The business of the NFL is cold and concise. Players are discarded like old shoes or under garments, you don't keep these items just for nostalgia, you replace them. While that is over-simplifying the way NFL rosters work, the bottom line is when a player can no longer produce or do the job you ask of him, and at the right price, you move on. On March 4th, 2015, the inevitable release of RB Pierre Thomas became a reality. To use one of the recent trends of expression amongst the twitter generation "I felt some type of way" about the move to be honest. Then I started to think about how similar moves in the future might make me feel about being a Saints fan and I realized that I'd be a Saints fan until the end, but with one rule - if the Saints ever moved to another state, I'm done! In the event that happened, I'd probably cheer a lil' harder for the Texans and despise whatever city the Saints moved to. I'm loyal, but moving the Saints would break that bond for me!
Further introspection revealed to me that I'm a football fan at heart, so as long as the game exist, I will watch and more than likely pick a side (even when I dislike both). In regards to the Saints, I am loyal to the team, in spite of moves that are made that hurt because I want the team to get better and understand that change will come. The longer I'm a fan, my former favorites list will out-stretch my current favorites list. The last 2 seasons have been especially harsh with a great deal of the SB44 key players being released, traded, or just not re-signed. But I don't question my commitment to the team, we will survive and the Saints will rise is my approach.
I then considered my loyalty to other teams that I follow such as the Texas Longhorns, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Atlanta Braves. It's easy when it comes to the Horns, I'm all in, because they will never move/relocate and there is guaranteed roster turnover no matter what. I had a short stint as a Lou Holtz-led Notre Dame fan, but they dominated TV at the time as well. Truth - I'm an OKC fan because of Kevin Durant, simple as that. 'Why?' you ask, he's a former Longhorn. As for the Braves, I grew up watching them on TV in New Orleans, so they get my default loyalty. I actually tried to get into the Chicago Cubs but it never happened, even with all that TV time. I also had a brief affair with the Oakland A's, but it's because I was young and they were winning.
So what I have concluded is that in football, I have my teams and that's that. In baseball, it's just a habit thing to see how the Braves are doing, I rarely watch a few at bats each season. In basketball, my loyalty is actually to a player, no matter what team he's on. I first closely followed Isaiah Thomas, then Charles Barkley, then Allen Iverson, and now it's KD. For pretty much every other sport, I pick a player who gains my interest and I rock with his current team. At the heart of this conversation in my head is the root, when it comes to the game that I love the most, FOOTBALL, it's all about the game itself! Even after Thomas, Drew Brees, Marques Colston, & Jahri Evans are long gone, I will remain a football and New Orleans Saints fan!
Tell me your story, are you loyal to game, the team, or the players?
Thanks for reading, Be Cool who Dats!