For awhile, that became very difficult for me to actually do. You see, I had quite a few “home” teams in a relatively short time. My football fan days started when I was very young, sitting curled up on the couch with my dad, watching the Sunday football game on our black and white TV set.
We lived about 10 miles from the Mississippi River, just across from St. Louis, so in those days, we didn’t have a “local” team. My dad and I watched the old Black & Blue league on Sundays, usually the Bears, the Browns, Vikings, or Green Bay on the network game for the week. Yeah, back in the 1950’s, they only broadcast one game a week on TV. So I grew up watching football games being played by teams from other cities. I never really had a favorite team, just enjoyed watching the games with my dad on a cold, snowy Sunday afternoon in November and December.
But that changed in 1964 when I went into the Army. I was stationed at Ft. Holabird, just outside Baltimore. By the time I completed my schooling there, and assigned as a Special Agent, United States Army Intelligence Corp, I was well aware of who the Balitmore Colts were, as well as Unitas, Ameche, and the rest of the Colts. So for those two and a half years, I had my first “home” team to root for, and a darn good one at that.
After my discharge, I moved to New York in 1967. Went to work for CBS Records and became a combo-fan of both the Giants and the Jets (secretly liking the Jets and Joe Willy more). I use to go to a pub on 2nd Ave. for Sunday brunch and they’d have two TV’s set up, one at the front end of the pub and the other at the back. The tables and chair were split down the middle, as to which TV they faced, so you could watch the game of your choice while drinking a spicy Bloody Mary and eating delicious Eggs Benedict and fresh baked Irish Soda Bread.
Then in 1969, I was promoted to Epic Records in Cleveland. Finally, at age 27, I saw my very first NFL game in person. Actually, it was an afternoon double header at the old Cleveland Stadium, with about 90,000 other Brown’s fans. I got to watch four NFL teams played that day. A few weeks later, I got tickets to see The Rubber Bowl in Akron, with the Browns playing the Bengals. So in less than three years, I had five “home” teams I could root for, at any given time.
When they played each other, I was assured that my “home” team would win.
Before the year was out, I was promoted to Columbia Records and was transferred to Chicago. Well, you can’t live in Chi. Town and not root for ‘Da Bears’. Plus, guess what had just become the number one program on television? Yep, Monday Night Football. Everything I know about football, to this day, I learned from Howard, Frank, and Dandy Don.
In 1972, I moved to Florida with A&M Records. Those of you who know the game, know that was the year the Dolphins went undefeated and won the Super Bowl. They won the Super Bowl the next year too. So between 1967 and 1973, I’d had the Colts, Giants, Jets, Browns, Bears, and now the Dolphins, as my “home” team. Not bad, huh? Then A&M transferred me to Seattle in 1975, just in time for the start of the Seattle Seahawks. And that’s not counting the year and a half I lived in San Diego, rooting for the Hawks and the Chargers, in the same conference.
Well the Sea Hawks have been my home team for the last 37 years, and to be honest, its been a tough time rooting for them some of those years. I remember the old joke around town, about some guy that left two tickets to the Hawks game on his windshield, just sticking them under the wiper blade, for anyone to take and go to the game. When he returned to his car, he found six tickets tucked under his windshield wiper. Over those years, the Hawks have always been my “home” team, and even if they aren’t the ’72/’73 Dolphins, they’re MY home team to root for every Sunday during the season.
Win or lose, I still root for the Seahawks.
