One of the benefits of sports is the ability to hate within reason. You can hate your mother in law, hate your boss, hate your neighbor and the damn tree that loses its leaves all over YOUR backyard but you are expected to quell that for society’s sake. And please do.  But not in sports.  Go ahead and hate.  Just don’t poison trees…

For example (and this happens every year your team gets bounced from the playoffs, or the
bracket or from anywhere else) but you wonder if you should pull for the team that beat your team to win it all.  HECK NO!  Never!  The justification being that at least the best team beat your team.  That doesn’t mean a thing to me and it shouldn’t to you. Let’s go back to hate.  I hate the team that beats my team.  I always will.  Because it is sports. I still hate the Denver Broncos for beating the Packers in the Super Bowl. I hate the 49ers right now. I can’t pull for them. And I dread watching that beer commercial during the Super Bowl of that 49ers fan who breaks into his old apartment to watch games from the exact spot he used to.  (btw, why didn't the boyfriend kick his ass out of the apartment?) Hate.  I gain no satisfaction when the team that offed me wins it all. I am a big Kentucky Basketball fan and I hated Uconn when they beat UK in the Final Four a couple years ago and I sure as heck didn’t want them to win the Title.  And I sure as heck don’t expect the fans of the team UK beat on the way to the championship last year to start pulling for Big Blue.  No way.  They are supposed to hate. They are expected to. I can’t imagine Indiana or Louisville pulling for the Cats after they got dumped by UK in the tourney last year. That is the fun of beating your rival because you know the other fans are pissed and hate seeing your team advance. They aren’t cheering for you. They want you to lose. Why cheer for them?  Stop doing it!  I don’t even want them to cheer for my team. 

Here’s another example of  misdirected cheering- “If my team gets bounced then I will pull for whatever team remains from my conference to win it all because it makes my conference look better.”  Who gives a damn!  I will never cheer for a team that I have rooted against ALL YEAR.  Never.  You mean to tell me that you would cheer for that little putz Aaron Craft of Ohio State to win the title because it makes the Big Whatever number of teams they have look better?  No chance.  Do you think people across the country will say, “Looks like Ohio State
made another Final 4.  Well good for Wisconsin because they are in the same conference?” Never happens. Nobody cares  Hate them. Hate them.  

But what happens when two teams you hate are playing each other for the title?  You stew. You loathe.  You watch knowing the outcome will bring you no joy.  You may even start pulling for the team you hate less. But say that team wins and you watch them get a trophy, or cut down the nets. It pisses you off just as much.  It’s a no-win situation but that’s ok. At least you get the satisfaction of watching their idiot fans burn down square blocks in their town or campus and call them morons while busses and cop cars are torched.  Hate away.