Franchisees

Some friends and family of mine, as well as myself, attended the Chiefs vs. Saints game last night at Arrowhead and taking in the whole experience (since the game was outright boring as hell) it got me thinking. If you know me, or have been following my blog, you know that for some time now I have been trying to select a new NFL franchise to adopt in a "casual fan" way. I used to be a HUGE NFL fan, but after many years I gravitated more toward the college game and couldn't be happier. I am a die hard Notre Dame fan, and will always be a bigger fan of the college game than the pros from this point forward. However, the NFL is so big and such a grand stage, and is football afterall, it almost forces one to care about how some team does. I used to be a 49ers fan, for quite some time and in very obsessed fashion I might add. But over time, the team and it's direction grew away from me and my interests until there was finally nothing left for me there. I didn't so much abandon them as they abandoned me. After spending many months pondering other teams to root for, and even initially setting out to root for whichever team drafted Brady Quinn (sorry, Cleveland is NOT an option), I settled on the Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay is fairly awful right now, but that is irrelevant. What I prefer to focus on is the team concept, the uniforms and logos, the players...a lot of the intagibles you'd expect an artist to dwell on. Anyway, fast forward back to the game last night. I just can't imagine ever being a Chiefs fan...and I live in KC! I just can't. I can't fathom rooting for a club that is so egregarious with it's fan base. Kansas City has an ENORMOUS following...very loyal, always willing to pay whatever it takes to get tickets to the games or buy merchandise and concessions at the stadium. And for what? A mediocre product? The Chiefs have won one Superbowl since it's inception and haven't even so much as sniffed another title shot since. Not realistically. Loyalists will point to the '93 season with Montana and Allen, but that's a fallacy. Do you think, if either wasn't washed up already, they would have come to a small market town like KC? Not a chance. The Chiefs made a quick appearance as the first victim for Indianapolis last season, but they hadn't seen the playoffs in five years prior to that.

Arrowhead has this planned "renovation", which in reality is nothing more than adding a facade and renovating the concession stands (although they say it's going to give fans all the ammeneties of other stadiums around the league. Yeah, right.) It's a shame...the Chiefs have an unbelievably loyal and proud following here in Kansas City...it's a shame that the organization doesn't take better care of their fans and it's a shame the fans let them get away with it.

So, anyway, I'm not quite sold on Tampa as a team to root for and I cannot figure out why. I tried to contemplate this last night while watching the Saints slap the taste out of the Chiefs mouths. The problem with the NFL (in my mind) is that you either root for a player(s), a team from where you live, or you randomly pick some team you like because of logo, uniforms and players. That's how I arrived at the 49ers when I was a teenager. I dug their unis, players and play style. I was hooked from there on out. But, as I grew older and learned about football (and I mean a lot about football), I got into other styles of teams. Then, the Niners ditched everything that was Forty-Niner like and began to demolish the roster and way of running a team and that was it for me. Dr. John York decided to burn the ship down...I didn't stay on board to find out if the ocean would put the fire out.

I know college football is more important to me, and always will be. I find comfort in that actually. Fall Saturdays are my football Sunday. But, the NFL and it's hype machine is next to impossible to ignore. And really, how much do I want to (or can I) invest in another team? Notre Dame is my love in football, and my main supplier of merchandise purchased. I don't need to add another club to spend a ton of money on, so that leaves casual fan status at best.

So...now I'm thinking perhaps I'll pick players to follow and not necessarily a team. I don't know. I do know this...I will be buying a real replica, sewn patches version of whatever team drafts Tom Zibikowski (my favorite college player in a long, long time). So maybe there's that as a future in the NFL.