Fans choose football teams for variety of reasons

The NFL kicked off another regular season last week with last year’s Super Bowl champions the Seattle Seahawks defeating the Green Bay Packers, Thursday, Sept. 4.

My social media feeds were flooded with pictures of friends donning their blue and bright green jerseys and status updates invoking the spirit of the 12th Man. Most of my relatives are Seattle fans and they recently converted my brother-in-law to the Church of the Seahawks.

It’s easy to see why most of my friends in Spokane and Cheney would follow the Seahawks. Most fans choose a team that is close to them, whether that team is in the same state or within the same region. During my six-month stay in Montana — a state that has no professional football team — I saw many folks sporting Vikings, Packers and Broncos jerseys.

Then there are people who follow teams that are nowhere near them. I had a coworker from The Easterner wonder as to why football fans living in the state of Washington would support a team from a different region of the country. He even wrote a column about it. I thought this was funny because this was the same person who kept asking why The Easterner — the college newspaper of Eastern Washington University — didn’t do extensive coverage on the Montana State Bobcats.

He has a point. While most of my friends were in their Seahawks attire, others donned the dark green and gold to show their love for the Packers. My buddy Murdoch and his wife Amanda dressed their 10-month old daughter in a Green Bay tutu for the game.

I’ve known friends who have picked teams for different reasons. I went to high school with several 49ers and Raiders fans, which made for some interesting trash talk during game day.

One of my old high school friends Alex — or “Fuzzy” — has been a Carolina Panthers fan since the team’s inception in 1995, right after they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in their first NFL game.

Other fans pick teams for family reasons. Some follow the same team as their parents or grandparents. Newer football fans will choose one based on their spouse’s preferences.

I’ve also had friends choose a team in spite of their family.

Xopher, a native of Colorado whose favorite color is orange, picked the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as his team, not only due to the color of their jerseys, but also because his brother already selected the Denver Broncos as his team. One of my best friends Tom is a life-long Dallas Cowboys fans and his love for “America’s Team” came from his dad being a 49ers fan.

Then there are fans who follow teams because of a certain player, or players.

I’ve been a Vikings fans since eighth-grade, which was the year veteran quarterback Randall Cunningham and a young Randy Moss came onto the scene. Both had amazing years and it appeared that they were on their way to the Super Bowl — until the Atlanta Falcons stopped them.

Cunningham left the team after the next season. Moss stayed on the Vikings until 2004, and then returned in 2010 only to leave again.

Then you have fans who like to jump onto the bandwagon and go with the team that happens to be winning. When the team starts losing, they’ll find another that has a lock on the postseason.

However, I think the most loyal football fans are the ones who stick with their teams no matter how bad they are doing. Fans know their team is terrible, yet every Sunday they will watch the game — at the stadium or on television. At the same time, these fans still have hope that their team will get a win. When that does happen they get just as excited — if not more — than folks whose teams consistently make it to the playoffs.

So here’s to another NFL season and to all of the fans out there who love their team for whatever reason. May your teams have some success — unless they are playing the Vikings.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].