The Bad, The Worst and My Favorite Sports Teams

DISCLAIMER: THERE'S A LOT OF SPORTS TERMINOLOGY AND REFERENCES IN THIS BLOG, PLEASE BE ADVISED. THIS MAY BE BORING TO READ IF YOU'RE NOT INTO SPORTS.

Tonight, I watched the New Jersey Nets win their 5th game of the season. They are now 5-48 and are on track to match or possibly beat the record for the worst NBA season record of all time (which is currently held by the '71-'72 Philadelphia 76ers with a record of 9-73). My first love in sports was the Nets, and I've been dying to blog about my favorite sports teams and why I root for them since I made this blog.

First off, let me list out my teams and a quick explanation why I root for them.

New Jersey Nets (NBA) - I live in Jersey and I have to root for my home team.

Los Angeles Clippers (NBA) - I used to live in LA but I'm not a Lakers fan. Lucky me, LA has two basketball teams.

Oakland Raiders (NFL) - I grew up throwing around a Raiders football with my dad when I was growing up in LA. At that time they were the Los Angeles Raiders. I recently started following the NFL more and the Raiders are the closest thing I have to NFL roots.

USC Trojans Football (College Football) - My dad went to the University of Southern California (not South Carolina, yes they're both USC) when they won two national championships. I guess those fan roots run in the family.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights Anything (Anything) - I go to Rutgers right now and I support anything Rutgers, except for the administrative side but that's for another blog.

Okay, now for the meat of what I want to say. Except for the Trojans, all the teams I root for are for the most part pretty disappointing. The odd thing is their current poor performance is why I love them. Most people root for the underdog in games they have no investment in and I've just taken that logic to the next level. I hope one day the Nets and the Clippers will meet in the NBA finals, the Raiders will win a Superbowl and the USC Trojans and RU Knights will meet in the national championship game. Then I can say with tear in my eyes and pride in my heart that I was a fan through thick and thin.

The Superbowl just past a couple weeks ago, but before that the New York Jets made a surprising run in the playoffs only to be beat by the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game. At the beginning of the playoffs, I decided that I was going to root for the Jets during the post-season. Midway through their wild-card game against the Cincinnati Bengals, I started to consider becoming a real Jets fan. Then they started winning. As counterintuitive as this may sound, their win-streak in the playoffs really turned me off from becoming a fan. I didn't want to be a front runner, even if I was in it for the long run. I realized then that I enjoy rooting for bad teams not because they're bad per se, but because I want them to be good and I want to be there from the beginning.

To all the sports fans out there, stay true to your team through thick and thin. All you sports team apparel wearers continue showing your colors with pride even if your jersey is out of date (On a side note, my Allen Iverson 76ers #3 jersey isn't out of date anymore!). Maybe one day we can all brag to our friends about how long we've been fans of once bad teams as they become championship contenders.