Hey Mountain Lions, this is Adan from the sports section. When my team and I aren’t covering the amazing stories of the UCCS sports world, we love arguing and giving our takes on whatever is happening in the bigger sports scene.
This inspired our newest column: Make it take it, where we give our takes on broader sports concepts and hot events happening in sports and offer some insight into how a bunch of college kids perceive and process the world of sports.
With this year bringing us three worldwide competitions, the Winter Olympics, World Baseball Classic, and World Cup, the first installment of Make it take it will be centered around the topic of national teams. Should you always root for your country no matter what? Why might you not root for your country? What if your favorite players play for other countries?
Adan
I think that everyone owes some level of devotion to their home country’s teams. Being a Mexican American, I was put in a rough predicament as it felt like I had to choose between the US and Mexico and I knew once I picked there was no going back.
Ultimately, I picked Mexico and every four years I watch the World Cup with blind hope that maybe this year will be the year that they make it past the round of 16.
Once my choice was made, there was no room left in my heart for the US team and that’s how it should be. I think it’s ok to have a soft spot for certain players and teams, I don’t mind if you root for multiple teams in professional leagues, but when it comes to national teams, there should only be room for one and that one should be your country.
With professional leagues, I can understand choosing a team arbitrarily, maybe you choose a because of the team’s logo, name, colors, certain players, uniforms or values because there’s only so many cities or states that can be represented by a league, and many people do not have a strong connection to their cities.
But when it comes to national play, these are teams representing the culture and value of an entire country, and for that reason you just have to root for your home country over your favorite players.
Noah
As a ginormous Colorado Avalanche fan, I couldn’t help but feel torn on who to root for during the 2026 Winter Olympics. With our star players spread throughout the World, I got flashbacks to the Mikko Rantanen trade, which immediately made up my mind. Just because a star player leaves the team doesn’t mean you should follow them.
You have to cheer for the country you come from. Even if Nathan Mackinnon, Cale Makar or Gabriel Landeskog got traded to another team, that doesn’t mean I’m going to switch up the team I root for. Sports are for cheering for teams, not individual players.
Once the individual players are the focus, the bandwagon ride begins. Transfer after transfer, you’ll never see any consistency in the team you choose for. This builds no foundation to any team you root for, and you ruin any passion left for the organization.
Just because Mackinnon and Makar are on Canada’s national team, doesn’t mean I’m going to root for Canada. U.S.A. all the way!
Tanner
Let me bring you back to the 2024 Summer Olympics, because that’s where this question was answered for me.
The United States basketball team was one of the greatest teams ever assembled and eventually went on to win the gold medal. They won every single game and played by double digits — except for one.
One semifinal game where they only beat their opponent by four. Who was the team that took the gold medal winners to the brink of elimination? Nobody but a rag-tag group of Serbians led by Denver’s own Nikola Jokic.
I rooted for the United States every game of the tournament and I thought that wasn’t going to change for anyone. That was until Jokic got the ball in the high post against Anthony Davis, and I was immediately taken back to the 2022 Western Conference Final where the Joker hit an iconic 26-foot fadeaway three over AD to seal a trip to the NBA Championship.
That flashback was stuck in my brain, and there was no going back. Down the stretch my mind was screaming USA, but my heart yearned for Jokic. I wanted to cheer for my fellow Americans so bad, but I just couldn’t. I could only pull for Jokic.
As the Winter Olympics chug along, I will be doing the same. You’re telling me as a diehard Avs fan, I’m supposed to cheer for these guys 365 days a year and suddenly turn my back on them just because they didn’t grow up where I did? I don’t think so. I’m rooting for Mackinnon, Makar, and Toews no matter what.
Ty
We are in full swing in the 2026 Winter Olympics right now with many more national tournaments coming up this year with the World Baseball Classic and the World Cup coming up in the next few months.
As a diehard Denver sports fan, players on the Avalanche and the Rockies are being sent across the world to represent their country so as a fan of these players I should follow and support them and their teams, right?
My simple answer to you would be absolutely not!
The point of international competition is not only to showcase a country’s best players, but also to showcase national pride. It gives players something to play for and gives fans something greater to rally around. By following the players that you cheer for on a regular basis, you are completely abandoning what makes international competition so fun.
The first place my mind goes is to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY when Team USA defeated the Soviet Union in the most improbable upset in all sports, commonly known as the miracle on ice. If fans had spread out and gotten all willy nilly with their fandom, that win would not have been nearly as important as it was with all the national pride built into the game.
While we are not in a cold war with all of our opponents, fans should still strive to bring that same sense of pride to each and every event because that is what makes the stakes of international competition so much greater, which in turn leads to more entertaining action.
I am all for having soft spots for your favorite players, but only in games that are not against your home country. When push comes to shove and your country is playing against your favorite players, you should be supporting your country every time.
As Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, said in the 2004 film Miracle, “The name on the front is a hell of a lot more important than the one on the back.”
The United States Olympic team. Picture by Comcast.