How can you possibly have a SECOND team that you root for?

[The Frankish Reich]

14 hours ago, Bakin said:

Pardon the bad grammar....and I know I probably asked this question before...

 

but how in the holy hell can a person root for the Bills (bleeding red white and blue, as one poster suggested) and still have a ‘backup’ or secondary team??

 

i really don’t get it. 

 

Can someone explain?

Because I am an adult, not a small child.

Because I realize that any major professional sports team is essentially a bunch of ringers, the vast majority of whom have no lasting attachment to Buffalo or whatever other city they may play for this season. In other words, I am a committed Bills fan, but I understand that at some deeper level this is highly irrational.

Because I've long lived in another city that traditionally has had a better football team over the last 20 years - a football team that typically played meaningful games in December and January, long after the Bills were playing for draft position only. And because it is fun to watch your adopted home town's team play those types of games after the Bills are out of it.

Enough?

[LeGOATski]

1 hour ago, The Wiz said:

I like to think of it like this. 

 

The Bills are my wife. I have a vested interest in everything they do and can either make or break me. 

 

Every other team is my side chick where I have no strong feelings about them but are good for the entertainment. 

 

And no I don't have a side chick, just making a comparison. 

Nice save...

 

The Wiz Wife will be none the wiser.

[Bakin]

6 minutes ago, Seoul_panther said:

 

  The fact that you get a kick out of triggering people probably says something about you.

My post was not meant to trigger anyone. It was a serious question. 

How can you be a die hard Bills fan - and still root for another team as your ‘second’ favorite team?  

It is bewildering. TO ME. 

 

I get rooting for a player - that I understand. Being amazed at some RB or WR or whatever. 

But rooting for another team?  

Never ever. 

 

9 minutes ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Because I am an adult, not a small child.

Because I realize that any major professional sports team is essentially a bunch of ringers, the vast majority of whom have no lasting attachment to Buffalo or whatever other city they may play for this season. In other words, I am a committed Bills fan, but I understand that at some deeper level this is highly irrational.

Because I've long lived in another city that traditionally has had a better football team over the last 20 years - a football team that typically played meaningful games in December and January, long after the Bills were playing for draft position only. And because it is fun to watch your adopted home town's team play those types of games after the Bills are out of it.

Enough?

Not really. 

I have lived in another town too but never faltered or front ran for another team because the Bills were out of it. 

So no. I don’t get it. 

[The Frankish Reich]

4 minutes ago, Bakin said:

My post was not meant to trigger anyone. It was a serious question. 

How can you be a die hard Bills fan - and still root for another team as your ‘second’ favorite team?  

It is bewildering. TO ME. 

 

I get rooting for a player - that I understand. Being amazed at some RB or WR or whatever. 

But rooting for another team?  

Never ever. 

 

Not really. 

I have lived in another town too but never faltered or front ran for another team because the Bills were out of it. 

So no. I don’t get it. 

What if the Bills had moved to Toronto? Would you have remained a Bills fan, no 2nd team allowed?

[Chuck Wagon]

Not in NFL, but grew up a fan of an AL baseball team, had a close relative work for a NL team for a long time.  I'm a fan of both teams now.  AL & NL cross more than they used to with interleague, but the styles feel like two completely different leagues.

[BillsSB2020]

2 hours ago, Buddy Hix said:

Is the glaring exception, Ohio? I hope you have better taste than that, ?.

No. The glaring exception is the former Wolverine who now wears number 12 for NE.

[4_kidd_4]

Loves me a  “fanhood callout”.

 

It’s entertainment, and in the grand scheme none of this really matters.

 

Root for one team, root for five teams, to quote the wise sage Humpty Hump, “Dowhatchalike”.

 

Do you get a loyalty bonus check from Terry and Kim for your upstanding fanhood, or do you instead get a ticket invoice and the privilege of buying $14 beers at the stadium?

 

 

[Orlando Tim]

As I read mostly reasonable responses I realize how absurd the premise is- you must have total loyalty to one team. It is built on the concept that the NFL is anything more than an entertainment venture. No one sanely argues you can only like one movie studio or one genre of book. I do not begrudge somone the right to be all in but the argument you must be is absurd. 

[Teddy KGB]

I’ll root for Trubisky and Rothlesberger if the Bills ain’t in the picture.  

[BillsBlue]

Easily afc team

 

 

Nfc team

[Rocky Landing]

I live in Los Angeles, and when the Rams moved here, I really tried to make them a second team that I would root for (AFTER the Bills, of course). I joined a few fan forum sites (all of which suck, compared to this one), and tried to engage with some of the fans. And, man, it totally backfired.

