The satir­i­cal news­pa­per The Onion sells a t-shirt on its web site that says, “The sports team from my area is supe­rior to the sports team from your area.”

This irra­tional sup­port that many peo­ple have for pro­fes­sional sports teams is some­thing that I have always been baf­fled by, and this slo­gan makes a great com­men­tary on it. Die-hard fans who have no fam­ily or per­sonal ties to a team other than geo­graph­i­cal loca­tion will get their body tat­tooed with the team’s mas­cot or riot after a big game, but why?

I grew up play­ing many dif­fer­ent sports, just like many young American chil­dren, but I have always con­sid­ered myself more of a player than a fan. I truly enjoy a sport for the skill and strat­egy it takes. This is why I like watch­ing a game where I don’t really care one way or the other who wins, but where there are skilled peo­ple play­ing at a level that is inter­est­ing to watch.

I am from the Chicago area and have grown up cheer­ing for the Cubs, Blackhawks, Bears and other local teams. I also get enjoy­ment out of giv­ing my friends here in Michigan a hard time when the Blackhawks play the Redwings, but we know it is just in good fun.

There is some­thing to be said for geo­graph­i­cal con­ve­nience. It is obvi­ous that some­body will go to see their local team and cheer for that team when itch­ing to see pro­fes­sion­als play a sport; fans do often cross that line, though, of enjoy­ing a sport­ing event when it turns into a regional rivalry that can esca­late into rioting.

I have to admit, the U.S. seems to be toned down com­pared to other coun­tries. Soccer, the most pop­u­lar sport across the globe, means much more to peo­ple than just the aes­thet­ics of the sport, it is a sense of national pride. The movie “Miracle” comes to mind about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team where the state­ment is made that “this is much more than a hockey game to a lot of people.”

When it comes to sit­u­a­tions like this, yes, it is more than a game. The 1980 Olympics had more to do with the Cold War and ten­sions with the Russians than it did with a sport­ing event.

On a more local level, though, fans get riled up for noth­ing more than a team that is close to them geo­graph­i­cally. As I said, I grew up as a Chicago Cubs fan. I came from a fam­ily of Cubs fans, so nat­u­rally I rooted for them. None of us, though, are very anti-White Sox. It is just a fun activ­ity to be able to take a side on things.

A sport should be enjoyed for the com­pet­i­tive­ness and skill that is exhib­ited on the court, ice or field. It should not be taken too seri­ously. It should be relax­ing and a time to take one’s mind off of the other stresses in life, not add stress.

As the old say­ing goes, “It’s just a game.”