I would root for whatever professional sports team I felt was special to me, regardless of country of origin, just as I would root for whatever university team I liked whether I attended school there or not.

I may be "patriotic" in that I think I live in a pretty good country and I want us to succeed on a global scale but I can't ever imagine a point where I would cheer for my countries team/s simply because they are from my country.

I may not be the best example though as I've never enjoyed sports and even growing up, I felt the whole notion of "school spirit" in general was rather silly. Patriotic pride feels like school spirit's big brother to me.

Few Americans support teams across a border unless they're in a small town border place themselves because there mostly aren't many to choose from that would fit that bill. It's always seemed to me that Canadians, a small (population-wise) country of where most people live very close to the US border, are victimized by American cultural imperialism of all kinds. And have your hands full trying to maintain some elements of a separate identity when living next to such a large and arrogant neighbor.

Sports - we're the greatest. If you win the World Series, a game not much played outside the US until the past few decades and only recently including teams from one other country, you're World Champs. Same with the Super Bowl of American football.

Supporters- There may be as many supporters of San Diego teams in Tijuana as in San Diego. More Dallas Cowboy followers outside of Texas than in, more NY Yankee fans outside of NY than in. I'm sure people in Windsor, Ont follow Detroit teams. More Manchester United supporters in China than in England. National borders and geography don't matter in today's world of electronic communication. Some of support is regional, some of it may be just branding and advertising. As for me, I don't support the teams from the city I grew up in because I've lived in another major area much longer now than I ever lived there.

I agree with texas gem. Many Americans think they have feelings of patriotism without knowing what that actually is. And for many, its manifestations are as nebulous and irrational as the "school spirit" she so cleverly draws a parallel to.

I am feeling off-put by Canada ever since the election. I used to visit a large Canadian knitting forum and saw a terrible, but politely-worded, trashing of America. There were more than 500 truly horrible things said and they were considered acceptable in that place. So...nope. Only American teams for me from now on.

American all the way! It's my country, I'm not Canadian

I would say that if you have an American sports fan, they will root for their own/home team over any other team, anywhere, no mater where they live.

I root for my "home" team, from whence I came. But, I also root for the team where I live now, albeit, they are more like the "red-headed step-child".

Thank you for your responses.

Texas, you said "I can't ever imagine a point where I would cheer for my countries team/s simply because they are from my country." I guess I am 'guilty' of doing exactly that, after moving away from my childhood border city.

I'm aware that the actual players on sports teams are from everywhere, so you may have an 'American' hockey team composed of more players from Canada, for example. Perhaps that's one reason why border city residents feel no qualms about rooting for the neighbouring American team to win, even in games against a Canadian team.

But once I moved to a non-border Canadian city, I slowly began paying more attention to our own teams. I started to feel uncomfortable, standing in a Canadian arena, singing our national anthem along with the Canadian team players, then sitting down and rooting for them to be beaten by the (my favourite) American team. I'd felt completely different in my former city, perhaps because I was watching my favourite team, after first crossing the border into the States, and of course enjoying the game in an American arena or baseball stadium. So aside from living in such an Americanized border city, I was experiencing all my sporting events in your country as well. Any thought of rooting for a team from my own country at that time, never entered my mind.

Elmer, you wrote "Supporters- There may be as many supporters of San Diego teams in Tijuana as in San Diego. More Dallas Cowboy followers outside of Texas than in, more NY Yankee fans outside of NY than in. I'm sure people in Windsor, Ont follow Detroit teams. More Manchester United supporters in China than in England."

In the Dallas Cowboy and NY Yankee example you gave, the fans in those cities would still be rooting for another American team, I'm assuming. But people in Tijuana are rooting for San Diego, I'm guessing because there probably are no pro teams in Tijuana that play in the same league as San Diego. China, I'm sure, roots for it's own country's teams in any sports they play professionally, against other country's teams, But I'd think they only have more fans in China rooting for Manchester United, than England, because of the enormous disparity in population among the two countries. People in Windsor Ont. have no professional teams in their city, so it's understandable that a great majority would root for the Detroit teams, five minutes away across the border.

But when you mentioned "National borders and geography don't matter in today's world of electronic communication." Do you think that applies even when that foreign country's team plays in the same leauge against yours, (as in how I was rooting for my favourite American team to beat whatever Canadian team they were playing?) If you're saying that you feel it's common now, then I wasn't aware of that, because I've yet to run into an American at a sporting even in Canada, who was rooting for our team to win against their team. I thought most American sports fans might have an 'allegiance' to their own country's teams first, and not just during the Olympics, which is the case for many Canadian border city residents. But perhaps I stand corrected.

