Homerism

[dave416]

I live in Philadelphia and have been a Bengals fan my whole life. I can't explain it, I just enjoyed watching Boomer and Ickey play when I was little. I am not anti-Eagles, just somewhat indifferent towards them. Nothing wrong with being a fan of the hometown team, as long as you stick with them. When the Eagles made the SB last year, I was amazed with the amount of bandwagon jumpers. Many of them couldn't name 5 players on the team, or were not even football fans for that matter. "Yep, I can't wait for the game. There is no way they will lose with McNabb, Owens, and that Westingbrook guy." (In many cases, they are the only 3 players anyone knew) I know there is always bandwagoners, it is just a shame that they try to come off as real fans when others stuck with the team the whole year.

See, I knew what I was talking about...there is another example I should add for my commentary. I should submit that to a newspaper or something.

You know it.

[Flockers]

I usually follow two teams.

The local team, and another team for whatever reason whether it be players, team values, etc etc.

This is what I do too. The Vikes are the local team, and Shaun Alexander is my favorite player, thus I like the Seahawks. I don't have a true favorite team. For the most part I like all the teams in the NFL except the Browns and Packers. You couldn't pay me enough to root for them.

I just like football.

[Tiki]

I believe I'm an ODB... .

You're and Ol' Dirty Bastard!?

[MCG321]

When my family moved to central PA, it amazed me how many Eagles, Steelers and Penn State fans there were. A large percentage of them, when asked, had only one reason for rooting for them -- they were local.

Quick note: As far as PSU fans go, one in every eight Pennsylvanians with a college degree went to Penn State, so that explains the overwhelming number of PSU fans.

[Canacuna]

"HB's" (as we'll title them) are normally not even sports fans at all. Most of the time they just happen to realize that the team they live closest to is starting to play well, and other actual sports fans (most likely "homers") are talking more and more about the team. Because they want to appear in the know, "HB's" start to pick up on what the team is doing and attempt to act like "homers." They will buy all sorts of pennants, bumper stickers, shirts, etc. to try to enhance their image as a fan of their hometown heroes...all the while not really caring a bit about the sport or knowing much about the players involved. You're lucky if an "HB" even knows the name of the top QB, RB, and WR of their football team.

That sounds like what went down during the Mariners 116-win season. It's a lot easier to upgrade your seat at Safeco Field these days...

Anyway, I grew up watchin' the local teams - Seahawks, Mariners, Sonics... my dad would always have the games playing and I started getting into 'em. I've stuck with 'em through the hard times and in their few moments of awesomeness, I've been there too.

[J2thez929]

while i do pull heavily for seattle...and its considered my home team (still 3 hours from my house), my other 2 fav teams are about as far away from oregon as you can get (baltimore and tampa). i actually dislike almost every westcoast team except the seahawks.

Wow, and I always thought you were from the Baltimore area. Hmmm, so your a Hawks fan too. I would have never guess it from all the Raven's stuff you have

[confused_jake]

As far as baseball goes i was an ODB. My dad was a huge dodger fan so from the time i was born thats what i thought. I still believe i cursed them though. the year i was born was the last year they won the world series('88). As far as football goes, i like the ravens because of my favorite player (see sig if you dont know who it is). I thought he was a great player, so i started paying more attention to the ravens. Then i started liking everyone else.

[maddog60]

I'm one of those "local" fans. I was born in Philly, and easily 90% of my entire family (maybe a few 2nd cousins excluded) lived in Philadelphia. My parents took me to Philadelphia sports games since before I can even remember.

Since day 1 I've been a Phillies, Flyers, and Eagles fan. And it really is a loyalty thing. Despite having been raised in the Poconos, before moving to Philly for college, I considered myself a Philadelphian. Perhaps it had to do with everyone else in my neighborhood having been from NJ or NYC that made me identify so strongly with my birthplace, but its not that important anymore.

I can't see myself ever not being a Philly fan. It's not really that I feel any of these athletes represent the city, but there is definitely a hometown pride in a successful sports team, and I think that's why I at least stay loyal to Philadelphia sports teams. I went through the excitement of Mitch Williams and Lenny Dykstra when Phillies almost won the World Series, and I've unfortunately bore witness to the failures that followed. I cheered on the Crazy 8's and Brindamor(sp?) for years, only to suffer the pain of a sweep by the Redwings, and a downward spiral that followed. And I unabashedly proclaim the Eagles for all their current glory, having rooted for them through Ray Rhodes, Ricky Watters, and Bubby Brister. After all that, they've become fond memories, and it would make the win all the sweeter to one day see any of these teams win a championship than if I just picked a team out of the blue.

[hastur]

Good breakdown Mercer!

Something that crossed my mind: Decades ago in the 20's, 30's, and 40's, the players had other jobs(taxi drivers, delivery men, construction workers, etc...) because they only got paid enough money per game to buy dinner that night. They were regular family men. They had neighbors, friends, and co-workers. They told each of these people to come see the games so the team would generate money, in the hopes of them being paid more.

Thus, people would go to the local games(how easy would it have been to go to another city to watch a team play?). Remember, this was before T.V. People would 'root' for the local guys("Our guys are better than X cities guys), in essence rooting for the local team.

Now, the children of the people rooting for the local guys grew up knowing their father/father figure liked the local team. They, being normal kids, wanted to impress and please their parents. One way was to root for the team their Dad was rooting for.

Fast forward 60 years. Rabid fans cheering on the local team.

Did that make any sense?



Now, according to Mercer, I'm also an OBD. Live in Jersey, but grew up watching my older(8 years) brother cheering on the cowboys. I always looked up to him, hence my love of the cowboys through thick(Aikman, Smith, Lilly, Starbuck) and thin(too many to name, lets just say '83-'90, '97-'04)

[SeaWolf]

"HB's" (as we'll title them) are normally not even sports fans at all. Most of the time they just happen to realize that the team they live closest to is starting to play well, and other actual sports fans (most likely "homers") are talking more and more about the team. Because they want to appear in the know, "HB's" start to pick up on what the team is doing and attempt to act like "homers." They will buy all sorts of pennants, bumper stickers, shirts, etc. to try to enhance their image as a fan of their hometown heroes...all the while not really caring a bit about the sport or knowing much about the players involved. You're lucky if an "HB" even knows the name of the top QB, RB, and WR of their football team.

That sounds like what went down during the Mariners 116-win season. It's a lot easier to upgrade your seat at Safeco Field these days...

Anyway, I grew up watchin' the local teams - Seahawks, Mariners, Sonics... my dad would always have the games playing and I started getting into 'em. I've stuck with 'em through the hard times and in their few moments of awesomeness, I've been there too.

Go back even futher Cuna. O remember even in early '95 the Mariner games were well under 20,000 a game and that was a good night. It wasn't until "Rufuse to Lose" at the end of '95 that most people in Seattle knew the Mariners existed. I use to go to the first home game of every season, '96 ruined that. I haven't been to an opening day since.