When Hating Wins
Sometimes you want to see a win team just because it means that someone else loses
Being a sports fan is a weird experience, I don’t need to tell you that. You feel strongly about a corporation you probably have nothing to do with, spending hundreds of dollars and hours of your time. The passion, the joy, the sorrow, of rooting for your favorite team is nothing new.
However, one overlooked aspect of being a sports fan is hatred. At a certain point, it’s not about wanting your team to win, but for your opponents to lose. For years I would cheer on the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs, not because I care about the team, but because they were often the slayer of the Green Bay Packers. When the 49ers played, and defeated, the Packers in the 2023 divisional round, I rooted for the Bay Area team. A week later, when they played, and defeated, the Detroit Lions, Packers fans were happy to see them return the favor.
But sometimes a team gets too good that they are impossible to hate. It’s not that you suddenly become a fan, but it is hard to have the energy to hate them anymore. They become a fact of life, an inevitability. You might even root for them to win a title if it means denying someone else.
Manchester City has taken on this role in England’s Premier League, having won four straight titles in soccer’s most prominent league. As a fan of Liverpool FC, I should hate them. But I feel indifferent. Of course I’d rather my Reds win a title instead of the Citizens, but if not us I’d rather have it be them.
These feelings came up this weekend, as Arsenal had a chance to win the Premier League on the final day. The Gunners entered this season with a 20 year title drought. The North London squad is a fixture in the top end of the league, and have done their battles with Liverpool over the years. As the bottom fell out of the Reds’ season, becoming a Gunners fan felt like a natural turn. Manchester City has denied Liverpool Premier League greatness so many times before, so the Anfield faithful should have wanted their downfall.
But instead, we rooted for City. Watching Arsenal falter down the stretch, struggling to get by Everton while the Manchester Blues romped West Ham United was a sight to see. And then City wins the title, lifts the trophy, and it feels like nothing happened. There was no joy in City winning, but instead in the feeling that no one won.
The same feeling crept in during the Super Bowl, last year, and will again as we head into the 2024 NFL season. After the 49ers beat the Lions in the NFC Championship game, I instantly became a Chiefs fan for a night. Kansas City ended up winning a Super Bowl, a second in a row and the third for their superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes. It was a momentous moment, but for many NFL fans it probably didn’t feel like much.
Had the 49ers won the Super Bowl, it would be proof of success for the widely criticized Brock Purdy experiment. The, often annoying, Purdy chest bangers that wanted the mediocre quarterback to win MVP would be proven right. The 49ers, the NFL’s Arsenal in a way — a team with a long successful history that has won nothing in recent decades despite constantly competing — would end a long title drought. No one wants to see that.
So as we enter an NFL season where the Chiefs have a chance to make history and become the first ever team to win three straight Super Bowls — don’t be surprised if you end up rooting for them to do so at the end of the year. Not because you want to see them make history, but because you don’t want someone else to.