My Favourite Teams (or how I learned to stop worrying and love my bombs)

I figured that a good introductory blog would be to tell you about my favourite teams and how I came to find and love them. I came to this conclusion for 2 reasons: 1.) It would be a good way for those reading to get to know me and B.) I have a point to make. With this simple premise understood lets begin with my first real introduction into sports and my first favourite

Rusty Wallace: That's right NASCAR is a sport, don't complain about it people will argue that Darts and Billiards are sports. When I was a young boy I loved NASCAR, my dad would put it on and I would sit there glued to the television for hours on end and watch the races. Somewhere along the way I became attached to a driver named Rusty Wallace. He was a good driver and he drove a blue car, immediately great selling points for my 4 year old brain. For the entirety of my youth loving NASCAR, I was always a Rusty Wallace fan and although my love of NASCAR died out when I got old enough to realize that watching drivers make left turns for 4 hours wasn't really my jam, I feel he left enough of an imprint on me to make this list. Maybe not the most influential athlete on my sports journey but definitely one that deserves to be mentioned

Edmonton Oilers: Ah the hometown team, especially if you grow up in a city where there isn't a variety of sports teams, the hometown team always holds a special spot in your heart. The only team on this list I have seen in person multiple times, from following them constantly getting beat by the Dallas Stars in the 90s to trading away players that I loved like Doug Weight and Ryan Smyth, no team has inflicted more heartbreak on me then my beloved Oilers and I think it was the Oilers that really shaped me as a sports fan. I learned how to love the unimaginable highs and to handle the dizzying lows that come from sports fandom. I truly believe being a sports fan is one of those thing you need to be a little insane to do because more often than not, your team will break your heart (sorry Leafs fans, this is especially true for you), and yet we all come back at the start of the next year believing despite all the evidence to the contrary, that we can win. I will always love the Edmonton Oilers and although hockey is not my biggest love as a sport (not being able to skate really limits the amount I can play unfortunately), I will feel that rush of excitement when the puck hits the ice for the first time this fall.

Atlanta Falcons: Back in the early 2000s in Canada we didn't have much choice of what teams we watched. Where I lived you got the national games and the Seattle Seahawks games and that is it. Now you might wonder how that turns into me being an Atlanta Falcons fan. That is simple, I am a gamer. and in the early 2000s I loved Madden. I played these games for hours on end and if you know anything about early 2000s Madden and the Falcons you know these 2 words: Michael Vick. He was a cheat code, he could run all the way back into his own endzone make everyone miss and score the other way. As an older gamer, I love taking bad teams and drafting my team, building a winner out of nothing, but young me just wanted to play, and boy was it fun to play as the Falcons. That experience stuck with me and although the names and faces have changed, the love I forged of this team remained in tact all the way up until this day.

Liverpool FC: Picture a scene for me if you will. It is 2005, a young 13 year old Canadian boy absolutely loves soccer however the lack of leagues in my country means that I don't really have a team that I watch. This 13 year old turns on the TV one day and the Champions League final is happening, it is AC Milan vs Liverpool in Istanbul, Turkey. The crowd is unhinged, it is a scene out of a comic book or a movie, its as if that young boy is transported back to ancient Rome and the doors to the Colosseum have opened. Then down a tunnel, out walk the Gladiators. One side in pearlescent white, the other adorned in a vibrant red. Over the speakers a song starts playing the crowd joins in "These are the champions". At this point the boy is wrapped up in the jubilance and majesty of the moment and before he can even get to decide who he wants to cheer for, the team in White has score. 50 seconds in, AC Milan 1-0 Livepool. 30 minutes later, a second and before the end of the half AC Milan was up 3-0, commentators were declaring the game over but something in the 13 year old boy makes him believe that he should keep watching and 10 minutes after the second half starts, a man who would go on to shape that young Canadians, Steven Gerrard gives them life, something to hold onto ... hope 3-1. 2 minutes later, Vladimír Šmicer hits a shot that you can only dream of hitting in a Champions league final, hope turns to belief 3-2. then in the 60th minute belief fades way to inevitability as Xabi Alonso's penalty is saved only for the man who was stopped to follow in the rebound and put it in, 3-3. Milan would continue to push, force Jerzy Dudek into one of the more unbelievable saves you will ever see but the crowd in the stadium, the crowd on the television and the young boy watching in Canada know the truth, the end is inevitable, fate has taken it's course. As extra time comes and goes without a goal and the penalty shootout begins, AC Milan miss their first penalty shot and Liverpool score theirs. AC Milan never recover, Liverpool win the Champions League. What started out as just a game on the TV became a moment in the young boys life that he never forgot. Over the years I have seen many Highs and Lows with Liverpool FC but the best way I can describe my fandom of this team is in this blurb, my memories of a game that happened almost 20 years ago and shapped my life forever.

I told you at the start I had a point to this article and there are many more teams that I have a lot of love for, the teams listed here may not even be the top 4. The Toronto Raptors and Blue Jays, obviously the Canadian Soccer teams both Women's and Men's, Gonzaga Basketball and Notre Dame football. All these teams are teams that I love and watch but the 4 above are important because of what they represent. I started cheering for Rusty Wallace because his car was blue; being from Edmonton made me an Oilers fan; Video games were my gateway to the Falcons and because I turned on TSN at the right time, I grew a Liverpool fandom that is as diehard as it gets (even when the draw Crystal freakin Palace). The point is at all these times I wasn't a fan at first I became a fan for my own weird reasons and honestly that's the best part of sports. Too often potential fans get banwagoned away from teams by fans who believe that because they were there first that they somehow own a larger part of the team. I have been guilty of this in the past but as I get older I recognize how dumb it is. Whether you are a 13 year old boy or a 55 year old mother, any moment can be a moment that a fan is made for the rest of their lives, as a community of fans we need to embrace this more and gatekeep less. So the next time that your team is making a run to the finals and another teams fan wants to celebrate it, don't push them off the back of the cart but instead lend them a hand and show them how awesome your team. Maybe you can make a new fan to join your team in the great moments and the bad ones too.