by Matt Barr

Allegiances

By no means am I picking on Brian Gunn, but I hear a variation on this theme constantly:

I don't like making predictions, for the same reason I don't like playing fantasy baseball -- they tangle up my allegiances. I find myself rooting for my predictions rather than whatever player or team I'd root for naturally.

I don't think I'm just more well adjusted than most people, and I've never understoood this. I play fantasy football, and I learned long ago not to bench my star running back when he's playing against the Bills because I hope he doesn't do well -- you play who you'd normally play, and let everything take care of itself. But during the game, I am very definitely rooting for the Bills, not my star running back. I have other guys on my fantasy team who can make up for whatever points don't come out of the Bills game. And I'd much, much, much rather the Bills win the Super Bowl than one of my fantasy teams win its championship.

(Having said that, as almost anyone who's been in a league with me knows, I have a seldom broken policy of never owning Miami Dolphins. So it's not as though how I feel about "real" teams never enters into it.)

Is it really that difficult for others to root for their "real" teams even if they're up against their fantasy players? Are there fans of "real" teams that win championships so often that they'd rather see their fantasy team(s) do well than their "real" team? I admit complete ignorance on the latter, so maybe it happens, as inconceivable as it is to me.

How you would ever let rooting for a prediction overwhelm your lifelong fandom is a bigger problem I'll really never understand without understanding the fantasy vs. "real" team thing first.

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