Admitting your favorite player cheated is a small test of whether you care more about truth or teams.

Loyalty makes evidence feel negotiable. When somebody you admire does something clearly wrong, your mind offers context, comparisons, and reasons the rule is unfair, and it offers all of that at a speed it would never manage for a rival. The test is small and genuinely difficult, because nothing is at stake except your own consistency.

Say the plain sentence once, out loud, about somebody you like: that was wrong. Notice how much resistance a sports opinion can generate. The same machinery runs on much bigger questions, and this is a cheap place to practise.