What sports teams/franchises/clubs do you like and why?

[Ryan]

I think the old board had one of these, but what the hell. I'm sure most of it's geographical.

 

I'm a fan of the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers in Football and the Milwaukee Brewers in baseball. It's basically because there's nothing else around here and I grew up with people that watched them and went to a lot of games in the case of the Badgers and Brewers. I also somewhat follow a few other state teams like the Bucks, but don't care all that much about them.

[Assassin]

College SportsFootball - Nebraska

Basketball - UMass 

Honestly, I started liking these teams when they were on top in early 1996, and they happened to win the first games in each sport I ever watched.  Had Florida beat Nebraska, and Kentucky beat UMass this would be a completely different list. My UMass fandom often takes a backseat simply because of the logistics, and ability to watch the games, but I follow them closely via box scores.

 

MLB

Cleveland Indians

Seattle Mariners

 

Indians because they are local, and the Mariners because my favorite player (Ken Griffey Jr.) played there, and after he was traded to Cincinnati I decided I couldn't possibly be a fan of two professional teams in the same state, so I just stuck with the Mariners.

 

NBA

Cleveland Cavaliers

Denver Nuggets

 

Cavs due to location, and although I had a complete meltdown during the 2010-11 season when I quit enjoying the team, I came back pretty quickly after. I've never really been sure where the Nuggets fandom comes from, but I remember telling someone in 2007 that I liked the Nuggets, and I've just sort of stuck with them. (Aside: I am still a LeBron fan, and never really actively disliked him after he left. I just can't stand Dwyane Wade.)

 

NFL

NONE

 

I am an NFL Atheist after cutting all ties with the Browns following the 2006 NFL Season. I attempted to find another team to root for, but nothing really stuck, so I just sort of watch without any rooting interest.

 

NHL

Colorado Avalanche

 

I was a Montreal Canadiens fan until they traded Patrick Roy to the Avs, and just sort of followed along with him.  (Keeping in mind I was eight years old at the time, and really had no clue what a "trade," or anything was, I just followed my favorite player.)

 

Randoms

CFL - Toronto Argonauts (They played Eric Crouch at QB on my 18th birthday, for that they will always be my favorite.)

Soccer - Tottenham Hotspur (I very rarely watch soccer, but I got on their bandwagon after using them a lot in FIFA 2006, and again in Football Manager that year.)

Cricket - BANGLADESH. (THE BEST)

 

Essentially all my sports fan loyalties come almost exclusively from how I perceived things in 1996.

[Brian Fowler]

Detroit baby.

And Michigan.

[Ryan]

That's the most shocking revelation I've ever read.

[Brian Fowler]

I know, I tend to keep it to myself.

[Serious Darius Bagfelt]

Hockey always have been a Boston Bruins fan.  When I was a kid loved the Don Cherry led Big Bad Bruin teams.  Should have won more but the Habs were unreal back then.

 

Baseball Toronto Blue Jays since they are the local team.  Pittsburgh was my National League team since the 1979 World Series was the first series I really got into since my Dad never had baseball on the TV and he let me watch some of that.  They were a great team

 

Football Oakland Raiders and the Hamilton ti-Cats.  Raiders probably because of the renegade image.  Dont know why I gravitated to the Ti-Cats.  Probably because they wore black and yellow like the Bruins.

 

Never liked basketball too much just liked certain players.  Julius Erving was my fav player as a kid.  Strange I dont like basketball since the first live sporting event I saw was a Buffalo Braves game when I was 5.

 

Never got too into soccer but went to a few Toronto Blizzard games back in the day

[muhammedboehm]

NFL: KC Chiefs

College Football: Texas A&M

College Basketball: Kansas

EPL: Tottenham Hotspurs

Chiefs is cause I live in KC same with KU. A&M has to do with remembering watching there games specifically the former day after thanksgiving A&M vs Texas game. Spurs are the team of a good friend and when he got me into EPL I just went with them.

[Raziel]

College: Michigan - Just happened.

 

NFL: Eagles - Watched games growing up with my Grandfather when there was no national contract, all he got was the Philly stations over air, so on Sundays, we watched the Eagles.

 

MLB: Yankees

NHL: Rangers

MLS: Red Bulls

 

All Geographical

 

NBA: Spurs - Was a fan of Robinson back in the day, just stuck with the team when I follow NBA.

 

EPL: Manchester United - It was the team I saw the most of getting into Soccer and I latched on, since honestly, they're similar to the Yankees.

