Why do you love your favorite team?

It was a lot easier to grow up as a Bruins fan. Even tho we didn't win the Cup while I was a kid, we contended every single year and still had exciting guys like Cam Neely and Ray Bourque.

Being a Celtics fan as a kid kind of sucked as that was 'the beginning of the end.' I never got into watching them as much as I did the B's and Sox but I still cheered for them every chance I got.

As for football.. my childhood was full of 'Will the Patriots move to CT? Where are the Pats gonna move to? Screw spending money on players, lets move the team!' This turned me off to the Patriots and football in general. I ignored the NFL until I moved to the south and it got shoved in my face. I wasn't sure who to root for, despite the pleas from my immediate family to become a Pats fan again. I played football in HS with a friend of mine. Halfway through the year his father became an assistant defensive coordinator for the Ravens and he had to move to Baltimore. I became a Ravens fan. The next year we won the Super Bowl and I haven't looked back since.

For football it all started when on Nov 26th 1977 when as a child and I watched Tom Jackson return a Bert Jones pass for a 73 yards Interception return. I saw all that Orange I was hooked ever since.

I became a White Sox in 1981 after being a Reds fan. Growing up, the Reds were always on Game of the Week and they had guys like Rose, Driessen, Griffey and the fugliest man ever to play in the majors George Foster. But they broke up the Big Red Machine and I needed a new team. I never wanted to take the easy way out and become and Angels or Dodgers fan. So what do I do? I pick a team that had what I thought was a cool hat. I loved the black/very dark navy block SOX hat. Sure the rest of the uni's sucked, since it was at the end of the court jester uniforms. I wanted to be different and that was different.

I used to hate the Lakers because they always won and I got hooked on the Nuggets since they just wanted to fast break and score, they could not play D to save their lives. Also they had a hobo as a coach. Come on Doug More, great guy, good coach but he looked like a hobo at times. But over the years you could not help but love the Showtime Lakers.

The Kings - I rooted for them, but I tried out other teams, but I came back to my senses and took up the Gold and Forum Blue (since Cooke hated purple). So in the mid 80's I was back as a Kings fan, and I did this before Great One. I am talking when it Bernie Nichols, Dave Taylor, Marcel and two rookies Jimmy Carson and Lucky.

Devils moved to NJ when I was 6 and just started playing hockey. Suffered through the lean years until they became a model franchise in the mid '90s.

After the game, he showed me where the players parking lot was where we could get the autographs - I stayed there for hours waiting for every single player to leave to see if I could get thier autographs. I then went to every single home game that there was (that didn't fall on a school day that is) - I knew the fans, I knew the players - from Bill Buckner to Ivan DeJesus to Jo-dy Jo-dy Davis to Leon Durham, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith (who taught me how to throw a curve ball), Ron Cey, Bump Wills, Larry Bowa, Bobby Dernier, Gary Matthews, Rick Sutcliffe & even Shawon Dunston, etc etc... I was such a regular that I've been on the field multiple times when I sat in the grandstands and got the autographs before the game near the dugouts... I even knew the ballgirl Marla Collins...

I cared (and still do) about these guys - I felt every win & gut wrenching loss... as a kid I cried when they won the Eastern Division in 84' - then cried again when they lost to the Padres...