5 Ways to Deal with a Significant Other who Is Cheering for the Wrong Team

1. Take Turns

• Consult a calendar to determine on which days your team is playing. Do the same to determine on which days your significant other’s team is playing.
• Work out a schedule that will allow both you and your significant other to watch your teams without having to be in the same room at the same time.
• If both teams are playing at the same time (or against each other), flip a coin to determine which one of you will have to watch the game at a friends apartment/sports bar/through a neighbor’s window.

2. Hold a Contest

• Sit down with your significant other and come up with a contest—one that will determine which team will be getting full support from both members of the relationship. The winner will be able to keep their prefered team, while the loser will be forced to switch allegiances.
• Consider letting it all ride on the outcome of an upcoming game. Hiring a lawyer to help you draw up a contract that is legally binding may also be a good idea, so that neither party can renege on their responsibilities once the contest has ended.
• Once a winner can be clearly identified, the loser will be expected to abandon all ties to their former team and enthusiastically embrace the new team as though it were their own.

3. Escape into Fantasy

• While your significant other cheers and enthuses for an undeserving team, close your eyes, lean your head back, and take deep, rhythmic breaths.
• Imagine that your significant other is not actually cheering, but is instead creating noises that indicate disapproval in the team in question. Alternately, imagine that the cries of support are actually directed at your prefered sports team.
• Enjoy the fantasy world that you have created.

4. Deal with It

• Recognize that your team support, as well as the support of your significant other, is completely irrelevant and totally arbitrary in the grand scheme of things.
• Understand that team choice is simply a matter of preference—as much as favorite color or prefered hair style—and that mature adults are able to compartmentalize divergent opinions while still maintaining healthy relationships.
• Continue to live the lie that has become your life until either you or your significant other die of old age. Never allow your significant other to see you crying yourself to sleep at night.

5. Move on

• Recognize that there are some differences in a relationship that simply cannot be reconciled.
• Quietly gather your things, change your mobile phone number, and escape through the back door. Move into an apartment several cities away.
• Find someone more compatible with whom to share your life (and the sports season).

How do you cope when someone close to you is cheering for the wrong team? Let us know in the comments.