Since I was 5 or 6 I was a Calgary Flames fan. I was stoked when they won the cup. Shortly after they won the cup they started emptying their roster. Nieuwendyk left, Gilmour was traded and a few others left. I could deal with that. Then Macinnis left and I stopped being a fan.
Uh, actually it’s "We are? Penn State!!!
Turned in my Rams fan card after they left. Now I just cheer for whoever is playing the Raiders, Cowboys, Redskins or Giants (my dad grew up in Philly - I’m forced to hate them).
When the Bucs first started winning, I was watching them play the Vikings at a sports bar. The room as filled with purple clad Minnies except for one table with six Bucs fans, myself included After the Bucs held them to something like -6 yards in the first half, we were the only table making any noise. It was priceless! 
I don’t like any other teams, but I freaking hate the Vikings. And the Cowboys. I’ll stop hating the Raiders when Al Davis dons his last leisure suit, but until then I hate them too.
Hmm, let’s see. NASCAR-There is the 29, and then there is everyone else. 42 jackasses, and Kevin Harvick. Sure, life is tougher when your one true hero isn’t winning, but does Harvick get to root for someone else when he’s losing? He can’t, so neither can I. Of course, it’s almost as much fun to see Dale Jr finish poorly as it is to see Kevin win one. As much I as I rooted for his dad, I can’t stand Dale Jr. He’s a disapointment to the Earnhardt name.
NFL-There is only Kansas City. No one else to root for. No one else who should win. Just Kansas City. Every year since Super Bowl 4 has been a waste, because KC didn’t win it all. That’s it, that’s all, no more. And if either the Chiefs or Kevin Harvick do poorly, I suffer with them.
A Red Sox and Mets fan after the mafia fixed game 6 of the 86’ World Series?
You say whenever you want… I’m still eating my Flutie Flakes
Hail to the Redskins!
Hail Vic-to-ry!
Braves on the warpath,
Fight for old D.C.!
Run or pass and score
We want a lot more!
Beat 'em Swamp 'em Touchdown
Let the points soar!
Fight on, Fight on,
Til you have won,
Sons of Wash-ing-ton!
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Hail to the Redskins!
Hail Vic-to-ry!
Braves on the warpath,
Fight for old D.C.!
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Washington Redskins…as if you couldn’t tell
Heh. 49ers fan on hiatus here. I still want them to do well, but I can’t hardly watch them right now.
I started liking them in 81 when they beat the Cowboys on “The Catch”. I hated the Cowboys mightily back then, so someone who so cooly beat them at their last-minute game earned my fandom. And I had a better run than I ever could have imagined…in about 22 years, making the playoffs 18 times and winning 5 Super Bowl championships!
I have a hard time believing that’s ever going to happen again in the NFL unless some major changes occur.
I root for one team only: The Cubs. I have no secondary allegiances. And I don’t think a season goes by when I don’t give up on the Cubs. It’s just that some seasons I give up on them later than others. I’ve long since written them off for this season. Last season I was so disgusted with their lack of fundamentals that I really wanted to see them crash and burn (as they did) at the end of the season.
::singing along with GrizzRich::
NFL: Redskins & whoever is playing Dallas (though I have adopted the Ravens as an AFC step-child.)
MLB: Orioles and now the National’s (The Senators were gone by the time I started watching baseball.)
NBA: Wizard’s/Bullets but I like certain other players; A.I., Shaq, Yao Ming.
NHL: Capital’s
MLS: D.C. United and Manchester United over the pond.
PGA: Tiger Woods and John Daly.
College Sports: U of MD Terps and Penn State Nittany Lions. Even though Navy is local I still pull for Army because that’s where my Grandfather’s and Father served.
I don’t switch alliances to My Teams. Even when they suck, I got their back.
pulykamell - you’re SW Side and you’re a CUBS fan?
As to whether I’ve “given up” on my Fav. Team? What do you think? I live in Chicago! I’m a PACKERS fan!
Cubs fan. I end up giving up on them each year, but only about 30 days after any normally sane person would have given up on them. But, short of a team winning a championship, everybody has to give up on their team each year and focus on the next.
For me to renounce allegiance to them forever, I’m pretty sure they’d have to use my wife as some sort of spear or club to kill my dog and child. But only if it cost them game 7 of the World Series.
