OK Saturday having a few pops with Jcall and the O Dog a debate busted out. What is a true fan? I state that they only way you are a true die hard fan is if you were born and raised where the team you live and die with plays. TRUE FANS DON'T PICK & CHOOSE! A true fan also roots every team in your city. I was born in Dallas Texas and I am a Cowboys,Rangers,Mavs,Stars and UT fan. Why? Because it is my birth right!
Now Jcall is from Iowa. He was born and raised there. He is a fan of The Oakland Raiders and the San Antonio Spurs. He has never even been to either city. I have a major problem with this. One they are from different States! Two you have never been to those cities and have no good reason to Cheer for those teams. Even if you watch ever game you have no actual rights to cheer for these teams. Get it?
If one grows up in Iowa he should cheer for the nearest geographically located pro team. Which in this case would be KC or Minnesota. Sorry about your bad luck Jcall but these should be your teams. Real fans live where they play(or near it).
Is there an exception to the rule? OF course there is! I say if you move from a city to another city and stay there five years you can become a fan. But and this a big BUT you will never be a true die hard!
Googleing true Fans I found some rules and they make sense to me here they are
Loyalties
If you live in a city that has fielded a professional team since your formative years, you have to root for that team. None of this, "The Bengals weren't very good when I was growing up in Cincy, so I became a Cowboys fan" crap. Also, you can't start rooting for a team, back off when they're in a down cycle, then renew the relationship once the team starts winning again. All those Cowboys fans who jumped off the bandwagon in the late-'80s, jumped back on during the Emmitt/Aikman Era, then jumped back off in the late-'90s ... you know who you are. You shouldn't even be allowed out in public(There's nothing worse than a Bandwagon Jumper. If sports were a prison and sports fans made up all the prisoners, the Bandwagon Jumpers would be like the child molesters -- everyone else would pick on them, take turns beating them up and force them to toss more salads than Emeril Lagasse.)
Once you choose a team, you're stuck with that team for the rest of your life ... unless one of the following conditions applies: -Your team moves to another city. All bets are off when that happens. In fact, if you decided to turn off that sport entirely, nobody would blame you. -You grew up in a city that didn't field a team for a specific sport -- so you picked a random team -- and then either a.) your city landed a team, or b.) you moved to a city that fielded a team for that specific sport. For instance, one of my Connecticut buddies rooted for the Sixers during the Doctor J Era, then happened to be living in Orlando when the Magic came to town. Now he's a Magic fan. That's acceptable. -One of your immediate family members either plays professionally or takes a relevant management/coaching/front office position with a pro team. -
You follow your favorite college star (and this has to be a once-in-a-generation favorite college star) to the pros and root for his team du jour ... like if you were a UNC fan for the past 20 years, and you rooted for the Bulls (because of MJ) and then the Raptors (because of Vince). Only works if there isn't a pro team in your area. -The owner of your favorite team treated his fans so egregiously over the years that you couldn't take it anymore -- you would rather not follow them at all then support a franchise with this owner in charge. Just for the record, I reached this point with the Boston Bruins about six years ago. When it happens, you have two options: You can either renounce that team and pick someone else, or you can pretend they're dead, like you're a grieving widow. That's what I do. I'm an NHL widow. I don't even want to date another team. -
If you're between the ages of 20-40, you're a fan of the Yankees, Cowboys, Braves, Raiders, Steelers, Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, or Spurs, and you're not actually from those one of those cities ... well, you better have a reason that goes beyond "When I was picking a favorite team as a kid, they were the best team, so I picked them." At least give me a reason like "Reggie Jackson was my favorite player growing up," or "I always liked the red Bulls uniforms," or even "Everyone in my gang wore Raiders colors." Do you really want to be known as a bona fide Bandwagon Jumper?
Alright Larry this is out of hand. 1st of all you know very little about your own teams, let alone what a true fan is all about. "I was born a Cowboy fan." Well I was born in Iowa and grew up in a house that didnt have sports fans. The only thing I couldnt do in my house was root for the Huskers. Im a husker hater now until im dead. So i let influences effect my "picking" of my sports teams. My cousin liked the Raiders so I hopped on as well. Guess what? They havent won crap since I became a fan. They got blown out in the Super Bowl and I had to take the Tuck Rule as well. So dont sit there and tell me and anyone else, they arent true fans. I will never stray away from the Oakland Raiders. By the way, one of your rules is if a team moves, you are open to pick. Well when I was younger they were the LA Raiders. I still never left them. I wont either. As I watch Al Davis mess up every draft and take years away from mine and every other Raider fans lives, I still stick by my team. Plus up here, its more fun to hate the chefs then root for them. The same goes for when I was in Dallas, more fun to hate the boys then like them. They are the biggest bandwaggon in America. Millions...and millions of fans dont know crap about the Cowboys, yet root for them. That right there hurts your "true fan" base. As far as basketball goes. I followed your little rule again. This time follow your favorite college star. I loved Michael Jordan, but never saw him in college, cuz he was out by the time i started watching sports. I did love the Bulls because of Jordan. Honestly, who didnt? You watch LBJ now, its hard not to root for Greatness. When Jordan retired the 2nd time, the man I followed for 4 years at Wake Forest, Timmy Duncan, was drafted to the Spurs. I already liked Mr David Robinson. So i followed the rule and started rooting for the men in black. If Timmy would have been drafted to a different team, I would have followed. Now that I love the Spurs so much, I wont change. Even say, he retires and another great player comes out that I happen to follow in college. I will not follow him and switch teams. Im a now full fledged Spurs homer. Hmm, followed 2 rules already. The other thing about me, over you, is Im more knowledgeable about every other peoples teams as well. With you, you know alot about your own teams. But you dont know squa douche about other peoples. I follow SPORTS, not just my own teams. Which in return, makes me a bigger true sports fan than you. WOOOOO!!! Take that man. Hard to debate someone who types the truth. Whether you like or you dont, Im the best thing going on Bigbadsportsdaddy.com. WOOOO!!!!
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