Dating: Is It Important To Date Someone Who Roots For The Same Team?

Dating is hard when you just have to worry about impressing that new lady in your life. You have the “Good morning, how was your sleep” texts. The “I was just thinking about you” afternoon texts and the “Goodnight” texts. The late-night phone conversations about your past, your future, and how can we forget the dreaded “where do you want to go out and eat at” conversations. But then it starts to get really serious when the mention of extracurricular activities comes into play. No, not the kind you may be thinking of. The kind that has a person sitting on the couch for hours cheering for a team.

It sounds good to discuss, but what happens when the time comes and you’re both reaching for the remote on a Sunday at 1 pm? It’s at that moment, you glance at each other and the real relationship begins.

You look at her, she looks at you and the question is asked– “So, what team are you rooting for”? Her response catches you off guard– “No one, I just want to see a good game”. Stop the presses. What makes this such an awkward situation is the fact that you’re dressed down in your favorite team’s jersey while drinking out of your teams’ mug and she’s sitting there neutral as hell. Something is off and this must be resolved as quickly as possible.

Just recently, I was told an interesting story about a couple who are on different sides of fandom.

For Danny, he’s a die-hard fan of the New York Knicks, New York Giants, New York Yankees, hell, you get the point. He loves everything NYC. He attends as many games as he can, has a closet full of jersey’s, shirts, hats, and all kinds of memorabilia. He just loves his teams. However, on the other side of the coin is Sandy. Now Sandy does like sports but she’s not as rah-rah as Danny is.

For Sandy, she’s ok rooting for any team as long as there’s a good game on. Now for some men, that’s understandable, but for others, it poses a big problem. Danny loves his Yankees but Sandy, on any given day could either be a Yankees or a Red Sox fan. Should that really matter?

They say the quickest way to a man’s heart is through food. Sorry ladies, but that is so untrue. Most men can cook themselves or they know the numbers of every local delivery restaurant in the neighborhood. What men are looking for, especially one like Danny is someone willing to sit down and enjoy the game with. It doesn’t matter if Danny is a Giants fan and Sandy loves the Jets. Who cares? What makes their sports relationship so strange is that Sandy will never experience the joy and pain that Danny feels when watching a game.

Sure, if the game is close down to the last second, Sandy will take comfort that she was provided a good game. However, Danny could either walk away from the game filled with joy or pain. To fully understand a man’s emotions, just watch his facial expressions while he’s watching his team. It’s not the same as when he’s watching two teams play he’s not affiliated with.

Imagine Danny being an Eagles fan after they just won their first Super Bowl this past February. For Sandy, she watched a great game go down to the wire and she’s on cloud nine. But for Danny, there’s a feeling that rushes over him that Sandy may not fully understand. She has no idea why he’s walking around the house or going to the store with the same jersey he had on for four straight days. In her mind, this guy is crazy. However, for Danny, it’s validation.

Now, what Danny is asking for is that Sandy chooses one, not all, but one team to follow in any sport. It doesn’t even have to be the same team that Danny likes (would be nice) but he’ll take what he can get. All he wants is for Sandy to understand that rush.

As Danny told me– “No matter what, I’m not leaving Sandy as we have so many other things in common. She’s beautiful, intelligent, funny, thoughtful, and she brings blankets to the movie theater so we won’t freeze. But, for the love of God, pick a team woman”.

Mark Wilson

Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.