Who is your team?

[JeffreyMiller]

Buffalo Bills, first game Miami at Buffalo, War Memorial Stadium, 1971. OJ Simpson, Nick Buoniconti, Larry Lttle, Bob Giese, Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield, Don Shula .… Bills lost, but I didn't care …

[Citizen]

I began cheering for the Packers right after Lombardi left, which meant living and dying with 25 years of dysfunction, incompetence, and complacency. The ensuing quarter century has more than made up for the anguish.

[74_75_78_79_]

My handle, and profile pic, should simply answer the question. Not a sports-fan at all in the '70s. I knew my Dad was a Steelers-fan and do remember a 'big game' being on in the living room - all four grandparents, I believe, were over - while 2nd-grade me was running around the rest of the house playing SW action-figures. Would find out soon afterwards it was...SBXIII!! Not until a few weeks into the 1980 season that 4th-grade me started following (yeah, perfect timing for this, here, Steeler-fan; and so the 25-year-wait began), and what a 'quick study' I became; raiding the sports-books-section of my school's library (SI mags as well) and knowing more about the NFL than my liking-and-playing-sports-for-years peers. That March, the girls in my class were complaining at me for always talking about football. Some of the guys too, including my best friend who pulled me aside and asked, "When baseball starts in a few months, are you still going to be talking about football?" And from there, it was "Let's go Yanks!" Perfect-timing as well for 1) my first baseball season being...a strike!, 2) Fernando Valenzuela that October, and 3) a 15-year-wait ahead!

College ball it's Nittany Lions! Like, pretty much, all the sports teams I've rooted for in my life, my Dad inspired me rooting for them. Never was the 'rebel' who rooted for my own team though my Dad suggested it. He'd say, "Pick a team that's bad and stick with them. Then when they start doing good, you feel good." I ignored the advice although my Dad never was as into baseball like with the other sports. Two friends early on (one of them that 4th-grade classmate) got me rooting for the Pinstripes. But my Dad did 'root' for them against the Dodgers in that (rather forget about it) WS, so that sealed the deal as well. As for PSU, I look back fondly of '82 although, yes, a bad-call vs Nebraska being the reason why it was they who got the chance to play #1 unbeaten Georgia instead. 'Poetic justice', perhaps, 12 years later when unbeaten #2 PSU wasn't even given the opportunity to play also-unbeaten #1 Huskers. Look back even-more fondly of that Fiesta Bowl following the '86 season! Yes, that scandal decades later...I don't apologize for anyone involved nor am I in denial about what happened. Not at all. I simply understand that there was Penn State football way before the scandal, and will be for eons afterwards; so I stuck with the Blue and White.

Didn't follow the USFL too much but have a feeling I would have ended up soon enough had it lasted. I 'rooted' for the Stars. This, even before their very '83 opener at Denver. But have a feeling I would have 'defected' to the Maulers in time. Funny, (back to the NFL) but I actually rooted for the Eagles as well into the early-'90s. Now if both were to ever actually have played each other in a Super Bowl, I would have rooted for the 'Burgh. But if, say, the Birds were playing for a playoff spot and the Steelers were already out - as the case in '88 - I would have, and did, actually root for Philly! But sometime before the '93 season, an 'adult'-decision had to be made (you really can't root for...both), so it was strictly Steelers there-on-out. A major anomaly in my sports-fan history was...that I actually rooted for the Chargers in '82 (yes, I actually rooted for them that 1st-Rd game vs my now-'2nd-favorite' team)! But that was just a 'fling'. Yes, what helped get me back-to-my-senses was SD suddenly being bad beginning of the following year, but it would have waned/ended in either event. I seriously go long periods at a time forgetting all about it; and not a case of willingly-forgetting, but simply forgetting-period. Was just a 6th-grade anomaly. I look back at that 1st Rd game very upset that Steelers didn't advance, as well as it being Terry's last playoff game and it ending with he being booed.

