Tossing it around

Football season is starting up again, hooray! Since I'm sure we (read: I) will be talking about this a lot on here I thought I'd give everyone a quick run down of our respective fanhoods. I grew up in a suburb adjacent to Baltimore City. This would lead one to believe a number of things regarding my sports team affiliations. As far as baseball goes, I am Orioles all the way, no matter how heartbreaking that situation seems to become. In terms of football though your initial thoughts are probably incorrect. First off I am not angry about the Colts midnight escape from Baltimore in the 80's. I was 7 years old and frankly didn't care all that much. Secondly I am not a fan of the Ravens. They didn't come to Charm City until I was in undergrad and that is a bandwagon I just didn't jump on for whatever reason. I didn't actually really get into football until I was with Jake. I would definitely watch sometimes but I never really appreciated it. Both of the serious relationships I was in prior to meeting Jake were with guys who weren't that into sports oddly enough. They would watch with friends but never alone. My brother calls my somewhat newly found enthusiasm for the pig skin "the Jake effect".

So who do I root for? Why the Washington Redskins of course. They were the closest team to Baltimore during the 12 years between the Colts and the Ravens and that is where my loyalty lies. My other team? The Indianapolis Colts. I'm a huge fan of Peyton Manning although I speculate when he finally leaves the game my enthusiasm for the team might wane a bit.

Now what about Jake? He's from Milwaukee, so of course he's a Green Bay fan and diehard at that. Did Favre break his heart a little by going to play for the Vikings? Absolutely. By default, as long as the Packers aren't playing Washington or Indianapolis, I will root for them as well. I actually think Aaron Rogers is about to come into his prime. Jake's other team is the Philadelphia Eagles after spending 4 years in the city of brotherly love at the University of Pennsylvania. For the most part I can't really root for the Eagles regardless of the circumstances as they are in the same conference as the Redskins. And this year we have their quarterback. I'm curious to see how that lends to Washington's season.

Now what about college? Well I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of college football although I've begun to watch it more in the past couple of years. Neither Jake nor I have diehard loyalties though. I went to a university that didn't have a football team. Since it was a University of Maryland system school though I will root for the Terps given the opportunity. Jake roots for the Badgers of Wisconsin as a result of proximity and of course UPenn but seriously, have you watched Ivy League football? It's, um, entertaining, but moreso with margaritas in hand. Lots of margaritas.

So that about wraps up my prologue into our football habits. Jake signed up for a flag football team again this fall. I think he's my favorite player to watch actually.