Today I had a glorious morning. Out our windows the clouds were low and touching the mountains, making our colonial town even more magic in the early hours of today. For breakfast I made a smoothie of fresh mangos, a fat type of banana whose name I don…

Once I started getting FSC in 2003/04 I turned into a full-fledged EPL fan, but I think it is nice to have a team that I at least have some history rooting for. It’s even nicer that Villa are a genuinely feel-good story this year–young players who play with passion and a charismatic manager.

The funny thing is that even if I didn’t have the history with Villa, I’d probably be choosing them anyway. They have the best kit, hands down, and they have a long history similar to that of my favorite baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds.

http://neonhustle.blogspot.com/2008/02/self-other-home-team.html

Zick: I grew up 90 miles south of Pittsburgh, and we got all the Pittsburgh cable channels, so that’s how I came to be a Steelers fan. All my other pro team loyalties are local — Carolina Panthers, Carolina Railhawks, Carolina Hurricanes, etc. Durham Bulls games can be fun, too, but that’s my only real tie to baseball anymore, because the Pittsburgh Pirates have been bottom feeders since blowing the 1992 NLCS.

As for college basketball, my whole family ended up choosing Duke because my dad worked as a pharma rep at Duke Hospital and knew several doctors who gave us extra tickets every so often. One of those doctors still has a hole in his wall that he never fixed. When I asked him about it, he said, “Jason Kidd, 1993.” I understood immediately.

The only team I’ve ever really followed is Kansas City in the NFL because I’ve lived in and around Kansas City, Missouri 10+ odd years. When the MLS season starts up again in a month’s time I plan on following the Wizards although unfortunately it’s going to be harder to do than an EPL team I think.

At any rate, in doing research online to find an English team to follow and support and learn more about I decided upon Aston Villa. Seemed like a good starting point with a new logo, new owner, new manager, renewed team, and a lot of up-and-coming young players to follow during their Villa careers and after they move on to other clubs.

So far I’ve not been disappointed.

I still watch the Premier League far more than La Liga, though, so it feels like I ought to have a horse in that race, too.

Simple really;)

I am from central Indiana. I’m going to throw some thoughts out there as well. If you don’t care about what I have to say, then so be it.

I am an Indiana Pacers fan. I’d say that this is the team that I root for that I have had the fewest second thoughts about.

I am an Indiana Hoosiers fan (in both football and basketball). My dad is from Columbus, Ohio and went to Ohio State, so I grew up rooting for OSU, but I always liked IU basketball for whatever reason. In the relatively recent past, I decided that I wanted my loyalties to lie with a single school, so I chose IU to be that school. It seemed sketchy to be an IU basketball fan and an OSU football fan. I still usually root for OSU in football though, unless they’re playing IU of course.

I am a Buffalo Bills fan. I don’t know why. I’ve liked them since I was in elementary school. I also root for the Colts, and with all the Colts mania the last few years here in Indiana, it has caused me to rethink my loyalty to the Bills. This is because I really like the idea of rooting for the hometown team. I can’t just bail on the Bills though. I do usually root for the Colts though, unless they’re playing the Bills.

I am a Cincinnati Reds fan. I remember the Cubs being my favorite team when I was in elementary school, and the Reds were my second favorite team. Probably a few years ago, when I hadn’t followed baseball in years, I decided to make a decision to make one of them my favorite team, and I decided on the Reds. I didn’t really even follow baseball again until the 2007 season.

I am a Columbus Blue Jackets fan. When I first started following hockey in elementary school, I liked Wayne Gretzky, and that was around the time he went from the Kings to the Blues to the Rangers. Whichever team he was on at the time was my favorite team. Then I didn’t follow the NHL for a long time. I would have said for a while that my favorite team was the Senators. But I think that I’ve settled on the Blue Jackets. I also have somewhat of an affinity for the Capitals. I don’t follow the NHL too closely.

I was out of the country for a few months last year, and soccer was more accessible on TV than American sports, so I started following the EPL. I chose Middlesbrough as my favorite team because it wasn’t one of the big four, and I guess maybe because I sort of liked the name. No local connections or anything, just a somewhat arbitrary choice.

Any interesting stories of how you came to your team current team loyalties?

When I studied abroad in Spain, I arrived at my apartment to find I was living 45 seconds from the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan (Sevilla’s stadium).

From then on I was hooked. I can’t see myself cheering for any other team.

But then again, I’m a Red through and through, but I’ve never stepped foot in Liverpool or in England for that matter. Sometimes you just have to pick a team and go for it.

That’s a great line and perhaps more true than I ever realized. I’ve tried choosing EPL and AFL clubs to support, but I’m perhaps too far away from the action to be more than a tourist. In many cases, I actually find myself supporting individual players more than teams — especially in soccer, where I can get behind the national team and just support those players in Europe and MLS.

For example I grew up in the 1970’s in Tampa, so I am now and forever a fan (sorry, “fannie”) of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. It does not matter that the Rowdies ceased to operate in 1993. I’m still a Rowdies supporter and will be until the day I die. Until someone resurrects the Rowdies, I support my local MLS club.

There’s no club in the EPL that can ever come close to the Rowdies in terms of my personal loyalties. Your club choses you; you don’t chose your club.