Game Day Decision

I get a significant amount of crap for my choice in professional sports teams.  Constantly defending my decisions to like one team over the other as well my decision to cheer for the home team when I go to a game that I have no personal stake in. My Big 4, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, are all in different cities.  To break it down:

Football: I’m an Eagles fan but cheer for the Panthers 364 days a year. This year being the only time I’ve had to pick between the two since I moved here.

Baseball: I cheer for the O’s but appreciate the fact that the Nats weren’t around during my childhood and now they are at the same time supporting the Charlotte Knights that feed into the White Sox network.

Basketball: Though I’ve never been deeply invested in the sport I found myself watching and cheering for the Bobcats (Hornets) when I moved here but follow the Warriors more on social media and can probably name more of their players do to a random six-degrees connection to one of their players.

Hockey: Washington is technically my home team and I’m happy to say out of the four, that’s the only one that’s really uncontested.

I would like to pretend it’s strictly a professional sports, but I’ve been exposed to quite a few different college sporting events since moving here, too. On the shelf next to my 6 years worth of free I Bleed Purple t-shirts are shirts from Davidson College, NC State, Carolina, Virginia and I’m almost sad to admit it, but in about two weeks I’ll own a yellow Appalachian State shirt for a game I begrudgingly agreed to go in a month.

Mixed up? Maybe. And it should also come as no shock that I regularly have to defend my choices as well explain the collection of sports apparel that covers professional and college teams all up and down the East Coast and one basketball team in San Francisco. My favorite is trying to convince someone that I have a valid reason to be passionate about a team from a city I’ve never lived in and have no logical connection to. A close second favorite is explaining why I live in Charlotte, own 6 Panther’s t-shirts and hats and will still cheer for the Eagles on November 10^th this year.

At the end of the day and to explain it in its most simplified form, I just love sports. I love having something to cheer for, to be passionate about, and to be a part of a community that comes together for a common reason. It’s refreshing to see 60,000 people all wearing the same color, cheering for the same thing amongst the conflict that plagues everyday life.  And if that means that every Sunday I put on black and blue to tailgate in uptown Charlotte while checking the Eagles score on my phone to be a part of that particular community, then so be it. (I also refuse to be one of those people who shows up to a game wearing a jersey from a team that isn’t even playing on the same coast.)

I will continue to explain my reasoning as it will continue to come up but I only see my collection of various athletic team apparel increasing as I continue to hang out with people that love sports and their teams as much as I love mine. Though not without a fight, I have accepted that I will be sitting alone on November 10^th in black and teal watching the Eagles take on the Panthers in Philly. And on Tuesday I will more than likely be the victim of excessive mocking or the most hated depending on the outcome of the game. Though I’m loyal to my teams, defending my decisions to cheer on the home team no matter who they are is worth it to have something to cheer for every season.