The questions
Each side comes with one line of the case for it. The rest is up to you.
Loyalty, people! If you move to a new city, can you switch teams?
- YEA SWITCH IT UP
Cheering for the local team is how you make friends in a new town.
- NAY RIDE OR DIE
You don't drop the team you grew up with because of a moving truck.
- YEA SWITCH IT UP
Same socks for 30 years. Are game day superstitions worth doing?
- YEA WORTH IT
Lucky socks may do nothing, but game day is no time to find out.
- NAY NONSENSE
Your unwashed jersey has never once changed a score.
- YEA WORTH IT
Back in my day: should every kid on the team get a trophy?
- YEA TROPHY FOR ALL
The kid who showed up to every practice in the rain earned something.
- NAY WINNERS ONLY
A trophy means something only if some kids go home without one.
- YEA TROPHY FOR ALL
Sit down! Is it OK to leave the game early to beat traffic?
- YEA BEAT TRAFFIC
Catch the end on the radio and skip an hour stuck in the parking lot.
- NAY STAY ALL GAME
The wildest comeback of the year always happens after you leave.
- YEA BEAT TRAFFIC
Best seat in the house: the stadium, or your own couch?
- STADIUM
Nothing on TV feels like 50,000 people jumping at the same time.
- MY COUCH
Your couch has instant replay and a bathroom with no line.
- STADIUM
Coach has heard it all. Is it OK to boo your own team?
- YEA BOO AWAY
You paid for the ticket, and booing is how fans say try harder.
- NAY NEVER BOO
They're your team on the bad days too, and they can hear you.
- YEA BOO AWAY
Coach is asking the room: can a kid quit a team in the middle of the season?
- YEA LET THEM QUIT
Forcing a kid through months of misery won't make them love the sport.
- NAY FINISH IT
The team is counting on them, and keeping a promise is the lesson.
- YEA LET THEM QUIT
Coach wants a straight answer. Are video games a real sport?
- YEA REAL SPORT
Pros train all day and play for prize money in sold-out arenas.
- NAY JUST GAMES
If you can do it in pajamas with a bag of chips, it's not a sport.
- YEA REAL SPORT
About the host
Coach Hollerman has coached nothing. He has watched every game since 1987 from the same spot on the same couch, with a whistle around his neck and a clipboard full of plays nobody asked for. He calls the remote "the equipment."
He's hosting in early November, with football season in full swing and weekends planned around the big game. His questions are about fans, like the ones who boo their own team and the ones who leave early to beat traffic. He'll blow the whistle if you talk too long. He'll blow it if you don't, too.
How to play these
Sports questions have a problem: half the table cares a lot and the other half doesn't care at all. These are about being a fan, so nobody needs to know the rules of anything. Video games as a sport is the big one. Gamers and sports fans both show up ready to fight, and anyone who loves neither gets to be the judge.
In The Lobbyist, the trophy question is Coach's favorite. If you're the Lobbyist and have to argue against your own answer, you end up arguing with your own childhood. And if someone at the table has loved one team since birth, hope they draw Lobbyist on the team-switching question. Arguing for the side you hate takes practice. Here's how to play devil's advocate.
About guest decks
Armchair Referee is Coach Hollerman's guest deck for The Lobbyist, free to play from Nov 6 to Nov 12, 2026. A new guest moves in every Friday with eight questions of their own. See this week's guest.
The guest before: Uninvited, hosted by Count Dracula.
Play the guest deck
Start a game and pick this week's guest deck, or Fuzzy Logic. Both are free.
Play free