I never switch allegiances. Doing so is for the weak-minded.
Grew up near San Francisco. Rooted for the Giants and Niners, even through the late seventies, when both teams sucked. My college team was Stanford, since we had season tickets and my dad was an alumnus.
Went away to college . . . to UCLA. (Non-Californian dopers have to realize the whole Northern/Southern California schism that I had transcended-nay, violated- is real, deep, and severe; see silenius’s post above.)
Fall quarter, freshman year: it’s UCLA vs Stanford in football. Whom to root for? Do I cheer for my red and white childhood favorites, do I show solidarity with my then-recently deceased father, the Stanford graduate? Or do I embrace change, do I accept the fact that I was now a man, and it was time to turn my back to home and begin my journey through life wearing robin’s egg blue and bright gold?
UCLA won, 49-0. Decision made! That was easy.
Airblairxxx, I feel your pain. While growing up, I was always a USC fan. Trojans all the way. My friends went to USC. Hell, my friends **played football ** for USC. Never any doubt or waver.
Where did I go to graduate school? UCLA. :eek:
I still watch college football, but I tend to skip the USC/UCLA game, just in case.
I grew up a Washington Redskins fan. Through the '80’s and most of the '90’s, I rooted burgundy and gold, and tried to watch games whenever I could.
But by the late '90’s, I was getting sick of the Norv Turner 'Skins. It wasn’t even that they lost as much as they won- I was fine with rooting for the 'Skins before when they didn’t get far in the playoffs, or even to the playoffs. But by '98, '99, it seemed more and more obvious that the team just didn’t give a rat’s ass about competing.
One Sunday, I was watching them play on TV, and they were doing a decent job. Ahead by a few points. Then the QB- don’t even remember which one- threw a pass for an interception that was returned for a touchdown. And for some damned reason, that blew the teams’ minds completely. They were down less than five points, but they wandered onto the field like the Bears were stomping them 72-0 again, and just meandered their way through the rest of the game. Their soul was crushed, they had no heart in the game. Because of one freaking interception that knocked them behind and let the other team rally.
Disgusted, I started channel-flipping during the last quarter, and ran across the Baltimore Ravens playing Jacksonville. Jacksonville had just scored, and the Ravens now needed two touchdowns to catch up. But rather than being dejected and forelorn (like the above mentioned Redskins), the recent Jacksonville touchdown just seemed to fire up the Ravens. They reacted to the score like it was a challenge, and rose to the occasion, pulling some amazing plays and an incredible pass for a TD. For the first time in five years, I jumped from my couch in cheering a team, and felt like a team actually gave a damn about something other than collecting their paycheck.
I still pay occasional attention to the Redskins, and wouldn’t spit on a free ticket. But the Ravens are my team of choice now, the guys I root for from season start to end.
Yes, and I’ve gotten a lot of shit for it growing up. It saddens me, though, walking into Southwest Side neighborhood bars these days and seeing Cubs memorabilia all over the place. It just shouldn’t be done.
As for being a Packers fan, when I was a little kid (about 8 or 9 years old), I used to hang out with this older, married guy with three cats. One day, I was at his place and the Packers game was on TV. I don’t remember whether they were playing the Bears or not, but I was mesmerized by their yellow and green uniforms. I thought they were quite pretty. So I was rooting for them. When they won the game, I started jumping up and down and cheering, much to the chagrin of my neighbor, who promptly kicked me out of his house.
I’ve never rooted for the Packers since.
Been a Chiacgo Cubs fan for 33 of my 36 years on this planet and I have come to the conclusion that if Boston can win the big one, it is possible for the Scrubs… I mean Cubs to do it as well. I always have my AL team, the Twins to cheer for so I guess I am ok most years… Two perrenial losers.
I spend most of my fall watching my Chicago Bears lose. But the Iowa Hawkeyes keep me entertained on Saturdays so I guess I remain balanced during football season.
I am looking foward to a Superbowl where I can be excited for the game, as much as I am the commercials and wardrobe malfunctions. 
Give up on my beloved Indians? Ha! HAHA!
But my secondary allegiances change all the time. I was thinking last week how aghast I would have been in 1989 to learn that in 2005 I root for the A’s and against the Braves.
Football is dead to me since the Browns left, and I don’t give a damn about any other sport.