Stephen L. Carter, Columnist

Rooting Against Alabama Is a Family Thing

Not all of our sports allegiances are rational.

January 9, 2017 at 1:34 PM UTC

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of law at Yale University and author of “Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster.”

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Photographer: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

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When I was in high school in Ithaca, N.Y., an entrepreneurial classmate used to publish a mimeographed newsletter called “The Anti-Yankee Dispatch.” The target audience was people who hated New York’s dominant baseball team. Back in those days, that was a lot of people. His subscribers ranged across the country. I was always impressed by his industry and determination, even if I didn’t share the underlying prejudice that made the newsletter possible.

Yet I do have one big bias in sports. It’s irrational and absurd and I know better. But I can’t help it. That’s why, during Monday night’s college football championship game, I will indulge my habit of 40-odd years and root against the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. Not for the Clemson University Tigers -- against Alabama.