People have gone crazy, following *ENTERTAINMENT* over The Real World. I know that early-imprinted people will say sports is something other than entertainment, but the members of 'your team' do not know you and you do not know them.

There is a difference between supporting/rooting for people you know (your schoolmates and small town teams) and projecting your emotions onto professional sports teams.

Professional sports teams exist to make money for their owners. You 'know' team members like you 'know' movie stars. The outpouring of emotion when 'our' Cubs won The Big One seems delusional to me. I wonder how many of those people *voted*?

amicus, I thought you'd asked a broad question and made broad generalities but you seem to want to bring it back to being a narrow discussion. The world is bigger than the NHL.

Let's try a simple one - I suspect the majority of players in the Canadian Football are Americans. But on this side of the border, few people follow Canadian football. I would guess there are few Canadians and lots of Americans and other nationalities on the Blue Jays. Americans wouldn't follow that team simply because of its players.

You can make your decisions for who to root for as you wish, as everyone else does. I think you've seen a variety of answers to the questions you have.

Well the Seahawks like Canada and one game a year is Canada Day where they sing O Canada and raise our flag along with the American Flag.

Elmer, sorry, I probably did a poor job of conveying myself, if you felt I was narrowing down my discussion to the NHL. I thought I was sticking to my topic, which was that many border-city Canadian sports fans, because they live in a more 'Americanized' city, will root for their favourite American team, even when it's playing against a Canadian team. I wondered whether most Americans would feel an 'allegiance' (for lack of a better word) to always root for their own country's team, when that team in competing with one from another country.

You mentioned "I would guess there are few Canadians and lots of Americans and other nationalities on the Blue Jays. Americans wouldn't follow that team simply because of its players." I'm understanding that you feel American sports fans would only root for their own country's teams, that play in the same league as other countries. That's what I suspected would be more common, which is not case with many border-city sports fans here.

Thanks for all your responses.

There are US sport fans who root for the Toronto Maple Leafs - Go figure. I met one last night wearing a Maple Leaf sweater at the chess club. He plays chess, but maybe that explains nothing; However, he lost his game.

jemdandy, thanks for posting! Although it's quite common for border-city Canadians to favour an American team, I've never met an American rooting for the Canadian team, in a game against each other. In fact, many years ago I was chastised while at a game in the States, for rooting for the American team, once he learned I was Canadian. I got a "Really, why wouldn't you want to support your own country's team? We would never root for yours over ours!" Well you've just provided me with a personal example of encountering an American who does apparently, favour a Canadian team, so I guess it does sometimes happen!

(It's especially surprising that it was a Leafs fan, only because they're one of our most consistently disappointing teams, unfortunately.) But I do think it must be much less common, as I've yet to strike up a conversation with a (Canadian rooting) fan here, to find they were actually American....maybe I will someday though, lol!

I've found that sports is a 'safe' topic for men to converse with one another.

chisue, I agree with everything you mentioned in your earlier post! While one can be an avid fan of sports, music, acting, etc., they are all indeed just entertainment and one certainly has no personal connection with the players or performers. We are of course only witnessing a performance of something they enjoy doing, for which they are paid handsomely, but not anything that should be elevated to 'hero' status.

While I'm sure they really enjoy doing their craft and are happy to please their fans, I'd bet the majority of players on teams would not turn down a 'larger income' trade to another city, just because they feel a nice connection with the fans of their current city!

After our Blue Jays were eliminated, I rooted for the Cubs, as I just wanted them to win after all those years. But DH and I never get the mentality of (any city's) sports fans who take to the streets and go nuts, as if WWII had just ended.

amicus -- I've wondered if some men aren't still pretending to BE these super athletes -- a remnant of their imaginings as boys, playing Little League or HS or college sports.

For some -- both boys and girls -- they 'learned at their father's knee' to root for the XYZ team. Games games evoke happy times with a loved one. I was touched by the Cubs fans who wrote their parents' or grandparents' names on the wall around Wrigley. The whole family atmosphere during the celebration was hugely different from some other sports celebrations, memorable for drunks and looting. There was even peace and order at the commuter train terminals as families left the celebrations in time to feed the kids dinner at home!

My DH is a lifelong Cubs and Bears fan, 'coaching' them from his place in front of the TV as he coached our DS's teams. (I understand the games and admire great playing -- but not as much as I admire great ballet performances. (Yes, you can guess why! LOL)

For a different slant - My husband, born in Ohio, rarely watches American sports. He prefers soccer (usually in England) and Australian rules football. They are both faster paced than the typical American games.