Sports fans time to reveal it all !!!!

[Van Basten II]

I've noticed that in the sports related threads there is often confusion about the allegiances of certain forum members, sports wise. Thought it would be useful to start a thread that will put it everything in the open. So tell us who are your favourite teams in any sport that you follow closely or not.

And also since sports offers us the thrilling joy of having the pleasure of seeing the teams that we hate getting beaten in a cruel fashion, so why not mention the teams that you feel that as much pleasure losing as you see your favourite teams lose.

I'll add up mine tomorrow.

[7/4]

I've noticed that in the sports related threads there is often confusion about the allegiances of certain forum members, sports wise. Thought it would be useful to start a thread that will put it everything in the open. So tell us who are your favourite teams in any sport that you follow closely or not.

And also since sports offers us the thrilling joy of having the pleasure of seeing the teams that we hate getting beaten in a cruel fashion, so why not mention the teams that you feel that as much pleasure losing as you see your favourite teams lose.

I'll add up mine tomorrow.

Looks like it's time for a separate sports forum.

[Van Basten II]

I've noticed that in the sports related threads there is often confusion about the allegiances of certain forum members, sports wise. Thought it would be useful to start a thread that will put it everything in the open. So tell us who are your favourite teams in any sport that you follow closely or not.

And also since sports offers us the thrilling joy of having the pleasure of seeing the teams that we hate getting beaten in a cruel fashion, so why not mention the teams that you feel that as much pleasure losing as you see your favourite teams lose.

I'll add up mine tomorrow.

Looks like it's time for a separate sports forum.

Not a bad idea, not so sure that the action on this board warrants one, think i'll start a thread about that, maybe we'll get as much milleage as the one about the Classical music section

[Noj]

As a Los Angeles native, my teams are the local teams. Lakers, Clippers, Dodgers, Angels, Raiders, Rams, Bruins, Trojans...in that order. In other words, I'll root for the Clippers as long as they're not playing the Lakers, who are my number one team. I never played hockey or soccer so I don't care much for either one but I do understand the basic rules and appreciate both sports. Many UCLA and USC fans have an intense hate for each other, but I'd rather see a team from nearby win than one from far away.

While I root for my own teams I am for the most part indifferent to other teams, and will even have favorite players on the teams I dislike the most. I am fan of basketball, baseball, and football first, my teams second. I always enjoy to watch highlights and will watch the playoffs and championship series regardless if my team is in it or not.

The teams which have caused me the most pain as a fan are: Celtics, Pistons, Suns, Giants, Padres, Patriots, Broncos, Chiefs, and Chargers--but I pretty much don't like every other team too.

[GA Russell]

I'm a Canadian league fan, but no favorite team there.

I root for former CFL players in the NFL, so I root for their teams too: Jeff Garcia, Jon Ryan, Lawrence Tynes, Kenton Keith and Mike Sellars.

My favorite teams when I was a boy were the Boston teams because my family is from there: Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics. The Bruins have had a long history of jerks in management, so I have never rooted for them. However, I will admit that I met Don Cherry in 1979 and he was a very nice guy (unlike his reputation!).

My favorite team when I was a boy in DC was the local baseball team, the Washington Senators. My family moved to Seattle the same time the Senators moved to Minnesota, so I continued to root for them. But I stopped rooting for the Twins when Harmon Killebrew and Camilo Pascual moved on and everybody else retired.

In 1972 I was a season ticket holder of the New England Whalers, who are today reincarnated, coincidentally, as my local team the Carolina Hurricanes. I have a friend who is an employee of the Ottawa Senators, so I root for them too.

I consider New Orleans to be my home town, but the Saints' first year was not until my last year there (senior year of high school). So I root for the Saints, but not ahead of the Patriots. And as I think I have said before, the Patriots haven't been quite the same for me since they changed their name to New England; and they lost a lot of appeal to me when they changed their uniform colors and logo.

I was an AFL fan when I was a boy, so I root for all of the 1963 AFL teams which still exist. My first year of collecting bubble gum cards was 1959, so I root for the 1959 NFL teams that still exist too. If the team relocates, I don't root for them! I feel the same way about the 1959 MLB teams.

