Unless you were living under a rock, you know that the New England Patriots won their 6th Super Bowl last night.\u00a0 Like most, I was hoping for a LA Rams upset, but it was not to be.\u00a0 \u00a0I was also hoping for a good halftime show, but I should have known better.<\/p>\n
So why were most fans of the literally every other team in the NFL rooting for the Rams?\u00a0 Because, as a collective group, we hate dynasties.\u00a0 We hated the 70’s Steelers and the 80’s 49ers and the 90s Cowboys.\u00a0 Buy why do we hate teams that go on amazing winning streaks?<\/p>\n
There likely isn’t one definitive answer, but I have two strong theories.<\/p>\n
#1 Everyone loves an underdog.\u00a0 Even if you don’t know a thing about baseball you knew that the Cubs hadn’t won a World Series in forever, and were happy for them when they finally did it.\u00a0 \u00a0We identify with the underdog.\u00a0 \u00a0We love seeing “the little guy” win one and dynasties have a bad habit of making our beloved underdogs their playthings over and over again.<\/p>\n
#2 Groupthink.\u00a0 We all like to think of ourselves as being likeable, intelligent people.\u00a0 We all like to think of ourselves as part of a team and our subconscious brain knows that.\u00a0 After a few years of hearing about all the ways that the Yankees are everything that’s wrong with baseball it’s easy to find yourself rooting against them without ever having given any rational thought to it.\u00a0 Which leads to finding like-minded people.\u00a0 Which leads to further discussion on why the Yankees are evil.\u00a0 Which leads to finding more like-minded people.\u00a0 Wash, rinse, and repeat.<\/p>\n
So, what’s your theory on why we all hate dynasties?\u00a0 OR, are you one of the few folks who love them?\u00a0 Let’s talk about it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unless you were living under a rock, you know that the New England Patriots won their 6th Super Bowl last night.\u00a0 Like most, I was hoping for a LA Rams upset, but it was not to be.\u00a0 \u00a0I was also hoping for a good halftime show, but I should have known better. So why were most fans of the literally… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-that-make-you-go-huh"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t