Posting again for those in need

[generaldreedle]

Bill Simmons rules on sports loyalties.

Loyalties
18. If you live in a city that has fielded a professional team since your formative years, you have to root for that team. None of this, "The Bengals weren't very good when I was growing up in Cincy, so I became a Cowboys fan" crap.
Also, you can't start rooting for a team, back off when they're in a down cycle, then renew the relationship once the team starts winning again. All those Cowboys fans who jumped off the bandwagon in the late-'80s, jumped back on during the Emmitt/Aikman Era, then jumped back off in the late-'90s ... you know who you are. You shouldn't even be allowed out in public.
Wrigley fans
Allsport
You are required to root for the home team under almost all circumstances.
(There's nothing worse than a Bandwagon Jumper. If sports were a prison and sports fans made up all the prisoners, the Bandwagon Jumpers would be like the child molesters -- everyone else would pick on them, take turns beating them up and force them to toss more salads than Emeril Lagasse.)

19. Once you choose a team, you're stuck with that team for the rest of your life ... unless one of the following conditions applies:
Your team moves to another city. All bets are off when that happens. In fact, if you decided to turn off that sport entirely, nobody would blame you.
You grew up in a city that didn't field a team for a specific sport -- so you picked a random team -- and then either a.) your city landed a team, or b.) you moved to a city that fielded a team for that specific sport. For instance, one of my Connecticut buddies rooted for the Sixers during the Doctor J Era, then happened to be living in Orlando when the Magic came to town. Now he's a Magic fan. That's acceptable.
One of your immediate family members either plays professionally or takes a relevant management/coaching/front office position with a pro team.
You follow your favorite college star (and this has to be a once-in-a-generation favorite college star) to the pros and root for his team du jour ... like if you were a UNC fan for the past 20 years, and you rooted for the Bulls (because of MJ) and then the Raptors (because of Vince). Only works if there isn't a pro team in your area.
The owner of your favorite team treated his fans so egregiously over the years that you couldn't take it anymore -- you would rather not follow them at all then support a franchise with this owner in charge. Just for the record, I reached this point with the Boston Bruins about six years ago. When it happens, you have two options: You can either renounce that team and pick someone else, or you can pretend they're dead, like you're a grieving widow. That's what I do. I'm an NHL widow. I don't even want to date another team.

[wco81]

Jed makes it very hard.

Only hope Larry Ellison decides to blow his money before he gets too old -- already pretty old -- and throws a lot of money at the Yorks.

He tried to lowball an offer for the Warriors and lost out to owners who had a fraction of his wealth.

Not that things would necessarily be better. Ellison is probably a bigger **** than Jed but you take a chance that he'll hire some competent front office people.

Job one is to get rid of the Yorks, then worry if the new owners are worse.

Ellison is letting his daughter spend a lot of money to make movies. He has to realize he can't take it all with him.

[DoobieKeebler]

#19 - Amari Cooper. And he's got a real QB who wants to win! (Who doesn't get naked every 15 minutes. We get it.)

[MHSL82]

I don't have a team where I live, but two uncles who live in SF and for a while I had a college player I liked playing here. But I don't think anything could make me jump ship.

[badazzk9]

Bill Simmons rules on sports loyalties.

Loyalties
18. If you live in a city that has fielded a professional team since your formative years, you have to root for that team. None of this, "The Bengals weren't very good when I was growing up in Cincy, so I became a Cowboys fan" crap.
Also, you can't start rooting for a team, back off when they're in a down cycle, then renew the relationship once the team starts winning again. All those Cowboys fans who jumped off the bandwagon in the late-'80s, jumped back on during the Emmitt/Aikman Era, then jumped back off in the late-'90s ... you know who you are. You shouldn't even be allowed out in public.
Wrigley fans
Allsport
You are required to root for the home team under almost all circumstances.
(There's nothing worse than a Bandwagon Jumper. If sports were a prison and sports fans made up all the prisoners, the Bandwagon Jumpers would be like the child molesters -- everyone else would pick on them, take turns beating them up and force them to toss more salads than Emeril Lagasse.)

