Obliged to root for the home team?

I don't think it's reasonable to ask someone to drop 'their team' after a mere 5 years of allegiance. That guy is an idiot on this subject.

He sounds like a fucking asshole. Falling for a team must be organic. You can't force that shit.

What about cities with two teams? Anytime the Sox or Cubs do well, lots of jackasses say you have to cheer for the team you normally despise just because they're a 'Chicago Team'. Well, fuck that. John Wayne Gacy was from Chicago, too, but I don't feel the need to celebrate his accomplishments.

Nice.

I'm pretty sure I'll be a White Sox fan no matter where I'll live in the future.

Bill Simmons has a great rant in the opening to "Now I Can Die In Peace" about this. I forget what his exact rules are, but he basically says that you have to root for the team that was nearest the city you grew up in. Exemptions are only allowed if your city doesn't have a sports team, and so you latch onto a different team instead, but then your city gets a sports team. (I.e., all the DC Orioles fans).

This has put me in a bit of a spot, as I was raised to be a Red Sox fan living in Ohio. I continued to support the Red Sox on and off until around the 2003 play-offs, when I really got into them. Since 2004 I've rooted for the Sox, but my guilt at being a "bandwagon jumper" has made me pick up an allegiance to the Nats as well. My old man, however, seems to have abandoned all former allegiance to the Sox -- especially in this last round of play-offs -- for the Indians. He's dead to me.

In short, Richard's guy is an idiot.

The team you're raised with is the team you stick with your whole life. At least, that's what I always figured.

I'm twenty-one and been a Yankee fan my whole life, so if I moved to Seattle tomorrow, I doubt I'd start rooting for the Mariners. Regardless of that stupid three-years bullshit the sports host is sprouting.

If I was thirteen, it might be different, but once you reach a certain age and have rooted for a team for a long period of time, switching teams just makes you an asshole.

Noam Chomsky talks about how sports instill in us a false sense of patriotism, making people feel connected to others who literally don't care about them because of some sort of allegiance to territory.

Though I root local for Hockey and Baseball, I do not for Football. The first time I ever really sat and watched and paid attention to a game I was an impressionable boy of 10, and I watched the game with my father. It was a Packers / Cowboys game, and my father was/is a big Green Bay fan. I couldn't help but notice how passionately he rooted for the Packers and how miserable he was as Dallas pulled away and won the game. At that moment my allegiance was cemented. Any team that could make that prick that pissed off was the team for me.

I have been a Miami Dolphin fan for 35 years, a New York Giant's fan for 28 years, A NY Yankee fan for 33 years, a Miami Heat fan for 18 years, and an Oklahoma Sooner fan for 29 years. I have never lived in either Miami, or Oklahoma and I still became a fan. I was not influenced to root for any particular team by my Parents or other relatives either. I think anyone that says you have to root for the local team if you live in their home city is a complete idiot that should not be on the radio or TV.

Heh, you felt that too, eh?

Holy smoke, that gives you at least, what... 35 years old? I don't know what to say.

And that's where I stopped reading.

Listening to Steve Deumig was your first mistake....Take it from a Tampa Bay local....He's the biggest fuckknuckle on the radio.

Don't know if I'd call it a strict obligation, but I've been in venues where not rooting for the home team may not be the healthiest option.

The only things in life you're obliged to do is pay taxes, then die. Screw anyone who tells me who I have to root for.

Now I -want- go to to more Devil Rays games sporting my Blue Jays gear.

Hey, don't complain. I'm from the Northwest, and after our local slasher Ted Bundy made it big, he picked up and moved his franchise down to Florida by way of Utah. Talk about total ingratitude for fan loyalty. Makes me want to give up on the whole thing.

Bingo.

Living in Western New York, as soon as I paid attention to sports, the Bills and Sabres pretty much wormed their way into my heart. The only exceptions to the geography rule as it pertains to me would be my allegiance to the Braves (as noted in the MLB Playoffs thread) and the Celtics (for some reason, the entire family rooted for them instead of the Knicks).

Hell, it seems to be a usual thing with newer southern franchises. Check the highlights of tomorrow's Sabres-Panthers game and see how many Buffalo jerseys are in the crowd. If I know WNY sports fans, we're a loyal bunch, wherever we end up in life. I give my cousins crap about being Cowboy and Packer fans, respectively, but I know they won't jump ship when the team sucks.

I have one college friend who lives in Naples, and despite living all over the East Coast, ended up being the most diehard Raiders and Knicks fan I know. The only Florida-based team he roots for is the Seminoles. (He's a casual Sabre fan, and his wife is from New Hampshire, so he finally has a baseball team to root for.)

I'll be a Leafs fan until the NWO bans hockey.

People who insert "adjective Animal" into their names can fuck off to begin with. I'll be a Blackcaps fan till I'm dust, I don't care where I end up living. You grow up as a fan of a team all your fond momeries of the sport are forever locked into that, Unless you're moving to Dark City, Location can't erase memories.

I had a guy threaten to slash my tires during the Flames run to the Finals a few years ago. You see, I didn't put one of those stupid Flames flags on one of my cars and it bothered him. I explained that I wasn't a Flames fan, I cheered for New Jersey. I was told that I don't live in "fuckin' New Jersey" so I should cheer for the Flames 'cause I live in Calgary and he should "slash (my) fuckin' tires" for not cheering for the home team. I tried explaining that I actually live on an acreage just outside of Calgary but apparently that held no water.

Moron!

I'm an Orioles fan. It's tragic, I know. The fact that we have such a beautiful, large, and relatively cheap stadium on the east coast, and such a shitty team, means that on Yankee games and Red Sox games, there are four times as many opposing fans as there are home team fans, and most of them from New York or Boston (cheaper that way for them). I can barely attend Boston games anymore, but that's just because the Boston fans aren't incredibly annoying. I'll let you figure out why I swear I will never go to another Yankees game.

