Berkshire Pats fans…what if a love interest is a major fan of a rival team…dealbreaker?
For the 1st time, the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day will fall on back-to-back days. Sunday is Super Bowl LVI as the Rams compete against the Bengals for the championship. Monday is February 14th as you compete for that special person’s love and affection.
It is more common than ever to have a crush on someone that is just as fanatical about sports as you are. Women no longer cheer for the team with the cool uniforms as the stereotype has led us to believe in the past. Women are just as passionate and knowledgeable about the game as dudes and anyone that thinks otherwise is living in the dark ages.
Sports can enhance a relationship and it can end it. It’s all good when you have two people coming together over the love of a team. From Great Barrington to Pittsfield to North Adams couples put on their Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox, and Celtics swag and cheer together for the good guys.
What happens if your love interest is from New York and grew up a Jets fan? OMG! That is a situation I was dealing with early in my 12-year relationship. Could I really develop feelings for a big Jets fan? Sure, we had so many other things in common but a Jets fan??? We had some fun with it thanks in part to the Jets sucking so much there wasn’t any real competition on the field so it never got too intense. The real victim was the dog. He had to be pretty confused why we keep changing his bandana to the Patriots one when she left the room and then back to the Jets bandana when I grabbed another beer.
With the Big Game and Valentine’s Day so close together Bookies.com actually surveyed 50 fans from each team to get a sense of whether football fandom would win out over romance. The most severe case from the survey's data found that love would be difficult to achieve for Arizona Cardinal fans if the potential partner was an Atlanta Falcon fan. A total of 60% of those surveyed said they would never date a Falcon fan. That's way more than half. On the flip side, only 12% of Falcon fans felt the same way about dating a Cardinal fan.
When it comes to Patriot fans it seems we are still holding a grudge from the 2008 and 2012 Super Bowls. The team Pats fans would find it the most difficult to build a relationship with is a fan of the New York Giants. According to the Bookies.com survey, 14% of Patriots National would not date a fan of the Giants. In second at 12% a Saints fan, and a 3-way tie for 3rd between the Raiders, Jets, and Dolphins all with 10% saying no way…it’s you not me.
On the flip side, I thought the hate of the Pats would show up in a big way but only fans of the Ravens and Jaguars had the Patriots on top of their lists and said no way to dating any Patriots fan. In the Booker.com survey, 14% of Raven fans passed on us while the Jags fans tallied 12% hate of Pats fans.
There is much more to this survey. You can check it out by clicking on this link to Bookies.com.