A little piece of fluff today, but what did you expect for a vacation day? Besides, it does relate to my Blazer experience at least.
I want you to know that I'm doing my part to grow the Blazer fan base. I have a friend who is a very nice guy, a huge NFL fan, and is married to a gorgeous, wonderful woman who gives him the "eyebrow" every time he mentions getting a dish to watch his team. (No explanation necessary for anyone who's hitched.) I, on the other hand, had my dish before I got married so it got grandfathered into the relationship, so to speak. Because I like the guy so much and because he loves his team so much, I offered to split the NFL Season Pass with him at my place. He jumped at the chance, his wife jumped at the chance, and even my wife jumped at the chance because she sees this as an opportunity to head out with his wife and spend money on Sundays. (Did I mention there is advertising space available on this site? Apparently I'll need the revenue.)
I know how annoying it is to be sitting with someone who's rooting against your team (this happened to me in Minnesota a fair bit with some "friends" and the T-Wolves, but in the early 90's they weren't on the same planet with us anyway so no harm) so, having no particular NFL allegiance anyway, I decided the only polite thing to do would be to adopt his squad as my own. Long story short, I am now a San Diego Charger fan. What's more, just a little while ago my friend came up to me and said, "Since you're adopting the Chargers I've decided to adopt the Blazers." I told him that I may be getting the better end of that deal at this point, but I'll take it! So there you go. Fan Base + 1.
I actually think I'll like rooting for the Chargers too because they're good enough to maybe go far without being so good that you feel like a front-running bandwagon jumper (which just goes against the grain as a Blazer fan).
Anyway, since I now have a new second favorite team in the world I thought I would ask what yours are. I expect we'll get a fair amount of "Go Ducks" and maybe a "WooHoo Beavers" or two, but I figure there might be some interesting ones in there too. So besides the Blazers, for whom do you root with passion?
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)
P.S. I've always loved the start of the NFL season. You know how Halloween brings a time vortex wherein you blink twice and suddenly it's Christmas? That's the start of the NFL's season to the start of the NBA's folks. Won't be long now.