Hometown Obligation

Last night at a family gathering there was a hockey game on TV. Our home town team was playing and of course we were cheering for them as loudly as we could. That got me to thinking, if you have a professional sports team in the town/city that you grow up in; does that mean you have to cheer for them?

It’s as though the fate of the team you cheer for has to be pre-determined. You don’t really get a say in the matter, you cheer for them by default. Is that really fair? In my particular case, I’ve cheered for my hometown team all my life…but I’m not sure why? It’s not like that are known for their defense, offense or goaltending; I’ve just always cheered for the, and don’t know why.

I don’t plan on becoming a fair-weather fan, but I just want to have the option to choose who I cheer for. I know it’s too late for me to switch who I cheer for as it’s tradition. But maybe we’ll let the kids decide who they want to cheer for in the future.