A fan for hire: The joys and sadness of being linked to no team in particular.

Living in Huntsville, AL puts me in a unique perspective as far as fandom goes. We have no big 4 professional teams within 2 hours. The Titans are up the road in Nashville, Memphis Grizzles to the west, and the Hawks and Falcons to the east in Atlanta. Close, but still not truly ours. For this reason, most hardcore fans in Huntsville look to College Football, and we, like everyone else in our state, support and root for either the Auburn Tigers (BOOOO!) or the #1 ranked National Championship bound Alabama Crimson Tide (YAY!!!!!!!). No need to tell you who I root for. For this reason, I am a diehard Alabama fan and fan for hire in all other sports. Currently I am a fan of the Houston Rockets (due to them being closest to me geographically in Graduate School + their heart and hardworking playing style) the New York Yankees (family ties to NYC +their fine history) and the Dallas Cowboys (always a supporter since the winning days of the 90's with Emmit and Troy, + my girlfriend being from Dallas.) Someone would look at this list and say I am a front running bandwagon fan, and I would respectfully disagree. The Cowboys have not been playoff relevant since '96 and I have still been a fan (also a fan of the Titans). The Yankees are a great team and have been for awhile, and I have a direct family link to them. Now that Alabama football has returned to national relevance I do see a definite difference personally in the feelings I get cheering for them compared with the other out of state teams. I guess there really is something to being geographically linked to a team. I take AL's losses much harder then the Yankees, even in the World Series. I guess I just have a stronger connection to the true "home state" team. What do you all think? Would your fandom for your teams be any different if you actually weren't directly geographically linked to them? For those of you who aren't geographically linked to your favorite teams, can you tell a difference in your support compared to when your hometown team is doing very well? Give me some feedback....