The Holtonian

Da Bears

So I tend to redicule people who are fans of teams and they never resided close to that team. For instance Roe claims to be a Red Sox fan and has no substantial connection with Boston... oh and btw he's a tigers fan this year. The Uthlauts claim the Yankees which I always tease them about. People who grew up in Chattanooga and went to UTC are Auburn fans?? It doesn't make too much sense to me, you're a fan of the team that's closest to you, that's my rule. My kids will be Braves fans, even though I'm a cardinals fan, they'll be Braves fans, it'll make watching the two teams play all that much more fun.

But you see my rule has a flaw, the NBA and NFL for the majority of my St. Louis life didn't have a team in St. Louis.

The NFL Cardinals moved out of town when I was a wee lad and it felt wrong cheering for them in Pheonix where their evil owner took the team so he could retire in the dry heat. The Atlanta Hawks used to be in St. Louis but left due to lack of interest way before I was born.

So, growing up watching the NBA I rooted for who else, Jordan. I have a lot of relatives in Chicago, went to a game and sat court side and watched jordan torch the celtics, he was the best, and closest NBA team around. Seemed resonable, and I still want them to do well, I'm pretty excited they got Big Bad Ben Wallace now. Though marrying wifey has shifted me to a Spurs fan too as she grew up in San Antonio and was/is a HUGE Spurs fan. Our honey moon nights were spent watching the Spurs take down the Nets in six games as I recall. We did other stuff too....

But the NFL was a trickier situation. Like I said the cards left, I was done with them. However there was another Missouri team, the Chiefs and I must admit when they had Shottenheimer, Allen, and Montana going it was pretty exciting team, but they didn't give me that gut response that made me want to cheer till I was blue in the face. The packers, eh, they had the history and the field but they were so far away and I'd only been to Wisconsin a few times.

But the bears.... the bears have always been so amazing to me. I mean they just have the history and gravitas that makes you want to root for them.

Ditka, Butkus, Urlacher, the Fridge, Walter Payton, Super Bowl Shuffle, Bill Swerski, Jim McMahon, I mean so much classic history.

DA BEARS, you say that people know what you're talking about. So I'm a bears fan, don't have a good reason, I just like them.

So Roes, Utes, people I work with that like Auburn, I'll give you your teams for now. Because I'm a fan of the bears. Also I'm a big lovie smith fan from his Rams coaching days. he was the best coach on that team... after Vermeil left.

So here's a recap of my teams

Baseball: Cardinals, Closet Braves fan due to living in the south
Football: Bears, fair weather Rams fan
NBA: Spurs, fair weather Bulls fan
Hockey: Blues, maybe someday be a Thrashers fan but only been to a few games and they're never on TV so I can't watch them plus Wifey wouldn't ever let me buy another hockey jersey, she already gives me crap for the one I have.
College Football: Notre Dame
College Basketball: Don't have one yet. Can't seem to find a team I like.
Soccer: Ambush (St. Louis Indoor team of the 90s)
College Soccer: Go Scots.

I feel the only not justifiable one is the bears, but hey Ditka man, dit stinkin ka.

Posted by holtonian at October 1, 2006 11:27 PM | TrackBack