Sports Fandom: Chicken or the Egg?

I really don't care about the baseball playoffs or the NBA season.

Two years ago, I proclaimed that I was becoming a Bulls fan. That really didn't take. 

I had sorta wondered about the whole chicken and egg thing with following a sport and having a team. What I mean is this: Which of these is true:

a) I don't like baseball because I don't have a team to follow

b) I don't have a baseball team to follow because I don't like the sport

Well, the Chicago Bulls thing was basically an experiment. And now I have the answer. It's b. It's always b. 

There are sports I don't like watching/following like baseball and the NBA. So identifying as a fan is not going to work. 

In 2011, I moved to Colorado. I wasn't a fan of any NBA, MLB or NHL team at the time. I became an Avalanche fan because I like hockey. The Rockies and Nuggets never did anything for me. 

It also explains why I care about Illinois basketball and football but not Illinois tennis or golf, even though we're much better at golf than football. 

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So what sports do I like?

Football

Easily my favorite sport. Fantasy and gambling add to the fun.

Hockey 

Especially playoff hockey. Great live too.

College Basketball 

Specifically March Madness.

College Football

I find that the uneven scheduling makes for most games to be not that close. 

World Cup Soccer

The international format and rarity makes this a big deal. 

Is that it?

Growing up I would watch anything. Professional indoor lacrosse, professional indoor soccer, roller hockey. Handball and water polo at the olympics. But now it doesn't seem like that much. 

MLB, NBA, MLS do nothing for me. I do like watching Rugby but it's hard to do from the states. One day if I lived in Europe, I could see getting into the soccer leagues, but I don't need that much soccer in my life right now. I still like Arsenal, Barcelona and Roma but I'm not following their progress. (It would be fun to attend a game in London or Barcelona or Rome one day though.) Or one day it would be fun to attend a rugby game in person. 

Okay, so this is weird and random. I just looked up rugby tournaments and turns out the big one is called the Rugby World Cup, held every four years, and the final just happens to be tomorrow.

Maybe I can catch the All Blacks doing the Haka and see if they can beat the Springboks?

Breaking: Chicago Bulls have acquired Dave Fymbo (F) on day 4 of free agency.

The Bulls have been aggressive and wasted no time signing Dave Fymbo. Coach Donovan cited Fymbo's poor motor, below-average wingspan and impressive blog as exactly what they were looking for in a fan. 

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Drafting Ayo while I happened to be visiting Chicago for the first time in 6 years (and getting nostalgic) was a nice touch. 

Building a fun roster is nice. Having the best starting lineup intro music helps too. But a big chunk was realizing that I've picked up a team everywhere I've lived except Chicago. 

Chiefs obviously were first. 
Illinois athletics came next. 
I lived in Chicago for six years without adopting a team. 
Then I became an Avalanche fan upon moving to Denver. 

So as of last week, I had college sports, the NFL and NHL covered. That leaves the NBA and MLB (and MLS I guess) as vacancies.

I like basketball a lot more than baseball, so this is a nice fit all around. Maybe one day I'll be old and living in a new city and adopt a baseball team. 

I hadn't planned on becoming a fan of wherever Ayo went, but this works out nicely. I've never really had an NBA team and that's been perfectly fine since I don't love the NBA that much. We'll see if this lasts longer than my Deron Williams Utah Jazz phase or my extremely casual fondness of the Nuggets when I lived in Denver or my passing interest in OKC because they're the closest team to KC. 

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For reference, here's the current Bulls roster.

When I lived in Chicago, the only pro sports games were 2 Blackhawks games. I saw Crosby live and a Red Wings/Blackhawks game. It reaffirmed I liked live hockey but didn't care for the Blackhawks. They won the Cup in 2010 when I still lived in Oak Park and I felt nothing. 

But I can say, I've been to a game in the United Center. 

And in fact, the only NBA game I've ever been to in my life...the Bulls won. 

My parents took me to an exhibition Bulls-Timberwolves game in Kansas City in 1991. 

So there you go, I'm undefeated in attending Bulls games.

My Favorite Teams

Fandom is one of those things thought of as unchanging. And yet my fandom, in some cases, is rather fluid. Back in 2007, my list looked like this (yikes). In August 2011, I updated the list.

