Lehigh Football Nation
January 9th, 2007, 01:49 PM
Although my love for the Red Sox and Lehigh football has (and shall remain) unwavering, my NFL allegiences have shifted over the years - which has put me in a bizarre situation.
In my tender years, I actually started out with Jets and Giants jackets, while ultimately settling on the Redskins shortly before John Riggins ran them to an NFL title. After moving overseas (and before college), I unwisely dumped the Redskins in favor of a stranger team: the New Orleans Saints. Why the Saints? Having had no stong local allegiance to a team, some of the jazz musicians my father played with identified with New Orleans, and I adopted them as my team as well. It helped that in 1986 they were 7-9 and on the way up. The next year, they had their first-ever winning season and playoff appearance. Soon thereafter, I went to the local sports store and dragged out their token Saints jersey and bought it (#56 -LB Pat Swilling of the "Dome Patrol".)
After living at Lehigh for four years, I never really picked up on the Eagle bandwagon - I remained a nutty Saints fan while I was there, and pretty much stayed firmly on the bandwagon since then. Only when Ditka the dolt arrived was my faith tested - I never stopped following them, although I just shook my head when he traded his whole draft for Ricky Williams. I hoped for the best, but I knew it wouldn't have a happy ending. After that, I thoroughly enjoyed the playoff win over the Rams, but was unimpressed with Aaron Brooks - if the Saints were on TV, I'd watch, but it wasn't a life-or-death thing.
What happened, though, is I married a girl from Philadelphia. As we relocated to the suburbs of Philly, I found myself getting into Eaglemania. Being now a "local", and because my wife is very enthused about the Eagles, I find myself watching their games for my wife (and son's) sakes, and I enjoy them. I root for the Eagles to do well, and my son has the Eagles sweats and everything. I even taught him to do the Eagles chant.
Now I'm in a real fix. This year I have been really following the Saints closely (watching them humiliate, in consecutive weeks, the overrated Cowboys and the thuggish Giants will always, in my lifetime, be a cherished memory). The Saints will be playing the Eagles in the playoffs. The Eagles and Saints played each other earlier this year, but I was able to "punt" and say that "they both played well, they're both good teams", thus preserving marital and family bliss while still rooting for both the Eagles and Saints. Now it's different. The winner will have a better-than-average chance of making the Super Bowl. The loser's season will end at the hands of the other.
What do I do? Root for the Saints? The Eagles? "Root for a good game"?
In my tender years, I actually started out with Jets and Giants jackets, while ultimately settling on the Redskins shortly before John Riggins ran them to an NFL title. After moving overseas (and before college), I unwisely dumped the Redskins in favor of a stranger team: the New Orleans Saints. Why the Saints? Having had no stong local allegiance to a team, some of the jazz musicians my father played with identified with New Orleans, and I adopted them as my team as well. It helped that in 1986 they were 7-9 and on the way up. The next year, they had their first-ever winning season and playoff appearance. Soon thereafter, I went to the local sports store and dragged out their token Saints jersey and bought it (#56 -LB Pat Swilling of the "Dome Patrol".)
After living at Lehigh for four years, I never really picked up on the Eagle bandwagon - I remained a nutty Saints fan while I was there, and pretty much stayed firmly on the bandwagon since then. Only when Ditka the dolt arrived was my faith tested - I never stopped following them, although I just shook my head when he traded his whole draft for Ricky Williams. I hoped for the best, but I knew it wouldn't have a happy ending. After that, I thoroughly enjoyed the playoff win over the Rams, but was unimpressed with Aaron Brooks - if the Saints were on TV, I'd watch, but it wasn't a life-or-death thing.
What happened, though, is I married a girl from Philadelphia. As we relocated to the suburbs of Philly, I found myself getting into Eaglemania. Being now a "local", and because my wife is very enthused about the Eagles, I find myself watching their games for my wife (and son's) sakes, and I enjoy them. I root for the Eagles to do well, and my son has the Eagles sweats and everything. I even taught him to do the Eagles chant.
Now I'm in a real fix. This year I have been really following the Saints closely (watching them humiliate, in consecutive weeks, the overrated Cowboys and the thuggish Giants will always, in my lifetime, be a cherished memory). The Saints will be playing the Eagles in the playoffs. The Eagles and Saints played each other earlier this year, but I was able to "punt" and say that "they both played well, they're both good teams", thus preserving marital and family bliss while still rooting for both the Eagles and Saints. Now it's different. The winner will have a better-than-average chance of making the Super Bowl. The loser's season will end at the hands of the other.
What do I do? Root for the Saints? The Eagles? "Root for a good game"?