Photo by Paul Graham

Sophomore Blake Graham and friends meet NBA player Udonis Haslem in Capital One Arena (Washington D.C.)

Picking a sports team to support sounds easy. Just pick the team in your state, right? As obvious as it may seem, this is not the case for our community. We have two very different rival fan bases in our community, Baltimore and Washington D.C..
The National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), and Major League Baseball (MLB) are the top three American sports leagues. Throughout these leagues, fans who live here have a local choice between Baltimore and D.C. teams. These two are the only cities in the DMV that have teams in the NFL, NBA and MLB. Sophomore Nathan Zweig follows the top sports in the country. “I follow football, basketball and baseball,” Zweig said.

Zweig was raised locally and has been a loyal D.C. sports fan since he was a young kid. “I will always support the Commanders, Wizards and the Nationals. I always feel some tension against Baltimore sports fans,” Zweig said.

DMV sports fans may argue that we are in D.C. territory or that we are in Baltimore territory. “Wootton leads more towards D.C.,” Zweig said.

Zweig, like others, is firm in his belief that students here should support D.C. teams. “I think that anyone here who supports a Baltimore team like the Ravens or the Orioles is a Bandwagon because we live closer to D.C. than Baltimore,” Zweig said.

Sophomore Blake Graham also has a wide variety of interests in American sports. “I love watching NFL, NBA and MLB games all the time,” Graham said.

Growing up, Graham’s family had a big role in helping him pick which teams to root for. “My dad is a big sports fan and loves all DMV teams,” Graham said.

Graham has a more neutral set of beliefs regarding picking a team to support in comparison to Zweig. “I follow the Washington Commanders, Wizards, and Nationals as well as the Baltimore Orioles,” Graham said.

Similar to Zweig, Graham also believes this school is closer to Washington D.C., and therefore has reason to support D.C. sports teams. “Wootton leans towards Washington more because they have a basketball team and they represent our nation and area more,” Graham said.

Junior Tyler Siegel keeps up with the NFL consistently. He has been a Baltimore Ravens fan since he was a young kid and his mom certainly had an influence on his decision to support Baltimore. It is evident that one’s family’s opinions have an effect on their own. “My mom grew up in Baltimore,” Siegel said.

Although a Baltimore Ravens fan, Siegel agrees with Zweig and Graham about Washington D.C. being closer to this community in comparison with Baltimore. “I understand the people in our community who root for Washington teams because we live closer to Washington D.C. than Baltimore,” Siegel said.

On the other hand, Siegel doesn’t feel as much tension regarding Baltimore and Washington D.C. sports as Zweig does. “If the Ravens weren’t around, my favorite team would probably be the Commanders,” Siegel said.

There are fans in this community who feel tension towards opposing teams in the area while other fans have chosen to be understanding towards different fanbases in the same community.