"He's gone! He's gone! Touchdown Washington Redskins!", Frank Herzog shouts during John Riggins' epic TD run in Super Bowl XVII, sending waves of exhilaration through the radio pulsing into my seven-year-old veins. That moment, jumping on my parents' bed in jubilation, the local sports optimist was taken. That passionate little boy lives in me today, driving me to admonish sports fans to both local allegiance and logical optimism.
First, as a fiercely loyal home team supporter, I strongly believe that a sports fan must have local allegiance. Specifically, if someone was raised in an area that has an existing team during their formative years, they must root for that team. My only tolerable exception to being a fan of a different team not in that area, is that they must have an immediate family member (like father or mother) who was already a legitimate fan of that other team. Yes, sports fans must have legitimate reasons to love their teams, and not latch onto a team (most commonly done because of widespread popularity and success) with no immediate connections. They also must maintain an unwavering allegiance to them, no matter how bad things may be. And no, I am not the only fan with perspectives like this. Among many who have gone long before me to feel similarly would be Bill Simmons, in his "rules for being a true fan."
I have been fortunate to experience the highest of high's with some of my teams winning championships, and have has also painfully endured the lowest of low's, with lots of losing. The local region that I grew up in for sports teams is arguably the most unique in the country. The "DMV" (DC, MD, VA region) as it is affectionately referred to, is certainly a hotbed for not only a lot of local sports teams, but also a lot of sports negativity and controversy. Therefore, I want to impart a hopeful and logical optimism to other fans so they can think intelligently and to appeal to the rioting masses of negativity.
