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So, how did you become an NFL fan?


PantherDave
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Well, I first really got into sports when I was 6 back in 1973-started playing Pop Warner etc.. At the time the ACC was my first love, the Wolf Pack under Norm Sloan winning championships and the Wolf Pack football had Lou Holtz and then Bo Ryan. This really got me into college football, well at the time(70's) TBS showed the now defunct SWC(South Western Conference) and my buddies always razzed me about not having a favorite NFL team. Most of them were Redskins,Steeler, Cowboys and of course a few Dolphin fans, however, I really didn't like any of them..and still don't. I was, however, just amazed to watch Earl Campbell run on Saturday's for Texas...the ole Tyler Rose. So, I told my nagging buddies that I would follow EC outta Texas and who ever drafted him would be my favorite team, so it was the Houston Oilers from 1978-1993(spent 94 as just a NFL fan) and they remained so until they moved to Nashville and we got our team here in the Carolina's.

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When I moved to Texas at the age of 5, it was already being talked about by all the boys my age. In Sunday school, the teacher had to give us five minutes to talk about the Cowboys before class started or we wouldn't listen to her. At the time, football was all anyone ever talked about in Tyler, Texas. The only other sports were baseball and basketball and those were just something to do waiting for football season to start. No one ever talked about the players from other sports.

 

While Earl went to the other high school in Tyler, he was obviously a big deal to the city even when he was in high school. I remember hearing him play on the radio when John Tyler High won the State Championship basically by handing off to him every play. His brothers used to come into the dry cleaners I worked at in High School and they were all HUGE guys like Earl and just as nice as anyone you ever met. They all had to work to live instead of playing football.

 

I even worked with his Junior High quarterback who said he almost never was given any play that wasn't Earl left or Earl right.

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My grandmother loved Landry and the Boys and when I graced this planet with my bare-ass in '78 I inherited the Cowboys as my team- bedding, curtains, clothing, garbage can, etc. included. They have been my squad since then and after her death which was when I was still a little chap, it has only strengthened.

Edited by irish
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Don't really remember when. Remember being little and watching AFL and NFL games every Sunday, just sorta became a habit after that, the clincher was when I started dating a girl whose father was a coach for the Chiefs during the Stram days and their Super Bowl victory, here in NO was like 15-16 and got to go to all kind of Chief SB functions.

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I recall my dad telling me about Alabama's QB a guy named Joe Namath signing with the AFL Jets for an incredible amount of cash $400,000. Not sure how long the contract was for, but that's when I became a pro football fan. Use to love to watch the AFL games which involved much more passing with names like Namath, Lamonica, & Dawson.

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I have been a Cowboys fan since 1974 when I lived in Louisville KY. It was either them or the Bengals :D at that time so I went with Americas Team of course. Still am a diehard REDS fan in baseball and a Big Blue fan in College b-ball though.

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I remember OJ Simpson when I was very young, watching Marcus Allen in the Super Bowl and watching the Badgers on TV, but I didn't become a huge NFL fan until I was a freshman in HS and was finally allowed to play without stupid YMCA weight restrictions. :D

 

Once I played it, I couldn't stop watching!

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It's really become americas favorite sport. back in the 50's and 60's when I was a kid it wasn't that popular, but television and Pete Rozelle changed all that.

 

In Wisconsin, especially Green Bay, it's a huge part of community life. A major team in what was once a small city isn't possible in any other sport that I know of. Go there in the middle of summer before training camp opens and football is on the front page. 70 year old farmer's wives know more about the game than avid fans in many other cities. It's really bonded to the community.

 

Then in the 80's and 90's avoiding drug and contract problems it really became americas sport in my opinion.

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In Wisconsin, especially Green Bay, it's a huge part of community life. A major team in what was once a small city isn't possible in any other sport that I know of. Go there in the middle of summer before training camp opens and football is on the front page. 70 year old farmer's wives know more about the game than avid fans in many other cities. It's really bonded to the community.

 

yep. :D

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Moved from the LA area to Iowa in the late 70's. Don't remember much about football before that but remember my first day in the new school wearing a LA Rams coat...blue with the plastic yellow sleeves. That was second grade. Everyone was a Steeler fan. I followed the Rams through the Super Bowl and then went to the Cowboys because all Steeler fans hated the Cowboys.

 

Didn't follow much in the high school years...busy with other things. After High School I was trapped in the middle of Bear, Packer, and Viking fans. Decided to become a Saints fan and have been since.

 

Followed the Texans as well when I was in Texas for a while and they were on TV.

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My Mom & Dad were big-time Steelers, Pirates, and Nittany Lion fans (I grew up 20 minutes from Beaver Stadium). My first real memory that stick in my head is in 1979, I was only 5 years old, but, I can still remember how exciting it was for my parents. The Steelers had won the Super Bowl in January of 1979, then the Pirates won the World Series in October, and the Steelers again in January of 1980. It was quite a time, and I can remember vaguely people being at my house a lot and being happy. I also have memories of 'We Are Family' being sung by my excited parents. I was hooked from the very beginning.

 

My Dad and I always talked about how lucky his years as a fan that was old enough to really get into it were compared to mine, until last year of course. :D

 

He had Mazeroski's homer in 1960, the immaculate reception, 4 Super Bowl victories, 3 World Series Titles, 2 Penn State National Championships (I was 12 for the 1986 game, and do remember that one vividly).....

 

I had several years of the Pirates blowing in in the early 1990's and never getting to the World Series (including Francisco Cabrera's winning hit), the Steelers losing several AFC Championship games, as well as one Super Bowl......then my Dad passes away, and finally................... Last year's Super Bowl :D

 

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but, just typing this has me anxious for my new son and I to share in all of this.

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My Aunt took me to a few Baltimore Colts fans at the old Memorial Stadium. She knew a few cheerleaders, so I got to wait with them until the players came out and signed a few autographs.

 

I remember catching the bus at the Gatus Bar, which I believe still has the blue horseshoe on it's sign. Probably more because it's a dive and has never really got around to replacing it, but still.

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I always liked pro-football and when we lost the Colts, I rooted for the Packers. I think there was a sort of subliminal thing there in that the town owned the team and I thought that was really cool.

 

But I really became a fan in 1996, when despite the NFL, Baltimore got a team.

Edited by justin
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