Who is Switching Teams?

[masterpanthera_t]

(01-03-2017, 05:32 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: In 93-94 (my first seasons following football), I was as much a Chiefs fan as a Bengals fan. Long story short, Montana retired, Blake blew up and I've been a huge fan of the home team ever since. I did try to become a Cowboys fan in the mid-90's...even had my Mom buy me a Cowboys sweat shirt, but it just never felt right. I grew up in Covington seeing the Cincy skyline every day, so being a Bengals fan was probably just inevitable.

I kinda wish I could've forced my way into being a Cowboys fan, but what's done is done. In my adult life, I've never been such a big fan of one player that I'd switch teams for one player. Like someone else said...if you do that, you never were a Bengals fan. You're a McCarron fan.

Shake, it's crazy how similar the arcs of our fandom are.  

In 93-94, the first day I ever watched football was on Thanksgiving and while I liked the Lions with Barry Sanders I became sort of a Cowboys fan even though they lost that day (a rare snow day at Cowboys stadium against the Dolphins).  Fast forward to the playoffs and Jimmy Johnson's guarantee against the 49ers in the NFC championship game and I was hooked.  However, when Jerry Jones fired Jimmy Johnson at the end of the year, I became a Cowboys hater and have been one ever since - to the point that in 1995 I actually rooted for Pittsburgh in the super bowl against the Cowboys (I was about as naive a fan as you could find at that time, and in retrospect, I am happy that the game turned out the way it had thanks to Neil O'Donnell).  

Also, in 1994-95, I was a Chiefs fan when Montana was their QB and I stayed that way through the Derrick Thomas/Marty Schottenheimer years.  I was aware of the Bengals at this point, but didn't live in a place where I could watch their games.  In 1995, once I moved a bit closer, I became a Bengals fan for good, and they were my primary team.  I made this choice primarily because of the uniqueness of their helmets and their name.   Again, naivete at its finest!  Any knowledge about Mike Brown at that point would have dissuaded me from this choice, but I made my choice and it's stuck.  I would root for teams I considered "underdogs" like the Chiefs or the Patriots (I'm talking about back in the 90's, not now) or the Lions, mostly because, well, we all know about the Bengals and the 90's.  

I'd say my rooting interests now are the Bengals and whoever plays the Steelers.  Even after seeing some of my underdog favorites have success (like the Patriots), I can never switch away from the Bengals.  The moment the Bengals win the super bowl, I might just quit watching football forever.