for the love of the game

when people find out that i love football, their reactions are always one of these two:

a) assume i'm a giants fan

b) if not a, then they ask who my team is

after who knows how many years, and symbolically (at least in my mind) having relinquished my CA drivers license (with my 16-year-old-with-braces picture) - i have finally become a real new yorker. (i can feel my friendly factor and optimism diminishing as i type). however, when someone mentions the giants, i still think back to candlestick park (not that i'd ever watched a game there), to orange and black, to my favorite players i used to collect baseball cards for (nasty chewing gum and all)...

so when i say i'm not a giants fan, people ask if i'm a pats fan. having lived in boston for 6 years, during which i believe they won a superbowl if not 2, you would think so. but i never watched a pats game or knew who tbrady was until after i left boston. same with the sox.

so in high school i was definitely a giants and niners fan. but i'm not entirely sure what happened in college and beyond. i think it's because i don't want to jump on bandwagons - being in ny is an interesting way to follow sports. you can't really be a mets fan unless you grew up a mets fan. i mean, most of the time there isn't much to cheer about. jumping on the yankees bandwagon just seems wrong - it's kind of like how girls in LA who don't know anything about basketball are lakers fans just because they're good. the giants had that one miraculous season (though i must admit, that tyree catch and manning scramble were pretty awesome) but i really disliked plaxico. (this gets me going on another weird thing i have, where i can't separate an athlete's skills from his/her character. if an athlete is a douchebag, i don't care how good he is - i just can't admire him.) the jets? eh. same boat as the mets.

so here i am, in the middle of the best time of the year (football season) - and i don't have a team.

so when people ask me who i'm a fan of, i've found myself saying something of the following:

i'm a peyton fan. (seriously. i love watching peyton.) i'm a reggiebush fan. brandonjacobs. larryfitz. randymoss. LT.

in short - i'm a football fan. i just love the game. i don't really care who wins or loses - i just want to see good football. i like seeing plays develop. good routes, fakes, leadblocking, teamwork, and especially good playaction. (hence, peyton).

i think that being emotionally invested in a team takes away from really enjoying or appreciating the game itself. (well, unless your team is winning in which case your enjoyment factor is probably magnified).

or perhaps i'm just tired of being emotionally invested (and correspondingly disappoitned) in sports and this is my subconscious self-protective measure to enjoy football in a controlled fashion.