I used to hate a lot of teams, but as I have gotten older it seems I only have teams I like, teams I kind of like, and teams that I am indifferent or don't really care about.

I used to REALLY hate the SF Giants, A’s, Yankees, the Raiders, Oregon State, but now, while I still root against them, I could really care less. It would be real easy to hate the Patriots right now however.

When I try to think about what I dislike about certain teams, it ends up having nothing or very little to do with the team itself and more to do with bandwagoners, frontrunners, crazy fans, media coverage, or just being sick of hearing how great they are. (see Patriots, Raiders, Yankees, BoSox, etc).

The Patriot phenomenon is interesting because no one is REALLY a Pats fan. Unless you are from the area or have family there, or are under 20, you can't be a Pats fan imo. The history of excellence is not deep enough from a time frame perspective for them to be considered a "National" team that would have fans everywhere yet.

Likewise I can see how you'd be able to go into any good size mall in America and find a Yankees, Cowboys or A Raider fan -- but the Pats?

Really?

The generation coming up may be chock full of Patriot fans, but it's lost on my generation.

I am a firm believer that if you are a sports fan, your favorite team in each sport should be one of the teams that was either a.) really good when you were between 8 and 12 years old, and/or b.) your local team.

Furthermore, I could argue who you "hate" will be whoever that team's rival was during the same time.

If that makes sense?