Sorry, I'm not a Yinzer....

It’s always interesting to me to hear how fans grew to love the teams they do. Most stories revolve around growing up watching local teams on TV with fathers. But some vary slightly, especially for those that may have moved around a few times when they were younger, like myself.

Sure, everyone in Pittsburgh should be a Steelers fan. It’s only natural. That’s the team you can go see consistently in person and so that’s who you should root for. By that regard, it makes sense to waive those stupid terrible towels every Sunday. But what if they stunk consistently for a decade? Then what?

Logically, die hard fans would say it doesn’t matter if your team is terrible for a century, it’s still your team. I agree with that completely, trust me. Since 1990, I’ve seen the downfall of nearly every one of my favorite teams. But here’s where I, and several sports fans around the nation, are different: I don’t root for the home team.

That doesn’t mean I root against our local teams. I enjoy attending Penguin and Pirate games and I root just as hard for them as anyone else in attendance, just not when they’re playing my boys. And somehow, I feel like I'm forced to feel guilty about that. And I shouldn’t.

I’ve been a Minnesota Vikings fan since I was a child. I’ve never been to Minnesota once, though. It started with a trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame with my old neighbor from Youngstown (Raiders Fan fyi) and his brother (a Vikings fan). My dad was trying, unsuccessfully as it turns out, to raise me to be a Redskins fan, so my neighbor's brother thought it would be a great idea to get under my dad's skin by showering me with gifts for the purple and yellow. Well, keeping in mind I was only 6 years old, I loved the tough looking Viking mascot and the nice little hat with the horns and pigtails, so I was instantly hooked. So I was the only Vikings fan I knew for years growing up, and that made me that much more of a die-hard. Knowing that the Vikings were MY team, and the rest of my surrounding world was against me, made me yearn for their victories that much more.

I’ve been an Atlanta Braves fan since I even understood fully what baseball was. This was quite simply the fact that I saw them each and every day on TBS, not really much to add to this because that's about the only reason I rooted for them. After perfecting the art of choking in the 90's this team made me realize they were destined to be MY team. My stubbornness has kept me a fan to this day.

Now as you can see so far I'm not a frontrunner, but I will admit that the sole reason I became a Chicago Blackhawks fan was because of the year they made their run to the Stanley Cup Finals back in 1992. This was only a year after I moved here to PA and before that I didn't even know what hockey was (Growing up in Oklahoma and Ohio will do that to a person). So, I didn't have a team obviously and going with the trend of rooting for teams outside of the local teams, I chose to root for Chicago in the hopes they could beat the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. Well, four games later that proved to be way off, and for the subsequent seasons after (years of failure for the Hawks), I realized this team was just like my others. Loveable losers! Chicago is finally on the brink of being great again, but I know my teams, they'll find a way to break my heart.

I root for Michigan and Oklahoma in college sports. Did I go to either school? No. I went to Slippery Rock University.....for 3 years. My passion for Michigan began about 2 years after I started rooting for the Vikings. I believe it was an Ohio State-Michigan game that my Dad was watching, when I noticed how "cool" the helmets were that Michigan had on. I thought the horns somewhat resembled those my beloved Vikings had on theirs, so I asked my Dad who that team was. He looked at me and said, "Don't you ever root for Meeechigan" Well...so much for that..ha ha! Oklahoma allegiance is strictly because they are the only original hometown team of mine, so I cheer them on whenever possible. Should OU and Big Blue ever meet, well go Wolverines!

I could rattle off the teams I have a soft spot for even further, but you get the gist. I’m not a true hometown fan, bottom line. Why would I make a switch based solely on where I live? Am I supposed to "switch" teams everytime I move? That would totally demean everything that sports is supposed to be about.

So what's the problem rooting for any team you want? Why do you automatically have to be for your hometown's team? What if you don't like your hometown? What if the hometown team is full of druggies and thugs? After all, nobody has any control over where they're born. They don't get to choose their country and certainly not their town or city. This is why I've never understood why I get blasted for not rooting for the Steelers? Why, because I was actually man enough to do something on my own without following what everyone else is doing?

I've never understood the "reasoning" behind rooting for the team geographically closest. If you're an American you can root for whoever you want. I just don't get it. Geographic proximity makes no sense in regard to allegiance to sports teams. If you live in Alaska, are you going to be for the Russian national hockey team in the Winter Olympics instead of the American team? Well, if you follow the principle of geographic proximity you sure will.