19. Once you choose a team, you're stuck with that team for the rest of your life ... unless one of the following conditions applies:
Your team moves to another city. All bets are off when that happens. In fact, if you decided to turn off that sport entirely, nobody would blame you.
You grew up in a city that didn't field a team for a specific sport -- so you picked a random team -- and then either a.) your city landed a team, or b.) you moved to a city that fielded a team for that specific sport. For instance, one of my Connecticut buddies rooted for the Sixers during the Doctor J Era, then happened to be living in Orlando when the Magic came to town. Now he's a Magic fan. That's acceptable.
One of your immediate family members either plays professionally or takes a relevant management/coaching/front office position with a pro team.
You follow your favorite college star (and this has to be a once-in-a-generation favorite college star) to the pros and root for his team du jour ... like if you were a UNC fan for the past 20 years, and you rooted for the Bulls (because of MJ) and then the Raptors (because of Vince). Only works if there isn't a pro team in your area.
The owner of your favorite team treated his fans so egregiously over the years that you couldn't take it anymore -- you would rather not follow them at all then support a franchise with this owner in charge. Just for the record, I reached this point with the Boston Bruins about six years ago. When it happens, you have two options: You can either renounce that team and pick someone else, or you can pretend they're dead, like you're a grieving widow. That's what I do. I'm an NHL widow. I don't even want to date another team.

They moved

[Ease_Ur_Storm]

Very good thread. I was actually a big Houston Oiler fan because of their offensive system way back when. Very talented fun team to follow during that era. Warren Moon in the redgun with Hayward Jeffries, Earnest Givens, etal. Defense was full of talent. Guess I was bored with the 49ers always winning during that time. Once they went down it was done.

Also there's always a pull based on special players. Became a fan of the Hawks following Dominique Wilkins. Also Barry Sanders was a much watch so gravitated towards watching a lot of Lions games, but never really care about them as a team even though they ran the same run and shoot system. Mostly wanted the defense to get off the field so Barry could get back on.

[CrimsonCrew]

Born and bred a Niners' fan, and that's not going to change. I became an insane fan - you know, the type who has thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of posts on team message boards - during their down years in the early 2000s. My priorities are different these days; if they start truly sucking again, I may not make watching them live a priority the way I have previously. You can excuse their earlier demise, to a degree, to salary cap problems coming home to roost. The current problems are wholly self-inflicted. York wants me to hold him accountable, and I guess the only way I can do that is to stop going to games (can't really afford to these days anyway, though that might change if they're awful), stop buying merchandise, and stop watching them on TV. It might be tough, but I could see myself obliging him.

[generaldreedle]

I grew up watching the 49ers in the 70s (yes, I'm really that old), when they were the worst team in professional sports and Joe Thomas ran the team and traded multiple draft picks for an obviously over the hill OJ Simpson. I don't think I'll switch, however, I'd qualify on two or three grounds -- 1) the team moved; 2) I didn't grow up in the Bay Area (Central California) and I loved them because my dad went to Berkeley and was a fan, 3) Jed is approaching the last part, not yet, but between the stadium bs, the whisper campaign and the alleged "coaching search"

[clyde21]

Jed makes it very hard.

Only hope Larry Ellison decides to blow his money before he gets too old -- already pretty old -- and throws a lot of money at the Yorks.

He tried to lowball an offer for the Warriors and lost out to owners who had a fraction of his wealth.

Not that things would necessarily be better. Ellison is probably a bigger **** than Jed but you take a chance that he'll hire some competent front office people.

Job one is to get rid of the Yorks, then worry if the new owners are worse.

Ellison is letting his daughter spend a lot of money to make movies. He has to realize he can't take it all with him.

Actually, Ellison put up the highest bid, but in a last ditch effort to troll Warriors fans Cohan decided to sell the team to Lacob/Guber instead. It was a middle finger to Warriors fans everywhere, since they've be clamoring for Ellison to buy the team for years -

In a statement, Mr. Ellison said he made the highest offer for the team but that current owner Chris Cohan selected the competing bid. "In my experience this is a bit unusual. Nonetheless, I wish the Warriors and their fans nothing but success under their new ownership," Mr. Ellison said in the release.

One person familiar with the matter said Mr. Ellison didn't want to bid that high but then submitted a late bid that was above $450 million. The Warriors referred questions to Sal Galatioto, who advised the team on the sale. Mr. Galatioto declined to comment.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704770604575369363627642570

[49rangER]

Born in NY but moved to AZ really young. Followed my dad's footsteps in all NY teams except for football. He never even like the Giants or jets. He is actually a raiders fan.

Grew up playing football in the streets and me and a couple buddies would always act as Steve young and jerry rice playing. Guess you could say we jumped on the bandwagon however this was late 90s. We still watch these games religiously every weekend. Love football Sunday's and love the niners no matter what.