At that point, I had the Avalanche below the Illini, having just moved to Denver. By October 14, I was doing my homework, digging in to the team's lore. By November 2, I made this. And on November 6, I went to my first Avs game in person. Stastny scored the only goal for the team in the first minute.

Anyways, I recognize the risk of doing this right after a World Cup, but this is where I'm at.

(basketball)

(football)

I don't have a baseball team. I don't have an NBA team. But I'm solidly behind a NFL and NHL team, I've got college basketball and college football, and now a soccer team. Happy Independence Day. 

2010 census (in 2011): favorite teams

Back in June 07, I took stock of my favorite teams. 

The gist was that it was far and away the Chiefs, then Illini basketball and football close together and then I didn't really have teams beyond that.

Here's where I stand now:

Currently I would represent them graphically as:

Chiefs
-
-
Illini Hoops
Illini Football
-
-
Avalanche
Nuggets
-
Rockies
Rapids
Arsenal

on fandom

Under the assumption that we move to Colorado at some point, I've been thinking about what it means to be a sports fan.

First off, my only true loyalties are to the Chiefs, and the Illini for both college basketball and football.

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In the NBA, the only team that I slightly care about is Deron William's team, which is currently the Utah Jazz.

In MLB, it would be the Royals.

And in the NHL, I guess it would be the Blackhawks.

I've at least been to both Royals and Blackhawks games, although I went more for the experience. I ended up rooting harder for the Big Mac minute than the Blackhawks.

And for all three of those teams, would I actually care if those teams won anything? No. Perhaps a decent litmus test is, would I buy a t-shirt or commemorative DVD? An obvious yes for the Chiefs or Illini, and a solid no for any of the other three.

To sum up, I have a vacancy for a solid rooting interest in hockey, baseball and basketball. There are two ways to look at this.

The first is that this is perfectly fine. It allows me to watch the playoffs just interested in good games. I can enjoy watching LeBron and Durant and Deron and not worry about what teams they're on. Also, since I don't really care about any of those sports anyways, why do I need a team?

On the other hand, Denver has the Nuggets, Rockies, and Avalanche. And none of them are particularly obnoxious. One would assume I will be taking my kids to games occasionally, and why not follow the local team if I don't have a team in those leagues.

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As for what I'll do, I'll just do what comes naturally. I don't think I'll ever care enough to follow a team religiously in any of those sports, but if they make a playoff run, I'll gladly become a bandwagon fan. Who cares?

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On a related subject, I've always thought that it would be great to raise my kids to root for the Chiefs. Take them to games, get some Gates, and show them how great it is to be at Arrowhead. But just today, thinking about that seems false. If my kids want to be Bronco fans, I'm okay with that. I mean, that's what they're going to be surrounded by and if that's what they want, so be it.

I won't promise to not buy a kid's size Chiefs t-shirt. And at the very least we can always root against the Raiders.

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Even though my favorite team is the Chiefs, the truest fandom, the most pure, has to be the Illini. I say that because really, why am I a Chiefs fan? I was born in Kansas City. I went to some games there. And sure it helped that they had a great run in 2003, just when we moved into those apartments and really got into fantasy and weekly football traditions.

But the Illini. I applied there, I chose there. And they accepted me. I went there and I became an Illini myself. That's being a fan.

And if you think about the Chiefs-Broncos through that lens, I wouldn't expect my children to root for the Illini. I'd want them to root for whatever school they end up going. And yes, I'll tell them to go some place warm.

kevin durant to kansas city? maybe paul kariya too?

For whatever reason, I still want to root for Kansas City sports teams, even if I they weren't there when I was there. I have no connection to the Sacramento Kings, who moved out of KC in 85...but I would love to build a connection to the Kansas City Sonics. And what the hell, I'll take the Predators too if they want. I read an article about how they could build a great rivalry between the Blues...can you feel the excitement?

Here are my favorite teams right now in order:

KC Chiefs
.
.
.
.
.
Illini Hoops
Illini Football
.
.
Utah Jazz
KC Royals
.
KC Wizards
Chicago Blackhawks
KC Brigade