Why do you support that team?

This is a very common question asked by many around the world and there are so many different answers. Depending on what team you ask me about I would give you a different answer. I don't believe there is a correct answer the only thing I believe is that once you have chosen that is the end of it. That is your team forever and I mean forever. Not just in the good times but through the bad as well.

I personally have two reasons. Blackburn Rovers a team that has given me so much joy and just as much stress and misery. Many people have called me a glory hunter and maybe at the start I was a little. I moved from New York to Southampton, UK when I was two and my Dad being an American did not have a team he followed. So I didn't have a family tradition to follow which is a major reason many people follow a team. They follow them because their family have for many generations. The obvious choice for me would have been Southampton being that was my new home team. But I was young and was a big fan of the one 'Alan Shearer'. He was at Blackburn and that was me sold. This was my team. Yes at this time with the Jack Walker money they were a power house in the Premier League.

As a kid I was lucky to have chosen such a successful team and enjoyed a league winning season in 1995. But it didn't stay joyful and successful for much longer. By the time they were relegated in 1999 they were already my team. I had chosen and that was that. I was sticking with them through thick and thin. Through relegation's, cup wins and now new owners and a very rocky period in the clubs history. My wonderful girlfriend of nearly three years is still trying to get to grips with this concept. After a Blackburn loss she has often asked me why do I do it to myself. Why don't you just pick a new team that actually wins. I of course take some offence to this little dig but know that she is doing it to wind me up. But I always give her the same answer they are my team and this will never change.

Now I am back living in the USA and have picked up new sports teams to find a place for in my heart. I used a different reasoning and my choice may have been effected by my previous experiences. I have decided to support all NY teams. The Giants in American football, the Yankees in baseball and the Knicks in basketball. People always told me that I should have been a Southampton fan but I wasn't so maybe that is why I have chosen to take on all NY teams.

But as just your average sports fan it doesn't really matter how you chose your team but what's important is that no matter what they will always be your team.