My favorite college teams are Georgetown and Pitt. I always look for their football scores. I can't say that I was ever much of a basketball fan, although naturally I enjoyed it when Georgetown won the national championship.

The only team I have ever disliked is the New York Yankees.

[connoisseur series500]

My only team is the NE Patriots, and the NFL is the only team sport that I watch. I do root for the Italian soccer team during World Cup matches, but do not have any interest in the matches outside the World Cup. I have some interest in individual sports.

I have no permanent dislike for any NFL team, but of late, I don't have much love for the Indianapolis Colts, nor the Pittsburgh Steelers. The dislike for the Steelers comes from the fact that the local sports bars are full of their loud fans. I have some sentiment for the "local" teams: Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns.

[Van Basten II]

Don't watch much NHL nowadays but have a rooting interest for the Habs and am always pleased in the Leafs misery.

In NFL, i cheer for the Steelers, had an alliance with the Bills when Levy was the head coach though, don't like the Cowboys.

In futbol, i cheer for the French team and i have all kind of problems with the Italian side. On the domestic side my team in France is St-Étienne while i applaud any disasters done by Marseille. Other favourite domestic sides include Werder Bremen in Germany, Barcelona in Spain and Arsenal in England. My pet peeves are Bayern, Real Madrid and MU and about all the Calcio teams.

[Dan Gould]

Baseball is the first, and if push ever came to shove, the only sport I truly, deeply care about. NFL and College football follow. NHL does not exist, nor does basketball, though I have been known, under pain of extreme boredom, to sit down and watch a Florida State basketball game if I stumble across it. If I were bed-ridden with flu and the only choice on TV was an Oprah Winfrey movie marathon and a "soccer" game, I would not even flip back and forth but would simply settle in to watch the Big O.

Baseball teams are first and foremost the Boston Red Sox and number two the Chicago Cubs (I was born in Chicago into a Cub family and after seeing the Sox win a couple of times recently, at this point my greatest hope is that the Cubs come through while my Father is still around to enjoy it). There is cause to celebrate whenever the Yankees, and to a lesser extent, Mets, lose.

Signifying its lower status, I have been unable to maintain a strong lifelong allegiance to a single NFL team outside of the Bears. When I was a child I rooted for the Griese/Morris/Warfield/Czonka Dolphins (there is still a Paul Warfield poster on my bedroom wall at my parent's house) but if I had known how they would all grow up to be obnoxious M-Fs about their undefeated season, I would have stopped rooting for them then and there. After the Dolphins I was a big fan of the Staubach era Cowboys but that rooting interest ended permanently when Jimmy Johnson was hired. At some point I adopted the Parcells-era Giants but lost interest after that group of players moved on, and my support was completely obliterated by the appearance of one Eli Manning. I have rooted for the Patriots pretty much since the start of the current dynasty because of Brady and Belichick, all the while feeling somewhat badly as a "bandwagon" fan. While that's not really accurate - I didn't adopt them because they were winners - its also true that seeing them win didn't wipe out decades of disappointment the way the 2004 baseball post-season did.

I now celebrate losses by the Dolphins and Cowboys and any Manning.

In college football I root for my alma mater, Florida State, and against their in-state rivals University of Florida and Miami Hurricanes.

[Aggie87]

NFL: Dallas Cowboys

College sports: Texas A&M (i guess that one's pretty obvious!)

Baseball: Houston Astros/Corpus Christi Hooks ('Stro's AA affiliiate)

Basketball: San Antonio Spurs

Hockey: Corpus Christi Rayz (I really don't get hockey, but the local games are fun. The rabid fans throw dead sting rays onto the ice after the teams scores ....there's literally 5-10+ that have to be scooped up each time)

dislike:

Eli Manning (haven't liked him since his pre-draft refusal to play for the team that was going to (and did) draft him, the Chargers)

Dan Snyder

Terrell Owens (i'm softening a little though, but don't think I'll truly ever like him)

Jerry Jones (love/hate kinda thing)

Barry Bonds

University of Texas

[paul secor]

NBA: Lakers - Didn't jump on the bandwagon in the 80's. I was a Minneapolis Lakers fan in the 50's when I was a kid.

