[Brian's note, December 2001: O.K., I've come a long way. Perhaps this was an exercise in digesting some Ayn Rand that I read. But after all the stilted writing below, I still do not answer: Why do people root for the home team? I might be simply that fans watch a team develop and mature, and get to know the personalities.]

Football and Tribalism
by Brian Schwartz

It's football season and playoff time, and most sports fans are living vicariously through their favorite sports team. It is usually their home team because it is of the city where they were born. The home team is not just a team based in the town one lives in. Fans look at the team as a possession. The home team is their team. Determining a favorite sports team is different from determining other preferences. The difference is choice.

People make choices every day. They involve value judgments. Value judgments determine the course of people's lives. People make choices based on their values, upon what they deem is good or bad. Assuming people have the same morals, people, through judgment, will choose goodness, however they define it.

Since people do not choose their home team, and most sports fans root for it, most fans may root for teams undeserving of support. People enjoy watching football. They root for their team and relish the adversity of its rivals. They want the home team to win and the rival to fail. It does not matter how bad either team's management is, or how bad the players' personalities are. Whether the fans judges their team or not, they still root for the home team.

The fans quibble to their hearts content to local talk shows, but if an outsider judges the team, the local fan will come to his team's defense. The fans do not act upon their judgment. No matter how disgraceful the teams become, the fans will still support them. Such loyalty and devotion perpetuates the status quo of an organization, whether it is good or bad.

If fans acted upon their judgment of a team, the team would improve. If fans judged and acted upon the judgment, they would root for and pay money to teams deserving support, i.e., those dedicated to winning. Acting upon judgment thwarts depravity and promotes virtue.

In order to promote goodness in the world, people must first judge, and then act upon these judgments. Humans have the ability to judge and make choices. The moral act is not to withhold judgment, but to give it. Judging forces someone justify his actions. Unjustifiable actions are immoral.

People do not choose their hometown, nor do they choose their "home" religion. Parents determine them. Those personal characteristics were determined without judgment from the individual possessing them. Religion has a great influence on people, yet many people leave it unjudged and let it define their morals. The source of their premises was forced upon them, whether the individual values it or not. Judgment tests the merit of their premises. It is never too late to judge, and choose values for oneself.