Patriots, Giants, Cowboys, and Bears cups are all for sale at a local “Lids”
Looking for something fun to do at the mall? Head into the nearest Lids, Reebok, or Champs Sports and check out how many different teams have gear for sale in the store. The answer will be just about all of them. There was a time when if you were from a particular place, you rooted for the teams from that place. It didn’t matter where your parents were from, it didn’t matter what teams were on national TV all the time, and it really didn’t matter who played for a team. I was brought up to love teams from Boston and to hate any others. While I have softened a little bit since I was ten (I now am a big Colorado Rockies fan), I can’t believe how many people I see go out of their way to make a statement through their sports fandom.
Bandwagon fans are the worst of all. I can’t believe how many people I’ve seen running around Boston in Tim Tebow jerseys lately. For all of you doing so (and you know who you are), you have commitment issues. I don’t have a problem with buying a Tebow jersey if you’re from Denver. After all, he is your starting quarterback. What I have a problem with is some punk kid blowing his allowance money on a shiny new jersey for a player who plays 2000 miles away from his home, simply because that player is the hot new thing. We saw the same thing in 2003 with Lebron James and in 2008 with Matt Ryan. I just don’t get why some people insist on falling in love with the hot new thing in sports, because nine out of ten times, the TEAM you root for will always succeed more than an individual.
When the Patriots played the Broncos a few weeks ago, there were tons of locals at the stadium sporting Tim Tebow jerseys. This is a classic example of the short attention spans most fair-weather fans possess. You need to stick with the team you’ve been brought up rooting for; it doesn’t matter how they do, or if the other teams have bigger stars. Nothing pains me more than when I see someone from Boston walking around in Yankees or Lakers gear. Some people just do it to be different, and some people do it for some stupid reason such as family heritage. The bottom line is: if you’ve lived in a certain area for your entire life, you should be legally obligated to root for the teams in that area. Anyone that walks around my city in a Broncos jersey should be immediately detained and deported to Denver.