The Michigan State Spartans football team. There, I crushed all you heathens -- I've been a Spartans fan since I before I could walk (indoctrination and everything). I'll say it all for you here - 15 blown fourth quarter leads since 2001 (five this year). When you're favorite sport is college football, it's tough to stomach. A 19-year big ten title drought, your last bowl win in 2001 (against Fresno State in the Silicon Valley classic), last national championship in 1966 (my dad was 9 years old), and the worst - a perennial inferiority complex to your neighbors to the west, the school that will remain nameless. My senior year they beat us after being down by 10 points late in the 4th quarter, and their ass face running back answers questions at the press conference going, "I was just laughing [when we were down]. Sometimes when you play your little brother in basketball you let him take the lead, just to get him excited, and then you come back." Batshit-crazy head coach who slaps himself at press conferences? Check: <a class="postlink" href="http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f353/skamikazed/johnlsmithslap.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f353/ ... thslap.gif</a> I could go on. The only reason this is doable for me is because things are sort of, sort of looking up.
Since my time as a Falcon's fan I have had nothing to be happy about except for a AFC loss to the Eagles. I wasn't even a fan when they went to lose to the Cowboys in the superbowl. This is a team that only just recently had 2 consecutive winning seasons. That being said I can't help but love them, and was ecstatic when Matt Ryan came to the team. Luckily this year is a good year to be a fan of these guys.
Over a decade strong. I like them because they're not the Lakers and I tend to root for the under dog anyway. I can't stand stupid Laker fans and I'm lucky enough that LA has more than one show in town. Real men don't wear purple!
Yup, you all hate me now. I liked the Pats before their first championship, so spare me the bandwagon talk. Chelsea for the fact that I pretty much hate Liverpool and Michael Ballack is my favorite soccer player. Now I actively follow the team, and am a real fan. Munich, and Effenberg, Sagnol, Kahn and Lizarazu... since I was young. Now it's Lahm, Schweini and Gomez.
<a class="postlink" href="http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/11/05/the-yankees-payroll/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/11 ... s-payroll/</a> What all the "Red Sox spend a lot too!" arguments (they've actually been 4th in payroll the last two years; the woefully inept 2009 Mets have the honor of the highest non-Yankee payroll ever) miss is the quantitative difference between the Yankees and every other American sports franchise in existence. The difference is so extreme it becomes a qualitative difference.
I think the perceptions in this thread are pretty funny. I guess we all have expectations of our favorite teams and get frustrated when they don't meet those expectations. Case in point: This guy loves a team that went 12-4 this past season, averaged almost 30 points per game - second in the league - and generally had a kickass season. And he thinks that his is the greatest heartbreak, that they lost the championship game. "Fuck you all" he says, as if this is the trump card. Back on the original topic, I'm a Bills fan. Hold on, I'll wait for the laughter to subside. The 90s really saw the end of anything decent out of the Bills. Those four glorious years where they were conference champions, then the crushing heartbreak of four consecutive Super Bowl losses. Since then... nothing. But what are you going to do? Switch teams? That's just dishonorable.
Fuck you. I know we haven't lost four in a row, like you, but we've lost the only four Superbowls we've been in. And for my money, it hurts more to be good an lose than to be the Bills. At least you don't have hope to be crushed anymore.
My home team, Burnley. After being pretty poor for ages, we got promoted to the premier league this year, it was amazing. We haven't won an away game yet, our manager Owen Coyle left us half way through the season and now it looks like we may very well be relegated but fuck - I love my team.
I'm a Broncos fan. So not THAT heartbreaking, as they won two Superbowls just over a decade ago, but the 80's were fucking tough. The last 5 years have also been horrendous. They get talent, look like they're going to win the division, then go on craptastic streaks at the end of the year to lose the division to the Chargers. Certainly not as hard as being a fan of a lot of the teams mentioned (Bills, Cubs, etc.) but the past decade has not been kind to my beloved Broncos. EDIT: Until the past three years, being a Phillies fan was very difficult. Man, there was quite a bit of suckage from '93-04.
In three of the four major sports I have one team that I'll passionately root for above any others. It doesn't matter if they're dead last, or in the most rare of circumstances first. NHL: I was raised outside of Vancouver, and I've watched more Canuck's hockey than most. This team has done nothing but 'fuck themselves in the ass' since their inception to the NHL in 1970. Maybe they win the Stanley Cup in 1994 if not for that god damned goal-post from Nathan Lafayette. Either way, it sucks cheering for a team that has NEVER won a championship. The Canucks are the epitome of mediocrity and likely will be for the next handful of years. MLB: The avatar tells all. The problem with cheering for the Blue Jays? I know that they are a lost cause, yet as many times as I've tried to root against them, I always seem to come crawling back. My parents let me stay up way past my bed-time when I was seven and eight years old to watch the Jays win their two World Series' (92 and 93) and ever there hasn't been anything close to a championship since. NFL: Of all the teams that I passionately root for, these guys are my best bet every year. I'm a huge Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin fan, and the Superbowl 42 victory over the New England Patriots may be the best individual game that I've ever watched in any sport. If Plaxico Burris is still a Giant, maybe they win it again last year. In other sports I'll cheer for the following teams: CFL - Saskatchewan Roughriders NBA - Portland, Phoenix, or Toronto. English Premier League - Fulham FC WHL - Vancouver Giants
Living in Boston has been pretty damn good, have to say. If only the Bruins could get their act together, shit would be cash then. The 00s were a great decade for Boston sports... 2 WS, a Finals, 3 Super Bowls. Hellyeah. Only blemish was the '07 SB... [shudder]. Yeah, and the Yankees have sucked, and always will suck, donkey balls.
Are there really people in this thread whining about being fans of the Yankees, football Giants (yeah, they usually suck, but winning a championship means you have no right to complain for at least 15 years), and UConn basketball?? Fucking seriously?? I'm a die-hard fan of all Philadelphia (except the Sixers, they're my favorite NBA team but I could give two shits about the NBA) and Boston College sports teams. And the US soccer national team. Aside from 2008, when the Phillies and BC hockey both won titles, my life has been miserable sports-wise. And even those victories came with a catch; the Phillies would make it back to the Series the following year only to blow it against a strong but beatable Yankees team, and BC hockey fans got to watch BU steamroll through the season en route to a title of their own, which they won after coming from 2 goals down with less than a minute left in the championship game. I mean, I turn 26 in a couple weeks and it was not until less than 18 months ago that any Philly team had won a championship IN MY LIFETIME. And if there's any doubt that the Philly/BC combination leads to a unique brand of mental insanity, there were at least 3 of us on the old board. I put my lifetime of sports misery up against that of anyone on this board.