Major League Baseball: Yankees. I was a NY Giant fan and then a SF Giant fan until they traded Willie Mays, my favorite player. Became a Yankee fan in the AL in 1969 after Mickey Mantle retired - couldn't stand Mantle - and overall after the Giants traded Willie.

NFL: Giants.

Don't follow college basketball or football. College basketball has become a one year thing for most players who have talent, so there's little or no continuity there, except for the coaches (and not much continuity there either, these days). I enjoy watching basketball for the players, not the coaches. Most basketball coaches - and football coaches, for that matter - are obnoxious egomaniacs.

As I get older, I find that I have less investment in the teams I root for. I still root and follow my teams, but I don't have the ups and downs that I used have to after wins and losses. At my age, I've finally learned that it is, indeed, "only a game", and a game that I'm not playing, and that there are more important things in my life.

[Randy Twizzle]

My real rooting interest in sports begins and ends with the Mets. For whatever reason my father, who wasn't a baseball fan, first took my brother and I to the prehistoric Polo Grounds to see our first pro baseball game. When the team moved to Shea in Queens he still drove us out there rather than to the much closer Bronx to see the Yankees. We'd go to 5 or 6 Sunday doubleheaders a year, always sitting in the general admission upper deck. We were there in June 1965 when fan reaction to bad call against the Mets held up the game for over 10 minutes. (see below) I was 9 years old at the time and loved every minute of the craziness. Maybe I'm not passionate enough about sports to have a team that I hate. Though I don't really like the Yankees or their often smug fans, I've never been able to build up much hatred for them.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

NFL: Dallas Cowboys

dislike:

Eli Manning (haven't liked him since his pre-draft refusal to play for the team that was going to (and did) draft him, the Chargers)

Dan Snyder

Terrell Owens (i'm softening a little though, but don't think I'll truly ever like him)

Jerry Jones (love/hate kinda thing)

Barry Bonds

University of Texas

Damn! Make one tiny cosmetic change and I'm 100% with ya!!

Eli Manning (haven't liked him since his pre-draft refusal to play for the team that was going to (and did) draft him, the Chargers)

Dan Snyder

Terrell Owens (i'm softening a little though, but don't think I'll truly ever like him)

Jerry Jones (love/hate kinda thing)

Barry Bonds

Texas

[Tim McG]

The teams which have caused me the most pain as a fan are: Celtics, Pistons, Suns, Giants, Padres, Patriots, Broncos, Chiefs, and Chargers--but I pretty much don't like every other team too.

[sal]

I don't think there is another sports team that I feel more passion for than the Tricolor (aka the Mexican National Soccer Team)

I'm a diehard Chicago Bears fan...always will be. I hate the Packers with all of my heart and take great pleasure in their misfortunes.

My favorite international soccer clubs are Manchester United (my absolute fav), Barcelona and Chivas de Guadalajara. AC Milan and Real Madrid are my peeves, although I must admit both are fun teams to watch play.

As a University of Illinois alumni, I bleed blue & orange, thus, I always support the Fighting Illini.

Lastly, as I grew up watching the Andre Dawson-era Cubs and the Michael Jordan Bulls, and having been huge fans of both teams, I feel sentimental connections to both teams still, and still want them to win, despite the fact that I am no longer interested in baseball or NBA basketball.

Edited January 22, 2008 by sal

[Tim McG]

Teams I pull for:

Yay!

SF Giants

Forty-Niners

Lakers

And anybody playing the [hated] Dodgers, Yankees, Rams, Raiders or Dallas.

[Patriots for my wife; she was born and raised in Connecticut]

Teams I hate with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns:

Grrrrr

#1 and for all-time [the hated] Dodgers

Rams

Dallas

Yankees

Edited January 22, 2008 by GoodSpeak

[Shawn]

I only watch the NFL.

