"We kept our rep bro"

I should probably be writing about the night Kendall and I just had at Harrah's. But in all honestly, I don't remember enough of the hands with much detail. So I won't bore you with the few hands I do recall. I'll just say this. 4 hours, and together we won nearly $400. That's a quality Thursday night. Now onto the goods. I was recently reading a column by the Great Sports Guy on espn.com, in it he and another author went back and forth on a variety of topics. The one that has stuck with me is how fans choose teams to cheer for. Chuck Klosterman, the other guy, grew up in one of the Dakotas, and Mr Simmons asked him how he picked teams to cheer for since he grew up without any major league franchises. Klosterman went on to say how he never understood how fans only rooted for their local teams, and the same team forever. He put up a well thought out statement but c'mon, don't be such a wuss.

So anyway, one thing lead to another and now I'm wondering why fans in different regions, and fans of different teams can be so different from each other in how they support their teams. And one question that has always perplexed me is how do you move to another city, and just jump on board with your new "home team" I've lived in Kansas City now for 16+ years. And I simply can not get behind the Chiefs or Royals. Most people don't know this but, there was a time I actually tried. 8th grade, I went to a few Chiefs games, even wore a Chiefs hat (it was signed by Christian Okoye!) But I just couldn't do it. In fact I've done the complete opposite of rooting for the local team, I root against them. I can't put a reason into words. Is it the fans? To a point. But mostly I think its my way of remaining loyal to MY teams. Basically, I'm in a long distance relationship with them. (some of you know my history with long distance relationships) But going for the KC teams, that would just be finding a local girl out of convenience. I have no connection to these teams. Even if the players I first started to follow, are long gone from the NY teams. I simply can not turn my back on those teams.

Now I have this friend Mike, and in high school he was a die hard Arkansas Razorbacks fan. It made sense, his dad went there. Its the same reason I wear an Ohio U hat. But I never remember him giving a damn about KU. In fact, if I remember correctly, he disliked them. So Mike goes off to college at KU, and genuinely buys into the team. Quickly becoming a die hard fan. It made sense to me. It wasn't just to jump on the band wagon of a national power house. For starters, there were some good guys on the team that were easy to root for. And at the time, a beloved coach who was, at the time someone you just had to respect. Myself, I liked KU and I do root for them now. But I can't consider myself a big KU fan. Another buddy, Austin, through out middle school and high school the only teams I knew he really cared about were his Cubbies, the Bears, the Bulls and to a point he liked the Chiefs. Never really picked any specific college teams. But he hit KU, and now the Hawks are right next to the Cubs for him. Those were instances were I understood how these guys began rooting for a new team. But in many other cases, I just don't get it. (names are changed in this part) I know a fella, we'll call him..um..Derrick, born in Detroit. Moved to So Cal in his early teens. So he was old enough to understand loyalty. So years later, even after the Lakers and Pistons hooked up in the NBA Finals, this guy Derrick, ends up adopting the Lakers. This shit baffles me. I'm sorry, no disrespect to him but not only did you adopt your "new" home team. But this is a team that you watched your guys battle, with everything on the line. Sure the fact that the Lakers were a dynasty, and one of the all-time great franchises make the change appears like a pretty easy jump. But in my book, that's all the more reason to NOT make the switch. I just don't get it. And this isn't meant as a dig on Derrick, I welcome him to stop by and post a response.

So I totally went on much more than I meant to on that topic and will have to revisit the whole difference in fans across the country. I think I'll go recount my winnings and go to bed.