GranolaBox

I don’t need to justify myself… but I will anyway.

A few weeks ago my ex2 saw me for the first time in my New England Patriots gear and accused me of “jumping on the bandwagon.” Not in a malicious way. She knows how little history I have with football.

There’s never been much rhyme or reason for which NFL team I like. I spent a substantial portion of my formative years living in Texas and Colorado. Most people in Colorado at the time, especially those on military bases like my dad liked the Dallas Cowboys.

And what was not to like? You had Roger Staubach, who played for Navy, did his time in the service and kicked ass as the quarterback for America’s team. Roger the Dodger could get around anything or anyone, and pull victory from the jaws of defeat without breaking a sweat.

And then there was Tom Landry. Always cool. Always impeccably dressed. He was unflappable. There has never been a classier coach. My allegiance to the Cowboys continued through high school. I became more interested in other things during college… most notably, sleeping through as much of Sunday as I possibly could to get over my hangover from Saturday night.

When I moved to Western New York, it was the first time I lived really close to an NFL team and could see their games easily. I became a Buffalo Bills fan - and just in time. I only had to like them when they sucked for a short time before they made it to, but lost all those Super Bowls. I continued to follow them even after they started sucking.

In fact I like to demonstrate my pigskin fidelity by proudly wearing my ‘87 Bills Western Division champs sweatshirt. This was the beginning of the Jim Kelly era, where the Bills saved sucking for Super Bowls. What that shirt said in the late 90’s was, “I liked the Bills when they kinda sucked before.”

At that point I lot interest in football. I never had the time to watch with the kids and all, and wasn’t really that interested anyway because Buffalo had launched on what must be one of the longest sucking streaks in history. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t like Buffalo, I just didn’t have any interest in football.

Then the Bills just got to be too much. When the Bills lose, they don’t just lose. They lose some real heartbreakers. They’ll be on the verge of greatness, but then the other team pulls something out of their ass and beats them in the last few seconds of the game. The Buffalo Bills and early sobriety DON’T mix well, so I abandoned them for good as I changed other people, places and things in my recovery program.

A couple years ago I was watching a few minutes of a Colts game, and I became a huge Peyton Manning fan. They showed one of those little snippets that showed Manning watching training film over and over so he could see what he looked like when he was faking a pass to a certain direction, so he could make it a point to look differently when he faked a pass so he could throw the opponents’ offensive linemen off. I thought that was real professional.

So I was a Colts fan for a year. Bear in mind here, that I still refer to the Colts as the BALTIMORE Colts. Indianapolis Colts just doesn’t sound right, and the Colts organization screwed Baltimore over royally.

This winter, for the first time in pretty much my whole adult life, I had the opportunity to watch football. For the past few years, I’ve been spending every Sunday either with my children or, more often, driving a limousine as my third job. Since the Queen of my Universe wanted to see me once in a while, and since business is doing so well, this is the first winter I’ve really had off in forever.

Enter DOUG.

DOUG is a fan of all things Boston because that’s where he’s from. Naturally DOUG is a huge Patriots fan. So, in probably the easiest act of football evangelism ever, DOUG suggested I become a Patriots fan. Since he had the NFL package that allows us to watch all the Patriots games, and I don’t have a TV, it seemed like a match made in heaven. Okay… I would give serious consideration to being a Patriots fan.

What sealed the deal was when he said the Patriots had signed Randy Moss. That clinched the deal for me. I’d always admired the way Randy Moss played football and felt bad because he had so many demons to contend with and a huge chip on his shoulder. Somehow I knew Bill Bellichick would beat that out of him and that he would blow up once he hooked up with “The Hoodie” and Tom Brady.

Randy Moss was an underdog that nobody expected would be able to control his demons and stay on top of his game. I didn’t care. I ordered my first real piece of NFL gear ever… a real NFL Randy Moss Jersey. So show that I wasn’t jumping on a bandwagon, I can show you the date of the order… it’s in my GMail archives. After searching thrift store after thrift store for more Pats gear I ordered a sweatshirt for four bucks on E-Bay.

I had no idea how good the Patriots were, and didn’t really care. They were my team and I demonstrated it with a limited amount of conspicuous consumption of licensed merchandise. For all I cared they could have sucked worse than the Bills.

What mattered was that I was determined to get in touch with my inner American bonobo and become a true football fan. Perhaps sensing that my enthusiasm for the Patriots might be waning as they faced off against the similarly undefeated Colts and Peyton Manning, DOUG pulled out the heavy artillery. He gave me a vintage Patriots had with the old logo on it. I can totally see why they changed the logo and am personally indebted to the person that suggested changing it. I don’t know if I could have kept a straight face wearing something any larger than a hat with that logo on it.

So… that’s my story and I’m sticking with it. My thanks to my blog hero Mr. Crunchy, whose own manifesto of Patriots fandom inspired me to rebuke the assertion of ex2 and some of my other close friends that the latest swing in my football loyalty is the result of jumping on a bandwagon.

Technorati Tags: New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Roger Staubach, Tom Landry, Buffalo Bills, Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts, Randy Moss

Filed under: General Observations on January 6th, 2008