I don't really have a "favorite" team, though I tend to root for the Seahawks. The only team I HATE is the Redskins...growing up in the WV/VA area I've had to deal with WAY too many Redneck Redskins fans in my life.

[PHILLYQ]

Baseball: Yankees At 8 years old(1964) they won the pennant and then lost the World Series. I thought they'd be back soon-NOT! had to wait until 1976 when I was 20. I was a Yankee fan through the Horace Clarke years.

Football: Giants They used to play at Yankee Stadium

Basketball: Knicks(FIRE ISIAH!!! MAKE DOLAN SELL THE TEAM!!!)

Hockey: Rangers, but I don't follow the sport much at all

[paul secor]

Baseball: Yankees At 8 years old(1964) they won the pennant and then lost the World Series. I thought they'd be back soon-NOT! had to wait until 1976 when I was 20. I was a Yankee fan through the Horace Clarke years.

If you were a fan when Hoss Clarke played second, you were a TRUE fan.

[ejp626]

Not really a big sports fan. I think the vast majority of athletes are ridiculously overpaid, immature whiners which really dampens my interest in sports. And in Chicago at least management seems immune from taking any responsibility or facing consequences for what seems like 10 years of poor draft choices and talent evaluation. On top of everything else, I detest the corporate blackmail team owners put on cities to build them stadiums, then they skip town anyway. Too bad there is not a federal law forbidding tax payer money to go to support professional sports teams. In my dreams I guess.

But I have a soft spot for the Red Wings (and hate the Blackhawks).

Also like it when UMichigan teams do well (and dislike but not quite to the point of hatred OSU).

I liked the way the Bulls were finally coming together, but now this season they're a bunch of whiny slackers and I can't stand them anymore, except for Noccioni.

I do sometimes quietly pull for the Packers just cause it riles my wife up. I think a Green Bay-Patriots Superbowl would have been terrific.

I guess that's pretty much it.

[MartyJazz]

My father instilled in me a love for the Yanks and the Knicks as I was growing up in the '50s in Manhattan. Remain a passionate Yankee fan but can't get too excited about pro basketball anymore even if the Knicks should somehow improve. The last two decades or so I've only watched the Knicks whenever they've been able to reach the playoffs, no regular season interest whatsoever. Naturally hated the Boston Celtics growing up as they were the basketball counterpart of my beloved Yanks. Consequently, I thoroughly understand the hatred most baseball fans feel for the Yanks.

Now I should have been a NY Giant fan since I was old enough to appreciate them before the AFL was even in existence, however I didn't begin to like football until I was 18 or so. At that time, a neighborhood buddy who was fanatically into football convinced me to accompany him on Saturday nights in the fall to attend AFL games at Shea Stadium. The fledgling AFL would schedule some games on Saturday night to avoid competing directly with the NFL who would only play on Sunday afternoons then. Thus my regrettable love for the Jets was born as I was there before even Joe Namath arrived. By January '69 when their only Supe appearance and tremendous upset win over the established NFL Colts occurred, I was already a season ticket holder which I am to this day even though I now live in Florida.

I usually root fervently against the Cowboys ("America's team" - ugh!) and against the Giants since I received so much grief from their fans over the years growing up in NYC. Of course I hated the rival Dolphins for so many years but in the last few years I find that I can actually pull for them particularly when they are on the road and generally facing far stronger teams. However I now find that the Pats have replaced the Dolphins and any other NFL team as the one I absolutely cannot root for. This is only since the advent of the Belichick era as he jilted the Jets only to make the Pats a powerhouse.

I used to root for any original AFL team to beat any original NFL team but that war ended a long time ago. As a result while I pulled for the Pats to beat the Packers in the Jan '97 Supe, I would have enthusiastically rooted for the Pack to beat the Pats this coming Supe had Favre et al been able to beat the Jints.

[AndrewHill]

I am largely a tennis/golf/poker fan, but I'm also a die-hard Indians/Cavs/Browns fan too. Besides my faves in the the former camp, I jeer at everyone else who does not fit that discription.