What’s your attitude? (Being a Pats fan, this is a conundrum for me.)
I’m a Texans fan. The Pats can suck it.
It depends on the sport and on the team that knocked my team out.
When it comes to baseball, I’m a Yankees fan, and once the Yankees are eliminated, I usually don’t watch the playoffs or the World Series. That is, last year, after the Tigers demolished the Yanks, I didn’t root against the Tigers- I said, “Oh well, there’s always next year,” and stopped watching baseball. I really didn’t care whether the Giants or Tigers won.
It’s different in football, whether college or pro. If my Giants get knocked out (or don’t make the playoffs at all), I still watch the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl, even if the finalists are (like THIS year!) two teams I really don’t care about.
The Giants are my team, but there are numerous other teams, coaches and players I like. If one of those teams beats the Giants in the NFC finals, I’ll still pull for them. There are only a few teams I’m incapable of rooting for, EVER: the Eagles top that list.
Similarly, there are only a few college teams I hate (most of them are in the SEC; and I hated them long BEFORE Alabama slaughtered the Irish this year). On the other hand, I don’t particularly dislike USC. So if USC were to beat an undefeated Notre Dame team next season, keeping them out of a possible championship game, I’ll be disappointed, but won’t root against the Trojans.
I have no feelings either way.
Basically it’s “Meh… nobody can win 'em all.” As long as my team puts up a decent showing and gets beaten as opposed to loses the game I can live with it. I really don’t care what happens to the team that knocked my guys out.
I’m a Pats fan, even though they’re not my favorite team, and I think their Belichick is moron. But still I’d like to see the Ravens win and show that the Pats lost to the best.
It depends on who the victorious team is. If the Yankees beat the Mariners or the Cowboys beat the Seahawks, I’d root against the Yankees in the World Series and the Cowboys in the Super Bowl no matter who the opposing team was. However, if it was some other team, the fact they beat the Mariners or the Seahawk would play no role in which side I chose for the World Series or Super Bowl.
Your poll does not enough choices. It really depends. If the Red Sox are in I’ll root for a team with Castro on the mound, Stalin at first and Hitler at short (good field no hit) before I root for the Red Sox. In football I would never root for the Cowboys, Eagles or Redskins. In hockey I’d never root for the Rangers.
If anyone else is in I’ll look at the teams and see if there is anything I like about them. Or dislike. I’ll usually root for a team that has never won a championship or not for a long time. I’ll probably root for the 49ers because there is a player that went to my high school and there is nothing about them that I actively hate (like Ray Lewis).
I certainly won’t be emotionally invested in any team other than my own but if I’m watching an event I’ll find someone to root for. I just won’t feel too badly if it doesn’t happen. Except for the Superbowl. But thats because I’ll have a bunch of money riding on it.
Depends on the team. In general, I’m just disappointed. If the Giants lose to the Dodgers at any point in the playoffs (or ever, really), I root against the Dodgers. In the World Series, Yankee hatred takes precedence. I’d root for Hitler before I rooted for the Yankees.
Who beats my team doesn’t matter, who the remaining teams are is what matters.
League pride takes precedence. I will root for the American League team in the World Series, no matter what. If my Yankees lose in the Division Series, I will root against Boston in the ALCS no matter what, otherwise it’s which team I like better, regardless of who the Yanks played in the ALDS.
In NCAA, I will root for the Big Ten teams no matter what, so if MSU loses I would rather see the team that beat them lose to a Big Ten team than win the title. I also want to avoid being the NCAA Team Of Crap- the team that loses its first round game to a team that loses its second round game to a team that loses its third round game to a team that loses its fourth round game to a team that loses the national semifinal to the team that loses the final.
In NHL, I root for teams in this order: Red Wings, Other Original Six, Canadian teams, then the least southern of American teams.
I definitely want to see the most interesting game. I don’t like Notre Dame, but having them go up against Alabama in the national championship was more interesting than Florida, etc.
Even though I am a Steelers fan, it seems that this Ravens team has paid its dues and deserves a championship. Plus they represent AFC North.
Division Pride, mostly. I’ll root for any other team in the NLWest other than the Giants if the Dodgers don’t make it. The Giants can suck it. I don’t care who they are playing, I’m rooting for the other guys. Even if the other guys are the Yankees.
As with the others, my answer is “it depends.” For baseball, I will almost always cheer on the NL team, but for other sports, it’s all over the map. I did not vote in this poll due to insufficient choices.
To you Pats and Yankees fans - As a Mets and Knicks fan, I’d call this a high class/first world problem 
While things like “division pride” and “hope to lose only to the champs” make sense from the perspective of someone PLAYING in the games, I disagree that this is the fan perspective.
My default reaction is it’s a case of “I don’t care who wins now, just hope it’s a good game”.
The exception is that there are a handful of teams in the two pro sports I follow (my wife refuses to let me develop an interest in football) where I would root against that team based solely on the everyday jerkiness I’d have to put up with should that team win. Geographic proximity plays the primary part there, i.e., how often I’d run into obnoxiously gloating fans.
There are a few I’m not sure about. For example, the Cubs. Part of me would root for them as the ultimate underdog - c’mon! The CUBS?! Win the WORLD SERIES?!! Another part of me fears what kind of century-long pent-up obnoxiousness wells beneath the surface of Cubbieland, as if there were some kind of a dam holding back another Niagara at the edge of Lake Michigan. I mean, I rooted for the Red Sox in 2004 and was impressed (not) by how quickly “Red Sox Nation” got all uppity.
It depends on the situation, but assuming that none of my divison rivals in the playoffs, I want to see the team that beat mine lose.
Depends on who beat us. There are some teams I will never, EVER root for, no matter what. Even if they’re up against the team that beat us.
My rooting interest is not at all based on who beat my team. I usually like one team slightly more than the other. This Super Bowl is interesting because I have conflicted feelings for both teams. My feelings on Jim Harbaugh and Ray Lewis are almost equal. I dislike both. It’s very close, but I think I’d prefer a Niners victory. Hopefully Jim Harbaugh gets diahreah in the 1st quarter and never returns to the field.
I want the team without Ray Lewis to win, regardless of sport.
Normally, I will just about randomly choose a fave for The Big Game, factors are always in flux from year to year.
Even without the RL issue, I would have to root for the 9ers this year. That QB is cool!
I tend to be in the “it doesn’t matter” camp - unless my team lost because of some controversy, in which case I root against the team that beat it, as I don’t want to go through the thought of, “Except for that one incident, my team probably would have won.”