I hate baseball. I find it really boring. But I saw a game at Oriole Park and had a great time and loved the venue. It just feels right.

I was born and raised, for the most part, in Houston. I root for the Astros and Rockets. Complete die hard. But football? Cowboys. Bottom line. When I was putting up with all the love ya blue crap I told my uncle all the time to love some blue with Superbowl rings. I've walked out of Texans/Cowboys games with just a Cowboys jersey on, no where close to the insane crap most football fans wear...and I was damn near chase with pitchforks and torches.

The only time I rooted for the Oilers was when we could have had an all Texas Superbowl. And look what those fool bastards did against the Bills. Did the Houstonians that loved the Oilers let this go? I sure as hell didn't because I wanted to see the Boys rip apart the Oilers.

And for hockey I'm a dyed in wool Leafs fan, but only for the past 5 years or so. Still catching up there.

So crew this guy, you root for who feels right to you.

That's what I do with Atlanta. When I had Falcons' season tickets, I'd wear Falcons gear and cheer for them. But when they played Pittsburgh last year, you can be damn sure I had my Roethlisberger jersey and Terrible Towel out that Sunday. And I don't live and die with Atlanta the way I do with Pittsburgh. I'll cheer for Atlanta just because I live here. But I refuse to cheer for Ga. Tech or UGA.

The sad thing is, the team with the best record in Atlanta right now is the Hawks (7-1 in the pre-season).

Born in Winchester, Ma, raised 20 minutes outside of Boston, Mother's family from Dorchester, Ma. Celtics, Bruins, Sox, Pats, and BC fan, and that will never change, and Bill Simmons can suck my nuts.

I kinda wish I lived in Phoenix if only so I could see NFL football at reasonable prices.

I'm a UT Longhorns fan from Texas and I'm now living in Oklahoma. It's a dangerous combination...they rip people's balls off for supporting UT here. Everywhere you look it's OU or OSU. It's pathetic, but they have nothing else to live for here, I guess.

I was born an LSU fan (inherited from my Father's college Alumni allegiance) and grew up in North Carolina where the ACC rules apply.

So I've never been loyal to any NC Team UNC, Duke or NC State.

But since I wound up going to UNC in college, I've been a Tarheel fan in basketball but for Football, the LSU blood runs through.

As a refugee from that god-forsaken state, I'd say you hit the nail on the head.

Do you mean to imply, sir, that there are WILLING Devil Rays' fans? I thought they just paid a bunch of homeless guys five bucks and a sandwich to sit in the stadium and watch the game, on the off chance they get a mention on Sportscenter.

As for the discussion at hand, born and raised in Massachusetts about an hour outside of Boston, so you know where the allegiance lies. Sox, Pats, Celts (don't care much for basketball, but, I'll root for em if a game is ever on) and Bruins (though I've only recently gotten into hockey by way of the g/f, which is kind of making more into a Rangers fan...)

And fuck it, I'll root for the Revolution. Cuz somebody has to.

I will never switch my allegiance from one major entertainment conglomerate to another. Go, Sportscorp!

I was born in NY, but raised in Miami, so my allegiances shifted when I was a kid.

I was seven years old when the Mets won in '86, and I loved that team (even before I heard all the crazy stories from that bunch of lunatics). As the roster was slowly dismantled in the late 80's, my interest in them faded. I started following the Marlins in the early 90s, and it's been a series of long famines punctuated by two World Series wins.

As for football, it's all about the Dolphins and Canes. Miami has a ton of NY transplants that stick to the Jets and Giants, and a smattering of other teams. I also knew a lot of FSU fans growing up, with a small number of Gator lovers. I bet nowadays that that ratio is reversed.

One other thing that can cause a change in college sports fandom is getting accepted to a school that was previously off your radar. Though I've been a Canes fan since forever, I started rooting for the Fighting Irish since getting accepted into ND Law School. It goes without saying that I fear I may have cursed my future alma mater.

Dolphins/Marlins/Canes/Irish. It's like four Hindenbergs crashing into each other.

Oh, come on now - the conglomerates got out of the sports business when they realized that the old adage about how to become a millionaire ("start with a billion and buy a sports team") was unerringly accurate.

These days you are rooting for the plaything of an internet billionaire to defeat the tax write-off of some real-estate magnate.

Chris Kent, You are right, in a way that I am at least 35 years old, but I did not become a sports fan at birth...I was 4 years old when I started watching the NFL. I was the only Dolphin fan in my family. The first Dolphin I was a fan of was named Flipper, yes the original show and not the Jessica Alba film with Paul Hogan.

True, but in my case, I went to a lower-level Division I school (Canisius) which couldn't hack it in most sports. So while I gained a new appreciation for lacrosse, rugby and women's soccer, fat chance of me giving up loyalty towards Syracuse's football and basketball programs. (The night they won the national title might well have been one of the best fan moments my brother and I have ever had.)

To this day, I always get alumni event flyers about going to SU or Buffalo to see Canisius play the Orange in basketball. I've never gone, simply because I didn't want to be the ass who showed up on the bus covered in Syracuse gear.

You're right. "Go, writeoffs!"

I just never got the whole "rabid fan" thing. Growing up in Southern California, I followed the Dodgers. While I still nominally root for the team, I now follow the Nationals because I live in DC. If I move to Tampa, I'll follow the Devil Rays (God help me). If I move to Traverse City, I'll follow the Beach Bums. I'm most interested in whichever team I can actually go and see on short notice.