Since my return to SI.com a few months ago, I’ve received more than a few e-mails from readers accusing me of bias against their teams. It usually reads along the lines of, “You only wrote [FILL IN THE BLANK] because you hate [FILL IN THE BLANK] team.”
I always find this funny, because—just being honest—there’s no sports franchise out there that I love or hate enough to thrash or praise for the mere sake of making myself feel good. Though there is much I still love about sports, rooting for teams isn’t one of them. Factually, I haven’t had a baseball team in, oh, 20 years. I like certain players, because they’re nice guys or especially enjoyable to watch, but I would never go out of my way to praise them for the sake of praise.
In this way, I find some fans to be, well, stupid. To 99% of the people who cover sports, teams are merely men in uniforms. The names change, the personalities change, the skills change. There’s no loyalty from the media because, to us, it’s a job before all else. A fun job, sure. But a job.
So worry not. I don’t have your team—or love your team.