 

The level of discourse between the fans was childish, and combative. A very low percentage of fans had any sort of advanced football knowledge, and most of those who did were usually jerks about it. If you think that being a Bills fan has engrained a sense of bitterness, and pessimism into your soul, you should meet a Rams fan. Seriously, they made the Super Bowl, and they're still whining! 

 

So now, outside of our division, there is no team that I want to see lose more than the Rams. I don't want to feel that way-- I just can't help it.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Rocky Landing

[Big Turk]

I don't.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

Someone who's a die hard Bills fan may have left Buffalo and has taken a liking to their local team as well.  So they root for that team until, of course, they have to play the Bills.  Happens all the time.

[The Frankish Reich]

2 minutes ago, Rocky Landing said:

I live in Los Angeles, and when the Rams moved here, I really tried to make them a second team that I would root for (AFTER the Bills, of course). I joined a few fan forum sites (all of which suck, compared to this one), and tried to engage with some of the fans. And, man, it totally backfired.

 

The level of discourse between the fans was childish, and combative. A very low percentage of fans had any sort of advanced football knowledge, and most of those who did were usually jerks about it. If you think that being a Bills fan has engrained a sense of bitterness, and pessimism into your soul, you should meet a Rams fan. Seriously, they made the Super Bowl, and they're still whining! 

 

So now, outside of our division, there is no team that I want to see lose more than the Rams. I don't want to feel that way-- I just can't help it.

Great comment. I totally get it. One of the fun things about being a sports fan is when I find out that I don't know my own mind.  Dial the clock back to the late 70s to early 2000s: my (AL) baseball team was the Red Sox. Nothing was better than finally watching them beat the Yankees! 2007: they swept my Rockies in the World Series, but I still gave them a pass (it was an improbable/fantastic run for the Rockies that had to end some way.)  Meanwhile, I hated the Cards. So 2013 rolls around: Cards-Red Sox World Series. I start out telling people I want the Red Sox to win. Then I watch the games and I find myself rooting for the Cards and starting to view the Red Sox like the Yankees of old. Which I still do.

[BillsSB2020]

I will say this; if you get a little TOO into your second team and passively follow the Bills during the down times, it'll be a bad look when you come back around if/when the Bills have success.

 

In the grand scheme of things, do you. However, there is something unique about those of us who remain loyal through thick and thin.

[The Frankish Reich]

Just now, BillsSB2020 said:

I will say this; if you get a little TOO into your second team and passively follow the Bills during the down times, it'll be a bad look when you come back around if/when the Bills have success.

 

In the grand scheme of things, do you. However, there is something unique about those of us who remain loyal through thick and thin.

Someone needs to get out of Buffalo every now and then

[BillsSB2020]

1 minute ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Someone needs to get out of Buffalo every now and then

Location has nothing to do with it. I've lived in Detroit, Philly, Seattle, and Vegas.

 

It's really none of my concern who someone chooses to root for. Just never really respected the fanhood of someone who jumps on bandwaggons. Doesn't mean I don't respect the individual.

[Nervous Guy]

There's a whole lot of this going on in this entire thread:  on both sides!

 

[Seoulofstone]

1 hour ago, Bakin said:

My post was not meant to trigger anyone. It was a serious question. 

 

  Fair enough, I misinterpreted your post as taking pleasure at some of the reactions.

 

I will say this. As an Englishman, many of our club sports were established and historically have been integral to a local community. This is a notion I can support. Links between sporting clubs and their integration and relationship with a local community right down to grass roots projects. 

 

The way sports institutions function in England is a huge contrast from a culture of franchises-even when a franchise has been based in one place for a lengthy period of time.

 

However and this is the nerve that I think you have touched in this thread, I believe it’s a thing that people can become overly defensive and tribal about whether you are a ‘true’ fan of a particular club or not. Taken to unhealthy levels this can result as in the 1980s in English soccer in extreme levels of hooliganism and genuinely unpleasant fan environments. 

 

 For me, sports should always be inclusive not exclusive.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, Seoul_panther said:

 

  Fair enough, I misinterpreted your post as taking pleasure at some of the reactions.

 

I will say this. As an Englishman, many of our club sports were established and historically have been integral to a local community. This is a notion I can support. Links between sporting clubs and their integration and relationship with a local community right down to grass roots projects. 

 

The way sports institutions function in England is a huge contrast from a culture of franchises-even when a franchise has been based in one place for a lengthy period of time.

 

However and this is the nerve that I think you have touched in this thread, I believe it’s a thing that people can become overly defensive and tribal about whether you are a ‘true’ fan of a particular club or not. Taken to unhealthy levels this can result as in the 1980s in English soccer in extreme levels of hooliganism and genuinely unpleasant fan environments. 

 

 For me, sports should always be inclusive not exclusive.

 

That can have its upside too:  F you I'm Millwall!  Gotta love this guy.