With the team I root for threatening to relocate to the “greener” pastures of Carson or Inglewood, I feel I am at a crossroads in my fandom. After the birth of my daughter last year, I found it increasingly easier to forgo watching my team play. Additionally, the players’ actions off the field and the subsequent handling of them by the NFL haven’t made things any better. And now, the actions of the ownership and its mouthpiece are driving that wedge further down. The following questions have begun to nag at me:
If they are successful at extorting the city and getting a new stadium, do I remain a fan?
How could I root for them knowing full well that the ownership really wanted to be with another city?
Should I follow the team if they move?
What if they change their name?
What do I do with all of the jerseys, sweatshirts, hats, etc.?
Do I keep it for nostalgia sake?
Do I throw it a bonfire like an imbecile?
If the name does change, do I then choose a new team to support?
How does one choose said team?
How do you start rooting for a new team when all your life you’ve only known one?
Do I bandwagon the latest championship team?
Do I pick a team with a similar championship record or lack thereof?
Should I just let my daughter pick a team at random for me since she doesn’t know any better?
What if she picks the Patriots?
I have to make her pick again, right?
*I know this is a rip off of Danger’s shtick but I couldn’t think of a better way to get some of my thoughts on this matter out. Think of it as a terrible homage.
Sunrise, I wouldn’t worry about it. Your Chargers are not going anywhere. They will extort a new stadium out of the San Diego area (Chula Vista Wild Card!) and everything will go back to normal.
Need technical help from the DFO group here… how do you get images into a comment? I can get them in a post just fine, but I don’t seem to see where the option is to get them into a comment.
It looks like authors can simply type in the URL and it will work. Non-authors have to use the html
.
Html (what you type into the comment box) looks like this
<img src=”the link inside these quotation marks here”/>
Ok thanks, RTD and BoS. Thought I could just drag it in from my desktop like you can in a post.
As Yeah Right mentioned, I’m the resident Raiders fan around these parts (well who did you expect a white boy from suburban Connecticut to root for?) and it’s really hard for me to imagine what I’d do if they moved to, say, San Antonio and changed their name. As the Raiders, I’d root for them no matter where they were – but it’s different for me because I’ve only every lived in the same city as them for one year (L.A. in 1994). As something else…I’m not sure. It feels like no, but I don’t know who the hell I’d cheer for in that case. The only team I could root for without it feeling like a betrayal would be the Jets, since I liked them as a kid before my “chosen” franchise materialized.
So I guess in your case, SunriseSunrise, you’re stuck with the Chargers. Even if they move and change their name, you’re going to find it really hard to ever root against them. Pack away all your gear and don’t buy any of the new shit, but know, in your heart, when they blow a 13 point fourth-quarter lead, you’re gonna be pissed regardless of how many times you tell yourself you don’t care.
“well who did you expect a white boy from suburban Connecticut to root for?”
Uh, the Cowboys?
SERIAL KILLER.
Actually, the Cowboys were one of my original favorite teams – at a young age all I understood about football was Cowboys vs. [*Redacted] s, i.e. Real Amurricans vs. minorities. But the Dark Side was strong with this one; my hatred for the [*Redacted] s was so strong that when the Raiders demolished them in Super Bowl XVIII my young self latched on to the Raiders and stayed hitched.
I hated the [*Redacted] s from a very early age because the SUPER GRITTY Riggins-era team was on TV every fucking week in Charlotte (which made no sense to me, being like a 7-8 hour drive away at the time, based on existing interstate configurations). And they were sooooo goddamned boring. I hated the Cowboys, too, either because they beat my Broncos in their first Super Bowl (though I remember listening to a Craig Morton-QB’d game on the radio as one of my very first childhood memories, this entire SB is blocked out, wish I could say the same for the ones from the 1980s) or just because they were the goddamned Cowboys.
I had nothing specific against the Iggles or the Giants, and still don’t, or at least didn’t until Chip Kelly’s ego invited the Tebowtards back into the league.
Aprapos of nothing, I have always been a geographically disparate fan. I picked the Broncos as my very first allegiance, when I was two years old (my parents both attest to this, along with the fact that I never wavered). No clue why. I was born in Wyoming because my Dad was in the AF, but we moved when I was 6 months old. Maybe I liked the colors, or the horse mascot (my favourite relative, maternal grandfather always called me “Cowboy” because of the WY thing). Most likely, because I was just weird from birth.
You have my deepest sympathies, SS. My team, too, has left me.
First it was to be an extra hour south from where they claimed to have hailed, and now it has been to a retirement community leaving a man who lived with a cat in his car while sleeping in a parking lot at the helm.
Mine has been a spiritual abandonment while yours is geographic, but I have sympathy nonetheless.
And I am pretty sure it’s not child abuse to slap the Patriotism out of your beloved offspring should she choose poorly.
I think you should just pick a new sport entirely. I would highly recommend Jai Alai.
Thanks to Balls of Steel, the AFL is now on my radar. And based on my current choices in teams and their collective disappointment (Chargers, Padres, Sharks), he set me up nicely as a North Melbourne Kangaroos fan. I’ve embraced the hopelessness.
But why, Sharks? Why?
