The 10 Commandments of Choosing a Second-Favorite Team

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The very first commandment. The most important commandment. The one to follow if you are to follow none other.

This rule should go without saying, but there are people out there who actually do this. And like breaking the Sunday Truce, it's very frowned upon. Picture a dude in a Giants jersey sitting at his couch cheering for the Cowboys knowing damn well they washed New York twice this year. It's silly and it's bad character. You wouldn't dap someone who snuffed your best friend, would you? The same concept applies here.

In other words, there has to be some specific reason. Does it fit a niche other than hometown affiliation that would make sense for you to like it as a counterpart to your team? For example, imagine you're a Ravens fan. You love great defense and your team has been known for their D (which has admittedly seen better days). Would your second team be the Steelers? NO! The Steelers have been living off their offense and, remember, Pitt is a direct Ravens rival. Seattle and the Legion of Boom would be a better fit.

This is the easy way out. It's like relationships: You don't find out how much you like somebody unless you have been through some shit. If you cheer on someone like the Patriots, Colts, or Spurs, the worst you've seen is maybe the 2012 NBA Finals. If you're automatically cheering for a team that makes it two rounds into the playoffs every year, you won't appreciate the fandom as much. Not to mention you'll face the deserved embarrassment of being called a bandwagon fan. You don't want to be called a bandwagoner. You'll be disliked by everybody, including the fans of the team you chose. 

There are some players so good that they carry an aura of the supernatural, capturing the imagination of anyone who bears witness. You don't plan for this; these types come once or twice in a generation, so you should appreciate their existence. With that in mind, you can't hate on someone who digs a team just because LeBron James or Kevin Durant plays for them (unless it violates that first rule!). These players are national treasures and spiritual cherubs in the form of athletic rarities. If you're a fan of the sport, you should be a fan of them. The obvious problem with this is that said team with said HOFer might be a perennial powerhouse. A prime candidate that would work at the moment is Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans. He's a one-of-a-kind talent on a currently mediocre team. 

The NBA allows a ticket to the playoffs for eight teams from each conference. That's enough room for everybody who deserves it to eat. The NFL and MLB offers one spot per division; someone's going home with an empty plate. This is basically in the same vein as not choosing rivals. In-division teams are rivals. Don't do it. 

Because when someone asks you what your new team's starting five is, you don't want to sound stupid. Take an hour or two and learn about the team you're going to be cheering for. 

Here's another rule people sometimes break. Yes, in a video game, you should pick the team that gives you the best chance to win. Why should a Knicks fan continue losing in 2K? That's just cruel self-punishment. But don't let Madden or 2K success gauge your real-world interest. This goes along with the third rule in which you're confusing convenience for genuine attachment. The team ratings change every year, but team loyalty ought to stay consistent.

Your relationship with your second-favorite team should be somewhere within the redline of the fair-weather friendship: continuous interest but nothing that will make or break your night. A second team is like a sidepiece you want to do well in life. Remember, there's levels to this, and you don't want that extra team to obfuscate your loyalty to your first option. If you're a Knicks fan, you should not be constantly checking your phone for updates on the Thunder while you're watching the Knicks. That's cheating. Second-favorite teams are fine, but loyalty is a virtue within sports fandom.

A perspective created just to defy another one isn't a perspective at all. It's an unoriginal stance that errs along dickishness instead of proving a point. Is claiming fair-weather allegiance to the Cowboys, Patriots, Lakers, Celtics, et al. really worth it just to buck a trend? You'd be opening yourself for vitriol and clowning when your team does get felled. Does Super Bowl 2007 ring a bell? If you like any of those teams out of genuine personal interest, that's fine. Respectable dickishness is dickishness that comes from the heart, not just for the hell of it.

The second team is already an intensely debated subject. As such, you should be convicted enough to stick with that second team if you're going to put yourself in that line of controversy. Once you claim a second team, that's it, you've chosen. You're stuck with that team for life. A third team is hard to justify, and you're asking to get dogged on if you're willing to push for a fourth. People tend to keep tight circles of friends and family. The same should go for your teams.