on NBC) and play whoever they want. Some say that’s unfair. I say it’s smart. More power to them.

Lastly, let’s not forget about the rivalry element. In my opinion, this is the only valid reason to completely despise another team. I hate those people who don’t like a team “just because” and can’t tell you why. Just like I can’t stand those people who think that disliking one team automatically makes them a fan of another (yes, I’m talking about the 2003-04 Red Sox bandwagon). But if you hate one team because they’re your favorite team’s rival, that’s completely acceptable. I hate the Boston Red Sox. I hate the New York Islanders. Michigan fans hate Ohio State. Alabama fans hate Auburn. North Carolina fans hate Duke. I get that. Rivalries are part of what fuels sports. (And even with rivalries, the fans, for the most part, respect each other.)

It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly why Notre Dame is so polarizing. It’s probably a combination of everything. Same thing with the Yankees. And the Cowboys. And the Lakers. And Duke. Ultimately, the reason(s) doesn’t matter. What matters is that Notre Dame football being relevant feels right. The sports world seems upside-down when one of these marquee teams is down. And I think we can all agree that, love them or hate them, Notre Dame has been down for entirely too long.