I’m a Cowboys fan from my days as a kid growing up in Dallas/Fort Worth. Now that I live in the Los Angeles area, the Chargers are the most local team; they’re close enough to make going to the occasional game practical. I pay some attention to them and like to see them do well.
I’m a Bills fan and I picked two teams: the Colts for the exciting offense and Peyton Manning’s excellence (I enjoy some of his commercials, too), and the Panthers because they were my brother’s team - and I also like Steve Smith’s pugilism and the uniform colors.
I am a Lion fan ,by birth and season tickets. But what is this playoff thing you people talk about. I am not familiar with that expression.
The playoffs are not a big thrill for Detroiters. We just ended a 26 game road losing streak. That was a big deal for us. The 25 game streak was also ours. Winning 4 games generates football fever around here.
I hate the Dallas cowgirls. Kinda like New England because they have an ex U of M QB. That’s enough for us to follow a bit.
Bears fan here. I’m originally from Peoria (halfway between St. Louis and Chicago) so I root for the Rams on occasion. I’ll also root for the Lions as long as they’re having a losing season, because it’s fun watching a team play like they’ve got nothing to lose.
Right now it’s the Jets because I admire the F-U attitude. I could do without the overconfidence, but I’m not very invested in the team. The NFL needs more personality. Singletary of my 49ers could have been a good big-personality coach if he could actually coach and win.
I rooted for the Colts until they won the Super Bowl. Now, absent the Jets, I’ll root for the playoff team most removed from a title, or whoever is playing against the Patriots.
Colts fan with the Bears as my alternate team. It made the '06 season Super Bowl interesting. My family is all divided up between Chicago, The Region, and Indianapolis, so cheering for both is pretty common amongst us. It was interesting to see the lines drawn as to which team was the correct first choice and which was second.
It helps that barring events like that Super Bowl they only meet every four years.
Kind of interesting to see after 46 votes none are for either the Cowboys or Steelers, two teams that over the past few decades have built big fan bases outside their regions.
Its the same for me, and to a lesser degree, The Patriots and Brady. From a pure football enjoyment standpoint, I just really like watching those two guys operate.
In fact, growing up, I naturally gravitated towards liking high-flying acrobatic catches and the passing game in general, so I started by liking Stallworth and Swann, moved on to Air Coryell and Dan Fouts as well as Doug Williams and the Bucs, and so on.
Once I was a teenager and understood the game better, I lived in the DC area in the early-mid 1980’s and rooted for the Skins and learned to appreciate great oline play and tough running games and defenses.
But I still have a soft spot in my heart for the aerial attack, and really enjoy seeing a really good one put on a show. The 1999 Rams were really good at that, and now we have the luxury of watching the two best QB’s to ever play the game (IMO) right now. Topping Manning’s numbers or Brady’s playoff wins is going to be tough for any future QB to achieve, especially since neither of them shows any signs of being done yet.
Peyton Manning fan who lives in Patriots backyard.
It’s reassuring for me. The Steelers in particular are often accused of having bandwagon fans. So far this has not proven to be the case.
I guess it’s the Rams. I really don’t care all that much, but I’ll be happy when they win. It just doesn’t bother me that much when they lose (primarily a Patriots fan).
Oddly, I do root heartily for the Cardinals (although I’ll still take the Sox over the Cards), but I can barely bring myself to care about the Rams, and not at all about the Blues.
I am a diehard Steeler fan (all Pittsburgh sports, really. Especially the Pirates, who cause me ulcers every spring.)
However, since a kid, I’ve always liked and followed the Baltimore Colts. I love their uniform design, crisp and clean, as well as the helmet. Two colors, that’s it. Blue and white. But the final piece of the puzzle is their old logo, of a colt wearing a helmet, jumping over a goalpost, holding a football between its front two hooves (or hoofs?) is great.
I have been fascinated with sport logos, team uniforms, etc for as long as I can remember, and the Colts have one of my favorite old logos, which for some reason, they don’t use very much at all now.
I’m not that crazy about Indianapolis having the Colts, but if the Steelers aren’t in the Super Bowl or playoffs, I root for the Colts. After that? nothing.
I voted for the Broncos because my dad likes them and went to school in Colorado. My #1 team is the Bears. When I was first getting into football, one of these two teams was in the Super Bowl almost every year (with the Bears winning in their one appearance and the Broncos losing every time).
Arizona Cardinals fan. I’m the first to pick Dallas. I used to live in Dallas, so most my favorite one/two teams are the teams from Dallas or Phoenix.
Wow. Colts are really running away with this one so far. I can understand why, they’ve been consistently great for a over a decade now, and they have (or had) players that are (or were) hard not to like, like Manning, Marvin Harrison, and Edgerrin James.
I have individual players I root for (and one coach, although it sucks that he’s in my team’s division) but no actual teams.
The players:
Drew Brees
Maurice Jones-Drew
Mike Vick
The coach:
Rex Ryan (and to a lesser extent, Rob)
As a Lions fan, there are no other football teams. I’d rather not watch football at all if the Lions aren’t playing.
I don’t agree at all with Airman. I think it’s perfectly fine to respect a team other than your own. Those ‘alternate’ allegiances are pretty weak though. As a Cowboys fan, I will live and die with their wins and losses. I will hate on all their rivalries, and watching two of the other NFC East teams, I end up rooting for the turf. But I like Football as much or more than the Cowboys, and I like players/teams who respect the game, play with emotion, creativity and control.
With that said, most of my alt teams come from the AFC. And living in SoCal, I think the Chargers fit the bill (from November on in recent years) Earlier this year I also would show interest in the Jets. (maybe following Tomlinson and Sanchez from the region)
Another Cowboys fan here. I don’t really have an “alternate team.” But I do have a soft spot for the Dolphins. This goes back to the days of Landry and Shula (who I thought were both class acts).
So in a very casual sense, I dont’ mind when the Dolphins win. And I see no conflict here. The Dolphins hardly ever play the Cowboys and other than head-to-head I can’t imagine too many times where I’d have to root against them to help the Cowboy’s chances.
Airman, you’re a man after my own football heart. Talking about other teams when you’re from Pittsburgh is like talking about the stars when you live in the sun.
That’s because everyone in their right mind has the Steelers as their first choice. And no one likes the Cowboys anyway.
If you twist my arm to pick a choice, I’ll say Tampa Bay because my Dad lives there and they hardly ever play the Steelers. I couldn’t name a single player there, though. You’d think I’d root for the Redskins since I live in DC, but I don’t. I prefer them to lose, so that I can spread the Good Word and tell everyone that it’s never too late to repent and become a Steeler fan. All they have to do is say “There is no team but the Steelers and Tomlin is its messenger!”