Do you know where Alabama is?

[Terraoblivion]

I do in fact know American politics. And I rather pointedly remember what happened the last time US states decided not to let the federal government represent them. It ended with defensive trenches being invented and Atlanta being burned to the ground in retaliation for the act of secession. Alabama is not a sovereign entity that lets the US handle it's foreign affairs, it is an administrative subdivision off the US with specific spheres of authority as outlined by the US constitution and if it wanted to change that it would need a constitutional amendment which it cannot unilaterally create or enforce. To say that the states are sovereign entities that are just letting a higher organization handle some matters is a rhetorical figment and a vague remnant of an 18th century political debate, not actual fact of the American constitutional structure. This isn't the early confederation from the period between the revolutionary war and the passing of the constitution, even if some politicians occasionally claim otherwise. Which, incidentally, is the same status that the states of the Federal Republic of Germany and the states of the Russian Federation have. These are in fact also federations centered on states, it's not a unique American invention that nobody else has ever done. For that matter, there are also cities that have gone on trade missions to foreign countries, that's hardly a sign of sovereignty.

States in the sense of sovereign international tendencies need two things. One is a monopoly on violence in its territory. The other is a foreign policy of its own. Alabama has neither.

And, see, in most countries official national teams are official representatives of the country. Sure they don't do diplomacy or trade agreements, but they're still expected to make the country look good and treat other countries according to the standards of diplomatic courtesy, which happens to include at least pretending to care about them. I know the US doesn't really do international sports, but that doesn't make you exempt from the standards of them.