No Home Town Loyalty!

Anyone who knows me knows I love sports and also knows I’m not much of home town fan. Given the fact that I have lived in W WA from day one I get asked all the time how I can forsake the home town teams.

Before I go any further remember I have been watching sports since I was a little girl and formed my likes and dislikes when I was young so some of my reasoning may seem a bit silly but when I was 7ish it made perfect sense to me!

Yes I have lived in W WA my entire life but I grew up in SW WA and the “local” TV stations were Portland based. I never saw Seattle based TV programming until I was 20 and moved to Tacoma. Because of that I grew up watching Oregon teams. The Portland Trail Blazers were the only pro team in any sport that got regular play in my house. I didn’t even really know the Sonics existed back then and now that they are gone I’m glad I still have my Blazers! I have also been known to be a Celtics fan because I liked the parquet floor and a Spurs fan because they have had individual players that I liked. And I went through the bandwagon Jordan/Bulls fan stage like everyone else, but ultimately it still comes back to the Blazers being my favorite NBA team.

I actually prefer college basketball to the NBA and have been a Duke fan since I was a freshman in HS. The first time I saw a Duke game I was shocked to see a short white guy playing point and he was really good! Blame it on Bobby Hurley. Over the years I have come to admire the attitude of the team and have a lot of respect for coach K and how he runs the program. Even though Duke is my team I will watch almost any college basketball game for the simple fact that I take my March Madness brackets VERY serious and I like to do my homework. Sometimes I like the Zags and the Huskies, but never pick them to go far in the tourney and am not loyal to them.

The whole Oregon thing does not work for the NFL as there in no NFL team in Oregon, so why not be a Hawks fan? Well when you grow up with a family member who played for the Steelers and won 2 SB’s with them no other football team stands a chance! I did go through a teenage rebellion stage where I thought it was fun to piss my Dad off by being a Raiders fan. Deep down I have always been a Steelers fan though. I love their style of hard hitting, play in the mud, grind it out and fight for every single yard style of football. That is not to say that I don’t appreciate and even enjoy watching teams like the Colts. Peyton’s ability to run a complex offense and pull off intricately designed plays is fun to watch! I can appreciate a faster, cleaner (translation indoors/fake grass) finesse type of game. What I don’t appreciate is a team that never seems to be able to pull out the win when it counts and the fact that I’m still hearing about how unfair the SB was. For that reason alone I will never be a Hawks fan.

As for college football I don’t remember the Ducks or Beavers being all that great as a kid, nor do I remember hearing much about the Huskies, Cougars, or the Pac 10 in general. What I do remember is Notre Dame being on TV every Saturday. Three things I loved about ND: 1 - they play the style of football I love. 2 – they don’t have their names on their jerseys which made me feel like it was more about the team than individual stars. 3 – they were non-conference so only teams that knew they could beat them would play them…they never have an easy schedule. Combine those 3 things with the fact that they were/are on TV EVERY SATURDAY and how could I not like them?!

Over the years not much has changed…ND football is still ND football and I love it! With all other college teams I’m totally a bandwagon fan. I watch if they are winning or are exciting, but as soon as they have a bad season I move on. This year I have been influenced by a few blogs/co-workers/friends and have given the Pac 10 a bit more consideration. I’m pretty excited about the Ducks and have been paying attention to the big matchups, but ND is really the only college team I can be considered a true fan of.

As for soccer, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis I’m pretty indifferent. I don’t have any favorites in any of these sports and as long as the game/match is a good one I don’t really care who is playing. I will say I could easily add soccer to my sports viewing obsession as I love the strategy and it is a lot of fun to watch in HD on our big screen.

My disclaimer to all of this is I love sports in general and especially when it comes to football I would rather watch a team I can’t stand than not watch football at all. Also, I have never turned down free tickets and am going to a Hawks game next month as a football fan, NOT as a Hawks fan. :)