Family affair: How Daddy decides what sports team we support

Researchers in America have found that almost 40% of men cite their fathers as the main influence in picking a team.

NEXT TIME YOU’RE sitting in the stands watching your sporting team of choice succumb to abject failure, take a deep breath and think to yourself: “This is all my dad’s fault.”

A survey by researchers at Murray State University has found that it’s not trophies or geography that are the biggest influences when it comes to picking a team to support, but our fathers.

According to the results, 38.7% of males said that it was Daddy’s law when they nailed their colours to the mast, while 31.3% of females agreed.
10.7% of men followed their brother’s example, while 10.1% said that they had picked their team because it was who their friends supported.

In a recent feature on the results, Robert Krulwich of NPR outlines some interesting theories on why Daddy decides.

Dads are more emotionally remote than moms, except when they’re watching sports, and that’s the crack in the ice that kids naturally choose to exploit.
If Dad laughs, cries and high fives about the Red Sox, his kids are going to use the Red Sox to laugh, cry and high-five with him.

So there you have it — win, lose or draw, blame Dad.