A few months ago, Code Switch lead blogger Gene Demby turned to Twitter in an attempt to crowd-source a solution to a problem he'd been having. Gene had begun watching Premier League soccer but couldn't settle on a rooting interest, so he asked the league's fans to convince him to root for one team or another.
In this episode of The Giant Foam Finger — our occasional sports-themed offshoot of Pop Culture Happy Hour — I open by asking Gene for an update on his Premier League search. But then we move on to a farther-reaching discussion of why we might root for one team or another in any sport, for reasons ranging from geography to friendship, familial bonds, favorite individual athletes, bandwagon-jumping and even good old-fashioned spite.
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