team allegiances and odd beginnings (1 Viewer)

[Zack Lee]

a thread for Falcons hate on the SSF got me thinking about how ridiculous and childish some of our team allegiances can be.

I'll present my own case of LSU fandum as an example. My parents brought me to NOLA when I was in the 4th grade. At that time LSU and Tulane were nearing the end of their yearly contests. Its hard to call it a rivalry but it sparked the local interest during that week nonetheless. It sparked it enough in young kids enough to prompt the question to all your friends "who is your team" Well my dad had come here because he had been accepted into Loyola Law School. Since it was right next door to Tulane and they both had law schools, my young brain assumed some sort of competition. So peer pressure being what it is for a young one, when asked the question, I obviously couldn't be a Tulane fan so I was instantly a LSU fan.

Now I eventually ended up going there shortly and years of following do make our allegiances stronger but initially aren't all our allegiances just what we say they are?

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

not sure why i started with Pete Rose, but i was a Reds fan bc of Pete, then followed him to Phillies
eventually became a Cubs fan bc WGN
HATED the yankees (i think mostly bc of Billy Martin), and was NOT a fan of either Mets or Yankees when i lived in NY, but then slowly became a yankees fan once i quasi left NY

similarly not sure why i became a fan of Patrick Ewing at Georgetown, but followed him to NY (which was around the time i moved there) - Knicks were my only NY team when i lived there

soccer, I became a fan of Didier Drogba and followed him more than any team
years ago a member recommended "How Soccer Changed the World" - Barcelona's origins really resonated with me and since Barcelona is one of my favorite cities, i became a Barca fan and thus a Messi fan since Buenos Aires is also one of my favorite cities

born into Saints fandom

 

[Zack Lee]

not sure why i started with Pete Rose, but i was a Reds fan bc of Pete, then followed him to Phillies
eventually became a Cubs fan bc WGN
HATED the yankees (i think mostly bc of Billy Martin), and was NOT a fan of either Mets or Yankees when i lived in NY, but then slowly became a yankees fan once i quasi left NY

similarly not sure why i became a fan of Patrick Ewing at Georgetown, but followed him to NY (which was around the time i moved there) - Knicks were my only NY team when i lived there

soccer, I became a fan of Didier Drogba and followed him more than any team
years ago a member recommended "How Soccer Changed the World" - Barcelona's origins really resonated with me and since Barcelona is one of my favorite cities, i became a Barca fan and thus a Messi fan since Buenos Aires is also one of my favorite cities

born into Saints fandom

I hate purchased champioinships so I always hated the Yankees too. I don't get it. If you win, so what. You were stacked and you were suppose to win. And if you lose then there is so much schadenfreude to go around for everyone.

Was not a fan of Ewing at all. But my hate did not extend to all NY teams. I actually loved Parcells and the Giants from that era. The inside stories of how Parcells job was saved more or less by his players early on and all of the interactions between LT and BB are some of the best football stories you can find.

 

[zeetes]

i was an astros fan. then, they moved to al. wuss move. i have adopted the pirates, well, because they are pirates.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I hate purchased champioinships so I always hated the Yankees too. I don't get it. If you win, so what. You were stacked and you were suppose to win. And if you lose then there is so much schadenfreude to go around for everyone.

Was not a fan of Ewing at all. But my hate did not extend to all NY teams. I actually loved Parcells and the Giants from that era. The inside stories of how Parcells job was saved more or less by his players early on and all of the interactions between LT and BB are some of the best football stories you can find.

If I’m guessing my disdain for Yankees started with the ‘76 series- hating their Steinbrennerness would not have been on my radar until the 80s

(Roundabout story warning)
I hate Elvis - I hate him now for cultural/musical reasons, BUT
I started to hate him bc he died when I was visiting my grandparents who lived outside of Memphis- and what started as an annoyance that Elvis news was 24/7, became full blown hatred with every anniversary (which was always when I was visiting) was the same blanket coverage
SIMILARLY, NY sports coverage is such that, if you don’t like a team the hometown press is covering, it becomes very easy to hate them
So outside of the Knicks, I came to loathe every other NY team (even the rangers and I don’t care squat about hockey)

 

[gboudx]

My LSU fandom started similarly to Zack's. It was 4th grade and me and 2 other students were in the back of the bus on the way home from school. One of the guys I was friends with, the other I didn't like. My friend asks both us who we liked in the LSU/Tulane game. I didn't know either of them at the time; this was 1979-80 so not much choice on TV channels or games being aired. The kid I didn't like said Tulane, so I went with LSU. Life may have been so different had he said LSU.

 

[FootballLady]

Keep going until you get to national allegiances. It's all accidental for us.

 

[Zack Lee]

Keep going until you get to national allegiances. It's all accidental for us.

ive already followed that through to its end. I remember having it it the 1984 Olympics. Its not like it’s gone completely. We are afforded a lot of freedoms but it’s primarily due to what people did a long time ago. And even they had two sides to there deeds - both good and bad. I am not anti American by any stretch but I do loathe all those who are Merica to the bone.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

My LSU fandom started similarly to Zack's. It was 4th grade and me and 2 other students were in the back of the bus on the way home from school. One of the guys I was friends with, the other I didn't like. My friend asks both us who we liked in the LSU/Tulane game. I didn't know either of them at the time; this was 1979-80 so not much choice on TV channels or games being aired. The kid I didn't like said Tulane, so I went with LSU. Life may have been so different had he said LSU.

sort of opposite for me - everyone on my team was pulling for LSU so i went with Tulane
also, my dad grew up Uptown so maybe he hand an affinity for them, but we would go to games in tulane stadium and Loyola fieldhouse so i think i just gravitated to pulling for them