[RandomAct]

NBA---Mavs, obvi.  In the post Jordan NBA I REALLY lost interest.  I hated what the league had become, and the move to ABC didn't help.  Then I saw Finlay/Nash/Dirk play together, and for the first time I was like "this is my team".  11 years later, here we are.  If I had a #2 it would be the Bobcats for geography reasons.

 

College basketball--I don't have a team that I am diehard about, but I usually lean towards Mississippi State, just because I was born and raised in Mississippi.

 

College Football--Alabama.  The very first football game I watched was the Bama-Miami national championship game, and I just stuck with them ever since.  I also lived in Alabama during this time for a couple of years.

 

I don't really follow the NFL anymore.  I find NFL football to be passionless and boring now.  Sorry.  I'm sure I would still watch it if I had a team I cared about.  The last time I really cared was during the Titans run to the Super Bowl because I was such a big Steve McNair fan.

 

Baseball--Braves fan since I was a little kid.  They were the closest we had to a "home team" in Mississippi, so we were all fans.

 

I'll throw in boxing too, because I'm a huge fan of Juan Manuel Marquez!

[Tabe]

Mine:

 

Baseball:

  - Detroit TIgers.  My #1 team.  I grew up in Michigan.  'nuff said.

  - Atlanta Braves.  When we got cable in 1982, these guys were on TV 147 times (literally).  When there was nothing else on - which was a lot back in 1982 - the Braves were great to watch.  They were good and their announcers were funny.  When I got married, I learned I was marrying into a Braves family.  My brother-in-law played in their farm system so I'd have to be a fan now if I wasn't before.

  - St. Louis Cardinals - These guys are a distant third.  I grew up loving their uniforms and that's never changed.

 

Football:

  - Detroit Lions.  My #1 team.  I grew up in Michigan, 5 minutes from the Silverdome.  'nuff said.

  - New England Patriots.  They've got a Michigan guy at QB and their uniforms rock. 

 

Basketball:

  - Detroit Pistons, I guess.  I don't really care about the NBA and really haven't since the rules and defense changes in the mid-90s

 

Hockey:

  - Detroit Red Wings.  I grew up in Michigan.  Steve Yzerman is my all-time sports idol.  The Red Wings are my #1 team across all sports.  Yet, strangely, I've never seen a game in-person.

 

College Basketball:

  - Gonzaga.  I live in Spokane.  I've met John Stockton.

  - Michigan.  I was a huge fan when they won in 1989 (Glen Rice - still the best NCAA tourney performance ever).  Then they brought in the Jackass Five and started cheating like crazy and they lost me for 2 decades.  Last year's team brought me around and I became a fan again.  Oddly enough, I found myself rooting against them in the NCAA Finals last year.  See, if Louisville won, I won my NCAA office pool (2 years in a row baby!) and a couple hundred bucks.  Weird rooting against one of my teams but, hey, money talks.  Was gonna be happy either way but it's easier when you're a couple hundred bucks richer.  Nearly got in a fight with my brother-in-law over it though

 

College Football:

  - Michigan.  My #2 team across all sports.  Growing up in Michigan, you either like U of M or MSU.  I liked Michigan.  They were good, they had better uniforms and, well, yeah, that was enough.

  - Boise State.  This is a regional thing, plus I love the blue turf and the amazing success they've had.

  - Oregon.  I've always been a fan of fast break football.  Just wish they were a little tougher.

 

Minor League Baseball:

  - Spokane Indians.  We live in Spokane and have season tickets.  I have more Spokane jerseys than any other two teams combined.

[Craig H]

MLB: Cubs, duh. I was basically born and raised as a Cubs fan. I also tend to favor the Indians and Braves for kinda dumb reasons. The Indians because of Major League and they're a bunch of losers like the Cubs, and I followed the Braves when Maddux went there and they're always the team I wind up rooting for in the postseason when the Cubs aren't there.

 

NFL: Colts and Bears. Colts because of my brother, who even got me a kid sized Unitas jersey when I was a kid and that was my Halloween costume one year. Bears because of the rest of my family bringing me up to like them and it just stuck.

 

NHL: Blackhawks. Fuck every other team.

 

NBA: DAAAAAAAAAAAA BULLS. Duh.

 

College Football: Notre Dame, duh. I mean, come on, I live practically a few minutes away from the campus. It's in my blood.

