The Ethics of Supporting Sports Teams

This paper examines two common motivations for supporting a team. Is either one of these motivations morally superior? More fundamentally, is any sporting team a worthy object of allegiance? The partisan is a loyal supporter of a team to which she may have a personal connection or which she may have grown to support by dint of mere familiarity. The purist, in contrast, supports the team that he thinks exemplifies the highest virtues of the game, but his allegiance is flexible. The ideal attitude for fans is that of the moderate partisan, who combines the admirable loyalty of the partisan fan with the purist's realization that teams that violate the rules or spirit of the game do not deserve our support. In response to objections that no team deserves our support, I argue that loyalty to a team is, like other particular allegiances, a prima facie good that entails no negative attitudes toward other teams and their fans. Moreover, teams that moderate partisans support are worthy objects of their fans' allegiance. Such teams strive for physical, intellectual and aesthetic excellence, while restraining their actions by the demands of morality. To support such teams is a positive virtue.