A few months ago, Code Switch lead blogger Gene Demby turned to Twitter in an attempt to crowd-source a solution to a problem he’d been having. Gene had begun watching Premier League soccer but couldn’t settle on a rooting interest, so he asked the league’s fans to convince him to root for one team or another.

In this episode of The Giant Foam Finger — our occasional sports-themed offshoot of Pop Culture Happy Hour — I open by asking Gene for an update on his Premier League search. But then we move on to a farther-reaching discussion of why we might root for one team or another in any sport, for reasons ranging from geography to friendship, familial bonds, favorite individual athletes, bandwagon-jumping and even good old-fashioned spite.

Naturally, given the theme of crowd-sourcing, we’d love to hear what listeners think. What made you choose your favorite teams? And, given the inspiration for this discussion, we’d love to hear more arguments for why Gene and I should root for your favorite Premier League team. So have at it in the comments, or on Twitter or Facebook.