 

College Basketball: Notre Dame and Michigan State. Before meeting my wife, I was a fan of what Michigan State was doing each year and how they recruit their players in state. My wife is from the Lansing area and is also a Michigan State fan.

[Burgundy LaRue]

Baseball:  NONE

 

College Basketball: NONE

 

Hockey: NONE

 

Soccer: NONE

 

College Football: I follow the SEC in general

 

NBA: Lakers until a few years ago

 

NFL: Colts

 

Racing: I don't follow NASCAR.  I tried to keep up with F1, but no success

 

Boxing/MMA:  Nope

[Dolfan in NYC]

Baseball: 

 

Football: 

 

Hockey:  

(Note: Not the Rangers)

 

College Football: 

 

Basketball: 

[Ryan]

You poor, poor soul.

[Niners Fan in CT]

49ers - Not really sure how it even came about. I think I was watching Monday Night Football one night as a little kid and picked them. I was probably 4-years old. I'm a crazy fan. I've owned any kind of 49ers sports wear, clothing, water bottles, sneakers, anything you can think of..

 

Braves - My brother and I were huge Braves fans growing up watching them on TBS. Braves and WCW Saturday Night... hard to beat that.  I used to watch at least 80-100 games a year but I've fallen out of baseball a bit as the years have gone on and now it's more difficult to watch the Braves since they aren't on TBS anymore.

 

Red Sox - I wouldn't say they are my "AL Team" but I like for them to do well because my father loves them and I know more about the Sox/Yanks than any teams besides Atlanta. I watch a lot of YES and NESN so...

 

Celtics - Local team. Nothing more to it than that. When I was growing up and they were terrible a lot of years I was just a "Jordan kid". Paul Pierce is my all-time Celtic.

 

Universities - UConn but there's others I like and/or follow for various reasons, Florida, Kansas.

 

Penguins - Thankfully I can watch more hockey now, I don't post much in the actual forum because I still don't understand some of the rules/concepts, I liked the Penguins dating back to an old SNES game I had where I would use them all the time..  I literally knew nothing about hockey until I bought that game.

[mco543]

NHL: Florida Panthers, I also root for Detroit since my family is from there

Professional basketball: Miami Heat and a little bit for Boston due to that being my Dad's team and in Europe I support Maccabi Tel Aviv. Even though I like the Wings and Tigers I'm not really much of a Pistons fan, in fact I hated those early-mid 2000's teams that  made a 4 point lead feel like 20.

MLB: Marlins and Tigers since my family is from Detroit

 

I'm really all over the board with college, in football I've always rooted for Florida State even though Miami is a lot closer and I was a huge gigantic Penn State fan but then the scandal happened and the NCAA essentially wiped out everything from the year I became a PSU fan until then a year or so ago and I took it as a sign to bail out since nothing I saw pretty much counted or mattered anymore.

 

In basketball I'm a huge UConn fan, I was a pretty strong Big East supporter but since they made the conference changes I have to rethink and figure it all out, I pretty much rooted for any Big East team that wasn't Rutgers or recently Syracuse. I also root for Wichita State, Maryland since I've had several friends go there, and North Carolina State because my Dad wrestled there collegiately.

[Gonzo]

All of the "Big 4" sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) - Minnesota everything. Because North Dakota doesn't have any big league sports teams, and Minnesota is closest.

 

Stopped giving a crap about the NHL when the North Stars moved (and Norm Green still sucks, if you were curious), started again when the Wild were established.

 

Kind of liked the Celtics before the Timberwolves came along, but that might have stemmed from being more of a fan of Larry Bird than anything.

 

College football. . .never had a huge rooting interest, largely for the same reasons as detailed above (though NDSU has been a great D-II/FCS program for most of the time I've been a sports fan), but writing about the Gophers for a stretch has kind of pushed me in that direction. I do more or less follow the Big Ten as a whole, though.

[elizium]

For the official catalogue:

 

Obviously the local teams. The Jets (NHL) primarily, as the Blue Bombers (CFL) piss me off to no end, and are a strong candidate for one of the worst run franchises in sports. I still fucking love them though. I love baseball, but I wouldn't say I especially follow the Goldeyes (American Association, with the St. Paul Saints and Sioux City Explorers), but it is fun to waste the odd Summer Sunday getting drunk at the ball park and watch independent baseball. Our ballpark is gorgeous too. It's nice if they win, but I'm never especially broken up if they don't.

