The Pro Athlete's Loyalty Dilemma: Root for the Hometown or Adopt the Pro City?

No matter what happens in Super Bowl LII between the mighty New England Patriots and the scrappy Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday will be a bad day for Marcus Morris. You see, Morris is a Philly fan adrift in a sea of New England fervor—a critical Celtics frontcourt player with diehard loyalty to his hometown football team. If the Eagles lose, it's another indignity for a hard-luck sports town without a Super Bowl victory on its resume. If they win, Morris will hear about it from Pats fans at the TD Garden until at least mid-August.

"I think that if the Patriots win, they won again," Morris told Bleacher Report recently. "If the Eagles win...you know what I'm sayin', it's mayhem."

Such is the dilemma of the professional athlete. With social media giving sports fans a tantalizing peek into the inner workings of their favorite players, it's more and more common for those stars to ingratiate themselves to the local fans by stanning hard for teams in the other three major sports.

Ben Simmons, the Australian-born Sixers star, has suddenly become an Eagles fan during this run to the Super Bowl, asking the team to "bring it home" before the NFC Championship Game. Philadelphia has only been "home" for Ben Simmons for a couple years, but he's tweeting like radioactive yellow cheesesteak sauce runs through his veins.

Joel Embiid is from Cameroon, not the City of Brotherly Love, but he still found time to tweet:

Is there anything in life more arbitrary than sports fandom? Despite the best efforts of people like me sitting at computers in the bowels of arenas and stadiums around the world to tell you otherwise, who you support comes down to a hodgepodge of geography, parentage and aesthetics. Maybe you just like a team's logo, colors, uniform or championship pedigree? Maybe you get off on abject self-flagellation, which has led you to root for the Buffalo Bills?

More so than even religious or political affiliation, sports fandom is something you inherit rather than consciously embrace. It doesn't mean much, but it means everything at the same time. We live and die with our teams, often in the face of rational thought.

This is true even for athletes, the talismans of our obsessions. Unfortunately for them, their job means playing against their favorite teams—or worse yet, working in a town diametrically opposed to their team. It's not as important for the journeyman or the role player to fly the flag for a city's other teams since you might be packing your bags at any moment. But for superstars concerned with building a lasting legacy, like LeBron James or Chris Paul, it helps to solidify your status as a municipal icon.

AP Images

King James has not been shy about making Cleveland and Northeast Ohio a major part of his public persona, marketing himself as a local boy made good. He was all over the 2016 World Series, cheering on the Indians from a luxury box at Progressive Field.

Except, for years, LeBron repped the New York Yankees in public.

In 2007, he wore a Yankees hat to Game 1 of the ALDS between the Yankees and Indians. What made the public gesture even more awkward was that the game was in Cleveland.

He's also an avowed Dallas Cowboys fan rather than a rabid Browns supporter. Of course, being a Browns fan is akin to throwing a live lobster down your pants, so it's hard to blame him. Making matters more complicated, LeBron has chosen Carson Wentz—the injured quarterback for one of the Cowboys' biggest rivals, the Eagles—as his current favorite NFL player.

Kobe Bryant, who is so beloved in his adopted home of Los Angeles that the Lakers retired two of his jerseys, publicly declared his heart broken when the Dodgers lost in Game 7 of the most recent World Series. But he also visited the Eagles to give them a pep talk ahead of their matchup against the Rams in L.A., because he's actually a Philadelphia-born Eagles fan.

The mercurial sports fandom of Kobe and LeBron has gone virtually unnoticed by their legions of followers in their respective cities. When superstar players deliver championships to a city, most things can be forgiven. But for role players like the Celtics' Marcus Smart, the pressure to choose the right side is much more difficult. When he was recently asked about his allegiance in this Super Bowl, Smart replied with a terse "no comment." No one wants to anger the hometown fans. Either go hard for the locals or keep quiet.

The choice is particularly difficult in a city as sports-crazed as Boston. Recently, Celtics rookie sensation Jayson Tatum cleverly found a middle ground, bending history to his liking. "I'm from St. Louis, so the Rams left, so I guess I like the Patriots," he said. "I'm a big Cardinals fan, but I got love for Boston."

Tatum admitted there aren't a ton of Patriots fans on the Celtics roster these days, a fact that puts them at odds with much of the team's staff—equipment managers, trainers, etc.—who take New England football very seriously.

Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images

Morris is blunter when it comes to the social pressure of finding the right allegiance.

"It doesn't matter. I'm from Philadelphia," he said. "I love Boston. Don't get me wrong. I'm from Philadelphia. [The fans] want you to [rep the home teams], but it's like, I'm a big Tom Brady fan and I think he's the greatest quarterback to ever touch a football, but I don't want him to beat the Eagles."

Morris' lose-lose predicament as an Eagles fan in Boston could be different were he not playing in a city with a pro football team in such close proximity. For example, he could be Raptors All-Star guard Kyle Lowry, who is a rabid Philly fan living in Toronto. Lowry's free and clear to do something like hold press availability where he only fields questions about the Eagles. On the surface, his situation is as close to ideal as any high-profile athlete-fan can hope for.

Though, consider the alternative: One morning, he decides to toss all his midnight green in the trash and throw his support behind the CFL's Toronto Argonauts. Lowry hops in his Bentley and drives to whatever Canada's version of Sports Chalet is so he can purchase all of the available team gear. He joins the ranks of former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie, deceased comedian John Candy and deceased Toronto mayor Rob Ford—not the most recognizable celebrities of the current moment.

But it's not such a bad idea for Lowry, from a branding perspective. His friend, Drake, has publicly associated himself with the Argonauts; last month, he posed for a photo with a few members of the team and the CFL's Grey Cup trophy. And who knows? If Lowry becomes an Argonauts fan, he'll never have to worry about his local cable provider not carrying the games.