On the surface, sports teams residing in the same market support each other. At a deeper level, do they really?
More importantly, should they?
I’ll get to that in a minute. For now, the news: Dodgers players showed up out of the blue on Friday at the Rams’ facility to congratulate them on making it to the Super Bowl and wishing them luck when they face the Patriots in eight days.
Via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN.com, running back Todd Gurley and defensive tackle Aaron Donald greeted a contingent of Dodgers players, including Justin Turner, Walker Buehler, Cody Bellinger, and David Freese. (I’m proud to say I’ve previously heard of none of them.)
Gurley and Donald were impressed by the gesture, and it makes senses that, among pro athletes, there’s a common bond and shared respect because they live, work, and compete in the same city. The question becomes whether, at the upper reaches of the various sports organizations in the same market, support of other teams is expressed only as a perfunctory P.R. gesture.
Ultimately, the various sports teams in a given market compete with each other. The locals only have so much discretionary income and free time, and they’ll be more inclined to invest in the most successful of the local teams. While there’s not much overlap between baseball and football season, the modern era permits far greater engagement than simply showing up for or watching games.
In some markets, it may not matter. Bostonians seems to find a limitless supply of cash and zeal to support all of their local teams. But even in situations like that, there’s a real incentive to be regarded as the top dog.
In L.A., where the fan base is fickle and where the warming up to the return of the Rams has progressed like a crock pot set on extra low, ownership of the Dodgers would surely prefer (but would never admit) that the Rams continue to be regarded as second-class citizens. And ownership of the Rams would surely prefer to leapfrog the Dodgers and the Lakers as the local darlings.
That’s why for years the NFL frowned upon its owners owning non-NFL sports teams in markets where those non-NFL sports teams would coexist with an NFL team owned by someone else. Ultimately, those various home teams are like a houseful of kids competing for the affection of their parents, even if to the outside world there’s an abundance of laughs and smiles and an absence of wedgies and noogies.
