As usual, Jason Kottke wrote a great post about why he loves sports (within a post on why he hates the NFL).

Life is full of many greater, more fulfilling, and more genuine moments, but there's no feeling quite like the one when you realize your team has won, especially when that victory has been snatched, semi-literally, from the jaws of near-certain defeat.

That's it right there. We pick our teams much the same way we pick our religion: where we live and who our parents like. It's irrational to get excited about 22 men in tights running around a field, trying to move a brown ball from one end to the other, with incredibly intricate rules about how they can do so. But almost all of us do it. It's a thrill when things go your way! And maybe it's healthy to divert our attention and our passion to something silly for just a little bit every week.