An exposition on my decision to root for Bay Area sports teams

Ouch... some scathing responses from friends about my decision to change sports team allegiances. Of course, these friends are spoiled; they can walk out of their house on any given day and go watch one of their favorite teams live and in person. I can not do that.

In any given year, I can watch the Cardinals once, Suns once and maybe ASU (football) once... so while I can go to 2-3 games in a two-year span, someone who actually lives in Arizona can go to 120+ games (not including playoffs and other hometown team sports).

Sports is about watching the games, marveling in the athletic ability and rooting for your team to win. Sports is not about reading stats online after the fact or watching the 15 seconds of highlights on Sportscenter. Those things are great, but without the game itself, there is nothing to root for and the pure enjoyment of the sport is lost.

I have great memories of rooting for Arizona teams, but those memories are all more than 10-years old. The players are gone, the coaches are different, the playbooks have changed. There is nothing about the teams today that resembles the teams I rooted for except for their uniforms.

I have no qualms about shifting allegiances. I do not owe Arizona anything and I am not changing because the teams are better. I am changing so that I can take my kids to games, root for the home team and build up a new set of fond memories. What's wrong with that? It's exactly what people in Arizona would do.

Live in the moment and always look forward.


Post-Script: How does it feel to attend a Cardinals-Cowboys game or Cardinals-Bears game or Cardinals-Steelers game and have more people rooting for the opposing team than for the Cardinals? "What's wrong with those people?" we used to ask. Now we know. They are torturing themselves.

Post-Script II: What is the bond between a fan and their team? The uniform? The players? The coaches? The history? When the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens, should the Cleveland fans have rooted for the Ravens because that was their team, players, coaches, owners and history just playing with a different uniform? Or should they have waited for the expansion Browns with nothing tied to the historic past of the Browns except the uniforms? Should St Louis fans not root for the Rams because the Cardinals used to be their team? In fact, should Chicago fans also be rooting for the Cardinals considering that is where they started? Watching games and experiencing the sport in person; that is the root of being a fan.