Poli
09-25-2006, 03:52 AM
Just posted about my team loyalties elsewhere.
UT 1st. SEC 2nd. South 3rd. Any team playing ND 4th.
Schmidty is obviously upset right now and I was last year with UT's demise...yet I'm still a devoted UT fan and I know Schmidty will rebound as well. Still I ribbed him a bit by offering him to be a Vols fan. I know he wouldn't take me up on it. Besides, I would never give away a Tennessee hat! This all got me thinking, not necessarily about my loyalty to UT, but more about loyalties to teams in general.
I've met people who have multiple favorite college teams. IE, "I'm a Notre Dame football fan and a Duke basketball fan." "I'm a fan of all Florida teams" (which is the biggest cop out known to man, why not say I'm a fan of any team along the east coast that is currently in a position to win a title?). I'm sure we have those types here. I don't get it. Stick with one school. Show a little devotion. Don't cheer for a team just because they're doing well. Be a real fan.
While I have the SEC and South listed, you won't find me buying Bama, Gator, or FSU merchandise anytime soon. If they win a title, you won't find me thumping my chest saying we're #1. I want SEC teams to do well because that makes the conference look better. That's my only interest in their game. I won't watch their game. I won't pour over their stats, unless we play them the next week. I'm looking at the final score. Did they win? Good for them. Did they lose? Dang it. That's the extent of it.
Now if SEC teams play each other, I'm for whatever mucks up the SEC East first (Go Bama, beat Florida), whatever mucks up the West second.
---
This also got me thinking about, of all things, high school football. I know some of us, SkyDog comes to mind immediately, are very passionate about their HS team (random thought, did SD go to school there?). I went to five high schools between the fall of 1990 and spring of 1994 (Call me Brent Schaeffer http://www.spsboard.com/SPS/Smileys/default/icon_rolleyes.gif) Bouncing between Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. I played football at the last two schools. One of the head coaches moved on to a "rival" school (Potosi, MO) two years ago (he's entering his third season now).
I find myself rooting for Potosi, as sick as it makes me feel when I think about it. I don't feel much of a connection to my old school North County, though my wife and I both graduated from North County, and we plan to live somewhere in the area when I get out of the Navy in 245 short days.
I have never been to a Potosi football game. I don't know where their high school is. I've been to just two Potosi games as a "fan" (oddly enough, one cheering for them, the other against them) and I played against them my senior year (the rat bastages beat us and ruined our playoff chances, we finished 8-2 on the year). Yet I find myself rooting for them now, just because my old coach is there.
North County has become my Notre Dame. They've lost two games from what I read on the internet, and I find myself making a fist at the computer and saying a Napoleon Dynamitish "Yes!" when I find out. Why? They didn't fire my old coach. He had a winning record every year he was there. They did make life "difficult" for him, though, without going into much details. Of course, there's the fact I believe the new coach is a no talent asshat who only started coaching because his son was going playing football (and they didn't hire the lone assistant that was there the entire time as the head coach). The same man who was yelling at his defensive player from the top of the press box that there wasn't a flanker on the last play and he "SHOULD HAVE BEEN RUSHING THE PASSER!" I was standing beside him on top of the press box, looking for opponent tendencies, and I saw the flanker. The player was right, the coach was wrong. Yet the coach had that way about him...he was going to be right, no matter what. That man is now the head coach at my old high school. Yip.
I tentatively plan on helping my old coach in whatever capacity I can when I get back home next year. I have no idea what that will be right now (coaching, scouting, etc), or if it will even be possible (I need to secure employment first). My plan years ago was to help him at North County when I got out of the Navy, maybe even coach at North County if he wasn't there. No way I do that now.
Anyway, just a rant here in the mid morning about loyalties. I find it interesting that I'm loyal to UT teams no matter what (with the exception of that friggin volmallsucks.com), but I switched my high school allegiance immediately.
Go Vols, beat Memphis!
UT 1st. SEC 2nd. South 3rd. Any team playing ND 4th.
Schmidty is obviously upset right now and I was last year with UT's demise...yet I'm still a devoted UT fan and I know Schmidty will rebound as well. Still I ribbed him a bit by offering him to be a Vols fan. I know he wouldn't take me up on it. Besides, I would never give away a Tennessee hat! This all got me thinking, not necessarily about my loyalty to UT, but more about loyalties to teams in general.
I've met people who have multiple favorite college teams. IE, "I'm a Notre Dame football fan and a Duke basketball fan." "I'm a fan of all Florida teams" (which is the biggest cop out known to man, why not say I'm a fan of any team along the east coast that is currently in a position to win a title?). I'm sure we have those types here. I don't get it. Stick with one school. Show a little devotion. Don't cheer for a team just because they're doing well. Be a real fan.
While I have the SEC and South listed, you won't find me buying Bama, Gator, or FSU merchandise anytime soon. If they win a title, you won't find me thumping my chest saying we're #1. I want SEC teams to do well because that makes the conference look better. That's my only interest in their game. I won't watch their game. I won't pour over their stats, unless we play them the next week. I'm looking at the final score. Did they win? Good for them. Did they lose? Dang it. That's the extent of it.
Now if SEC teams play each other, I'm for whatever mucks up the SEC East first (Go Bama, beat Florida), whatever mucks up the West second.
---
This also got me thinking about, of all things, high school football. I know some of us, SkyDog comes to mind immediately, are very passionate about their HS team (random thought, did SD go to school there?). I went to five high schools between the fall of 1990 and spring of 1994 (Call me Brent Schaeffer http://www.spsboard.com/SPS/Smileys/default/icon_rolleyes.gif) Bouncing between Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. I played football at the last two schools. One of the head coaches moved on to a "rival" school (Potosi, MO) two years ago (he's entering his third season now).
I find myself rooting for Potosi, as sick as it makes me feel when I think about it. I don't feel much of a connection to my old school North County, though my wife and I both graduated from North County, and we plan to live somewhere in the area when I get out of the Navy in 245 short days.
I have never been to a Potosi football game. I don't know where their high school is. I've been to just two Potosi games as a "fan" (oddly enough, one cheering for them, the other against them) and I played against them my senior year (the rat bastages beat us and ruined our playoff chances, we finished 8-2 on the year). Yet I find myself rooting for them now, just because my old coach is there.
North County has become my Notre Dame. They've lost two games from what I read on the internet, and I find myself making a fist at the computer and saying a Napoleon Dynamitish "Yes!" when I find out. Why? They didn't fire my old coach. He had a winning record every year he was there. They did make life "difficult" for him, though, without going into much details. Of course, there's the fact I believe the new coach is a no talent asshat who only started coaching because his son was going playing football (and they didn't hire the lone assistant that was there the entire time as the head coach). The same man who was yelling at his defensive player from the top of the press box that there wasn't a flanker on the last play and he "SHOULD HAVE BEEN RUSHING THE PASSER!" I was standing beside him on top of the press box, looking for opponent tendencies, and I saw the flanker. The player was right, the coach was wrong. Yet the coach had that way about him...he was going to be right, no matter what. That man is now the head coach at my old high school. Yip.
I tentatively plan on helping my old coach in whatever capacity I can when I get back home next year. I have no idea what that will be right now (coaching, scouting, etc), or if it will even be possible (I need to secure employment first). My plan years ago was to help him at North County when I got out of the Navy, maybe even coach at North County if he wasn't there. No way I do that now.
Anyway, just a rant here in the mid morning about loyalties. I find it interesting that I'm loyal to UT teams no matter what (with the exception of that friggin volmallsucks.com), but I switched my high school allegiance immediately.
Go Vols, beat Memphis!