And in my thus-far sub-sub-casual following of the CFL, it's pretty much been the BC Lions. Reading the sports-pages for the very first time starting that autumn of 1980, simply looking at the CFL standings, I looked at the teams and saw 'British Columbia'...I liked the 'look' of the wording, so 'picked' them. A few years back, I actually watched a Lions game on TV. It was their fifth loss that season, bringing them to 0-5! But something told me that they were much better than that. I saw some team-speed, some swagger in defeat. Don't ask, but I felt that they could possibly rally. And rally they did...ALL the way to a Grey Cup Title that very season! As I said before, as soon as CFL adds another team or two - or, perhaps, limits the amount of playoff teams to under half - I may fully buckle myself in.

[JohnH19]

I remember they were on the brink of moving and...nobody really cared (not that any team should have been moved to St. Louis which is just not a dedicated football town)

That just shows you how they were thought of in the NE/Boston area before this last two decades of nonsense. They were considered the fourth wheel. Not many people cared about them. And, after Belichick leaves (Brady is a cog in the wheel, not the main part. They have had a winning record there with Cassel, Jimmy G, and Brissett starting), it will probably go back to that eventually.

Of course, they were 5-13 with Bledsoe.

Comparing the winning records of Cassel, Garoppolo and Brissett to Brady’s winning record is beyond absurd.

[CraigRye]

Being English and growing up here I didn't have any exposure to NFL football until 1982 when it started to appear on British TV with a weekly highlight programme on the following Sunday night after the weeks games

I cant really remember it until the 1984 season when I started rooting for the Miami Dolphins and the amazing Dan Marino. I started supporting Miami because I had just seen the film Semi-Tough with Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson which is about a Miami team.

So my main era is the Dolphins with Marino, Shula in the 80s and 90s. My favourite player though was Jim "Crash" Jensen who was Mr 3rd down and a version of Taysom Hill of the Saints as he seemed to do everything.

I'd already started to get interested in the Dolphins history and the 1972 undefeated season, so the game I remember the most from that time is the game against the undefeated Bears in 1985 and also the game against the Browns in the playoffs.

Still support the Dolphins obsessively although its been very tough.

[TanksAndSpartans]

I thought of Jensen watching the recent Saints/Vikings playoff game as well.

[7DnBrnc53]

Comparing the winning records of Cassel, Garoppolo and Brissett to Brady’s winning record is beyond absurd.

It shows that they can win without Brady. Now, Pats fans say that they went 11-5 with Cassel and 16-0 with Brady, but the AFC East was tougher in 2008. And, the Pats weren't running up the score because they were having a hissyfit over Spygate.

[sheajets]

Comparing the winning records of Cassel, Garoppolo and Brissett to Brady’s winning record is beyond absurd.

It shows that they can win without Brady. Now, Pats fans say that they went 11-5 with Cassel and 16-0 with Brady, but the AFC East was tougher in 2008. And, the Pats weren't running up the score because they were having a hissyfit over Spygate.

Running it up on Joe Gibbs in 2007 was disgusting behavior

[sluggermatt15]

I grew up in Western PA, went to college at Pitt, and have followed the Steelers ever since. I remember watching games on tv as early as the mid-1990s. One of my favorite players growing up was Jerome Bettis. Loved watching him run the football. I'll always be a Steelers fan and a Pitt Panthers fan.

I also try to follow the local teams. I spent time in Maryland/DC and got accustomed to the Redskins and Maryland Terrapins for a few years. Right now in the Bayou State where LSU is king and the Saints are the state's pro team of choice. I've also attended a couple McNeese Cowboys football games.

[Ronfitch]

I began cheering for the Packers right after Lombardi left, which meant living and dying with 25 years of dysfunction, incompetence, and complacency. The ensuing quarter century has more than made up for the anguish.

That sound familiar. First season I recall was '71, then Devine traded Donny Anderson for Mac Lane and that '72 season with the big back backfield. In '73, my mom bought a pocket paperback of "Instant Replay" for me and it was all over for me. Spent much of my time at the public library in the 796s of the non-fiction stacks after that - not many Packer games on TV in northeast Iowa in the '70s.