Over 100 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Fictional Sports Teams You Wish You Could Root For IRL
Voting Rules
Vote up the pretend sports teams that you wish you could root for in real life.
Fictional sports teams may be our last refuge. Cheating scandals, serious injuries, and squabbles between the millionaires versus the billionaires can sour even the most die-hard fan. With that reason in mind, this list of teams truly capture the beauty and essence of what sports are all about.
Here are some fictional baseball teams, fictional football teams, fictional basketball teams, and even a fictional rollerball team to remind you of the power of sports. To remind you that coaches and players can do the right thing, overcome overwhelming odds, and hold on to their dreams.
Consider this a tribute to those who make you care a lot more than you know you should. Vote up the fictional sports teams you'd totally buy season tickets for... if only they were real.
Who Are They? A team that plays a game that's a little like roller derby but also involves motorcycles. It is also much more violent. As in, "people getting slain during the game is just part of the deal" violent.
Why Do We Care? Jonathan E., played by James Caan, is being used by those in power to make rollerball more like a death match than a sport. It is a means of social control going far beyond just a simple game.
Greatest Triumph: Jonathan E. refuses to slay his final opponent and scores a goal instead. The crowd starts to chant his name - "Jonathan... Jonathan... Jonathan." Cut to freeze frame. Cue Bach's haunting organ work, "Fugue in D Minor." Commence with chills down spine.
Who Are They? A consistently terrible minor league hockey team with a coach, played by Paul Newman, who uses brawling to keep the fans entertained.
Why Do We Love Them? They might not be any good, but it's sure fun to watch them mess with the other team. The Hanson Brothers are particularly skilled at such antics.
Greatest Triumph: After the Chiefs resort to their trademark brawling ways in the climactic moments of the championship game, star player Ned Braden steals the show with a striptease on skates, which eventually leads to the other team forfeiting the game, handing the Chiefs the title.
Who Are They? A dodgeball team led by Vince Vaughn as Peter LaFleur. The team is sponsored by LaFleur's gym, Average Joe's. His archenemy is White Goodman, played by Ben Stiller, the evil capitalist who wants to make off with LaFleur's gym.
Why Do We Love Them? Because they're funny. There's also something about saving a gym from evil business people... but mostly we root for them because they're funny.
Greatest Triumph: LaFleur submits to a dodgeball version of "The Force" and plays blindfolded in the championship game against Goodman's Globo Gym squad.
Who Are They? A Little League team made up of all the kids picked last on the playground.
Why Do We Love Them? They are the ultimate underdogs. Things that come easily for most kids daunt them. They are the weakest of the weak. The most uncoordinated of the uncoordinated. Yet, somehow they manage to hold on and keep going. Occasionally, they even win.
Greatest Triumph: The coach, played a brilliant Walter Matthau, has the chance to win the championship. However, he realizes that winning at any cost is far too high a price to pay. Instead, he gives every single kid on the team the chance to play. It's a decision that costs him the game and the title. Yet, the Bears are all the better for it, both as players and people. Never have the words "Wait 'till next year!" sounded so victorious.
Who Are They? A team of prisoners led by a former pro quarterback. Their opponents are a ruthless team of prison guards. The warden, played by Eddie Albert, will do anything - no matter how evil - to make sure the Mean Machine lose.
Greatest Triumph: Quarterback Paul Crewe, played by Burt Reynolds, decides against selling out his team - even if it means possibly being framed as an accessory to homicide.
Who Are They? A team of MLB players from the past, all with something yet to prove. Among them are Shoeless Joe Jackson and seven other players from the disgraced "Black Sox," the team that threw the 1919 World Series. Eventually a whole bunch more ghosts of baseball's past join in, and the games can officially begin.
Why Do We Love Them? "If you build it, he will come."
Greatest Triumph: Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) builds his baseball diamond in the cornfield out of pure faith. When Shoeless Joe turns up, it's vindication that he was right.