Why do we still have Wilson but not McLellan? Why can I not stop changing the new HC to De”Boner” in my mind? Sharks, why are you such a cruel tyrant over my emotions?
(◕︵◕)
I went to college in Monterey (Go Otters!) and everyone around was from the Bay Area. A couple of guys were huge into hockey so I started to pick up on it. If I had known then what I know now, I’d be a Ducks fan since they are the closest team to San Diego. Plus the Ducks AHL team is gonna be in San Diego starting in October. Go Gulls! But seriously, Wilson is such a cancer for the team. I want the Oilers to start wrecking shop with McClellan at the helm. I expect an unofficial rebuild about to start.
Jonathan Toews quietly contemplates your Sharks fandom.
http://lastangryfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/toews.jpg
(yes, I will use this picture often, as it is the best)
Why is that infant not in the Stanley Cup? What kind of asshole parents miss that opportunity?
They’re on a city bus. Safety first.
Nice win this week/Round! Go Roos!
The Rams still have a fairly decent fan base here in L.A. Not on the same levels as the Raider fans. Holy shit there are a lot of Raider fans in L.A.
Hi Rikki!
There are still some people who rock the original L.A. Rams gear though so maybe hold onto the Chargers stuff for sentimental reasons.
I really hope they stay in San Diego. That team means a lot more to that city than they would mean up here.
Good luck.
Did someone say LA Rams?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxkKlzInR4Y
As a fellow Chargers fan, if they leave San Diego, they’re just not going to be my team anymore. I have no love for Los Angeles, but seeing as I was born in San Diego, I still have love for the SD teams. If they got a new team–as long as it wasn’t the Raiders–I’d probably be cool with that. But while I’d see just what would happen with the team members in LA, I wouldn’t be trying to follow them as closely as I do now–they’d be just another team.
If they do move, I’m probably going to just follow a bunch of teams a little more closely depending on what’s on–since I grew up in Iowa, I do follow the Bears a bit, and have Packers friends; since I’m in Portland now, I get all the Seahawks games; and since I have family in the bay area, I can laugh even more at the Niners. Fuck the Broncos, though.
I’ll keep my powder blue Tomlinson jersey around, though, and the various hats. And I may still try to get a Gates jersey while I can. I loved Jack Murphy stadium as a kid. I fucking hate that they haven’t given this team a better home by now. It’s fucking ridiculous.
Oh, and fuck the Broncos.
Will you keep your Tomlinson jersey thrown over the handlebars of your excercycle?
It’s only right.
Answers:
Yes.
Because.
No.
Yes.
It’s a right triangle, not an isosceles triangle.
The doctor was his mother.
It dates back to the ancient Greeks.
The sound of one hand clapping.
One potato two potato three potato four.
Because reasons.
I do not like them, Sam I Am.
Door Flies Open…
Gronk.
No.
Yes.
You can’t pick a really good team. It’s like the “Sky Five” in English Premier League footy. You need a concrete reason to pick one of them, or to be a child.
Just cheering AGAINST the asshole teams is quite rewarding. In fact, what makes football (college and NFL) so great as a spectator sport is that almost every matchup has some sort of hook that way, on the sliding scale of good/evil. Very rare for me to be absolutely neutral.
If your team (I’m guessing Chargers) does move, I presume you remain a historical Chargers fan, and just mourn your loss. I think that’s perfectly acceptable. Don’t rush. I do think your secondary team should be as new/disparate as possible (NFC), and see what feels natural after watching for awhile. Or let your girlfriend/cat/dominatrix pick for you.
Correct on the Chargers guess. My wife used to be a season ticket holder so she’ll be in the same boat with me. Good idea on rooting against the assholes. That may be the easiest thing to do early on.
I hesitate to ask, but which of the 3 unfortunates are you? I’m a Rams fan (for the moment) but I’ll drop them like a hot potato when they ditch us for Cali. Maybe for the Seahawks. That’ll learn ’em.
Chargers. Every report I read makes it seem like they already have the moving trucks lined up waiting to get them out of town. The owner’s meeting in August is what will probably decide it.
As someone who has lived it before with the Cardinals, it sucks. SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS. I rooted for the Bengals and Saints because I like to complain, and then picked up on the Rams when they showed up on my doorstep. I will forever hate the Arizona Cardinals, and probably soon, the Los Angeles Rams. Although, with my aforementioned love of complainin’, I may have to pick a super sad sack. HELLO BROWNS. I’m coming in on the ground floor, Johnny Football!
I never even liked the Cardinals when they were in StL so I didn’t care too much when they moved away. Didn’t care much about the Rams either until they won a Super Bowl (remember how bad the Rich Brooks and early Dick Vermeil eras were?).
Like DTZM, I will ditch the Rams in a heartbeat when they move. It’s kind of silly, why do I even root for them now then? I SHOULD BREAK UP WITH THEM BEFORE THEY BREAK UP WITH ME!
I’ll root for them up until we find out, but I can’t WAIT to have a new hatin’ outlet if they go. Also, Monty, we should go to a bar and watch a game at some point this season.
Would be cool, DTZM, except I don’t actually live in StL anymore.
Ah, that would make it more difficult, then.