 

In the NFL, it's the Packers and no one else. I was born into it, my dad grew up a Packers fan in the 50s and 60s, so I spent my childhood growing up hearing stories about them. I was 12 when I started actually really started trying to follow football, that was the same year that Brett Favre replaced the injured Don Majkowski and football has been my favourite sport since.

 

For MLB, it was the Expos. Growing up, every kid I knew loved the Blue Jays, so I went the other way. When they left, I still watched baseball, but didn't really support any one team. I like when the small market teams do well, so the Twins and A's and such. I finally relented and started supporting the Jays a few years ago, as its just much more fun to have a team to root for and they are definitely the easiest to follow in Canada. It helped that Jose Bautista is cool as shit.

 

I unno, I guess that's the main ones. Canada, England, Ukraine in international events.

[Hoffman]

I root for the local big league teams, the Cardinals and the Blues.  I half-heartedly follow the Rams, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Football Cardinals.  They're like a childhood crush that moved away, and after reconnecting, a strong platonic friendship is formed when you realize that you're still stuck with the Rams and she's still stuck with the Bidwill family.

 

For minor league baseball, I'm a big fan of the independent Gateway Grizzlies.  Everyone else in St. Louis goes over to Sauget for the rock music and nekkid ladies, I go for my designated hitter fix and to see kids in gigantic eyeball costumes race each other between innings.  Oh, and the Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburgers.

[Super Ape]

I've actually soured on most sports on the professional level, actually, and think I might be on my way out of sports fandom, but let's give this a try.

Mostly based on geographical ties being from Philly, yeah. But I soured on the Eagles after they signed Vick, gave up on the NBA after I decided that watching one scripted spectacle masquerading as sport was enough, and finally had enough of the NHL's bullshit.

I used to follow the Union in MLS, but the guy who used to take me to games left his girlfriend, who is a friend of my wife, so that isn't happening anymore, and I just can't be bothered to follow them. Followed Liverpool in EPL, but can't be bothered to try now.

Used to follow Temple U for all sports, as well as the service academies, but swore off all college sports after the NCAA gave Penn State anything less than the death penalty in the aftermath of the Sandusky scandal.

So now I'm basically stuck with baseball, and Ruben Amaro is not making this shit easy. Ugh.

[Vincey Greene]

NFL FOOTBALL: I grew up a 49ers fan because one of the first NFL memories I have is one of their Super Bowls with the Bengals, and because the closest team to me geographically was the detestable Atlanta Falcons. I currently - doy - am a Panthers fan because I grew up in SC. I've seen all but perhaps 10-15 games in their history.

 

NBA BASKETBALL: Lakers. Again, there was no legit local team. When I was a kid, I liked the Bulls because anyone born between 1975-1985 liked the Bulls. I kinda root for the Nets now because I live in Brooklyn, but there's no heart behind that, I don't truthfully care about them.

 

MLB Baseball: YANKEES. I live in NYC, why not root for the greatest team in all of sports? I grew up a big Atlanta Braves fan however.

 

NCAA FOOTBALL: Eh, just wanna see a good game. I guess South Carolina, because Spurrier and because they're not Clem-zin.

 

NCAA BASKETBALL: Duke, because I don't care that much about it.

 

HOCKEY: I liked the Avs as a kid, but I don't give half a shit about hockey.

[elizium]

I root for the local big league teams, the Cardinals and the Blues.  I half-heartedly follow the Rams, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Football Cardinals.  They're like a childhood crush that moved away, and after reconnecting, a strong platonic friendship is formed when you realize that you're still stuck with the Rams and she's still stuck with the Bidwill family.

 

That is just a fantastic analogy.

[JRGoldman]

Basketball and football are both Cleveland based, because I'm a proud son of Cleveland. My mom moved to Springfield Missouri when I was still a kid, so I started following the Cards so we would have something we could be in to together when we saw each other. As I've gotten older, baseball has become my favorite sport, so I live and die with the Cards a little more than I do Cleveland sports.

My mother is Australian and a big racing fan, so any Aussie F1 driver is supported heavily by us.

[Jerry Hattrick]

NCAA-Ohio State

 

NFL-Miami Dolphins /Jacksonville Jaguars (Soft spots for the Bengals and Lions)

 

NBA-Cleveland Cavaliers

 

MLB-Cincinnati Reds/Boston Redsox

[tystates]

Living in central PA we are Pittsburgh fans, Steelers and Pirates. I like the Penguins but really don't care about hockey. I've been a Lakers fan since Magic Johnson's rookie year. College team is Penn State.