Dr J and Larry Kenon weren’t cool enough for you?

Miami Hurricanes.

So let's see. I grew up in Memphis then South Carolina. No pro teams. For most NFL fans that grew up in the 70's and early 80's, if your hometown didn't have a team, you latched onto the Cowboys, Steelers, or Raiders. Because I was closest to Dallas and would always go down there with my grandma, and because I was enthralled with the Ewing family from the most popular show in tv at that time, I went with Dallas. But hey, all those Super Bowls we've won in the past 25 years really help.

My mom moved back to LA in 1980 so I was out there every summer. I had already been going every summer to see my grandparents. Even moved there as an adult. There is a team there that has won 18 titles, 11 of them in the past 41 years. You may have heard of the Lakers. Meanwhile, my team has won four in that same time span and went 22 years without one. But yeah, I guess picking Boston makes me a frontrunner.

I was seven when I started watching baseball. As a kid, the most popular player in the game was Reggie Jackson. They were on tv all the time, he had my same name, and hell, I could even pretend that the candy bar that was named after him was actually named after me. But hey, you're right. I only picked them cause of all the titles they won in the 20's and 30's. Classic front runner.

Again, I mention that I had a connection to LA because of my family. There was a pretty good college football team there at USC and a good basketball team at UCLA. Two national powerhouses. But did I chose them? Nope. I chose Duke because we played with those guys and that was before they had won their first title. I chose the Miami Hurricanes......because they had style and yep, you got me, cause they were the best team when I got really interested in college football. I guess you made your point. As usual, you got me.

I was born in 1985 so I don’t quite understand the fascination with the show Dallas, but I always assumed it was basically a glorified soap opera. Was it geared toward kids? I’m not following this line of argument as to why the TV show played into how a kid at the time would pick his favorite football team.

LMAO...it was a soap opera basically.

It was a soap opera. But just as we sat around and watched Gunsmoke and Bonanza and In the Heat of the Night with my grandma, we also watched Dallas and Dynasty. Plus, they also had the cheerleaders, who were so glamorous that they had their own show. Combine that with we always flew in/out of Dallas and for a youngster like myself, Dallas was the center of the known universe. Dad took me there for my first pro basketball game. The yearly trip to the Cotton Bowl for the Texas State Fair was the highlight of my life. Maybe it’s meaningless to you but I’m just saying how I latched on to the Cowboys. If I had wanted to chose a front runner, I would have chosen the Pittsburgh Steelers.

To each their own. You don't need to convince me of anything.

I will say though, I live near Philadelphia in New Jersey and there are lots of Cowboys/Yankees/Lakers fans around here. They are generally horrible people to discuss sports with. For many of them, I could probably eliminate the last four words of that sentence.

Camden makes the Bronx look like Manhattan.

I lived there for a couple years during law school. They've done some things to try to improve the conditions in Camden in the last decade or so...but it's still Camden.

Cashed a nice bet on Kristan as who killed JR. Sunny Joe White told me the muses said it was her, and the muses are never wrong.

Overall, I agree with you. Especially Laker fans. But I have been changing over the years. When I grew up, players stayed with teams for the most part so if you were a fan one year, you could expect the same players to be on the team the next year. That's changing so much though. I'm more a fan of individual players now and only a fan of teams by tradition. I am a huge LeBron James fan. It baffles me how many Lakers/Kobe fans hated James so much (because he was a threat to their guy) but love him now. I can't like or not like a guy cause of the team he plays for.

I love Lebron. The hate is absurd ( and that's being nice ).

I don't fully understand all the hate for star players. I try to appreciate the great players that come along. We spend so much time talking about who the best of all-time is and whether it's this guy or that guy. It's generally a waste of time. Just because LeBron is a great player, it doesn't take away from what Kobe or Jordan or anyone else accomplished.

It's probably tougher to follow a team in basketball than any other sport because one player can make such a huge difference and there is the turnover that you mention. There are also so few teams with a legitimate shot to win the title that, as a fan of a team that may not be in contention, you almost have to attach yourself to players that you like to watch. I'm a 76ers fan but there are tons of players that I just enjoy watching play the game. Thankfully, a few of them play for the 76ers these days.

Dallas? 🤔

Love that place. Love affair started as a kid. Wife and I had decided to move there before she passed. My job started a training school there and sent me there. Loved it.

I grew up in the Dallas area and went to college there too. It is an underrated city in many respects. I just prefer Houston but that’s with an extreme bias.

I’m just glad you didn’t say Austin. 🤮