29m seeks New Favorite NFL Team
For me being a San Diego Chargers fan isn't so much a preference but a lifelong occupation. Following this team has been as familiar and comforting to me as a conversation with a family member. Honestly, that may be the best way to describe the way I felt about the San Diego Chargers (1961 - 2016). That team was like family to me. And as such, I have been grieving like I've lost that member of the family. Â Melodramatic yes, but in truth is the closest representation of the extreme deeply rooted love I had for this football team. With all recent events considered, I have found myself asking a question I've been dreading for a few years. Can I be a fan of the Los Angeles Chargers?
Being a Charger fan hasn’t always been the easiest of endeavors. I have been a fan since their only Super Bowl run in 1994, and that happens to be the first year I truly tuned in and became a sports fan. I’d cheered for the Chargers since before I, and probably most others, could tie a pair of shoes. My family’s roots are laden throughout the San Diego area, specifically within the Samoan community of Oceanside. The same Samoan/San Diegan community that nurtured arguably the most influential and recognizable San Diego Charger ever...Junior Seau. While I can actually claim Seau as a distant relative, I was wholeheartedly sold on him before I found that he was indeed a cousin of mine. Take that, and throw in the free, autographed, limited edition Nike cross trainers for me he sent home with my Mom after their first meeting; and I was committed. There was never going to be a doubt that I was a true a San Diego Charger lifer. At least that is I would have been, had the Chargers stayed home and not moved a little over 2 hours North on a good day. They may only be 2 hours away, 120 miles by distance, but might as well be an entire universe away from their home, and their fan base.
I cannot remember what watching football was before being a San Diego Charger fan. With my favorite team now defunct, I wholeheartedly had no idea what to expect or how to handle this coming season. Is it possible to just be a fan of the game, even with no dog in the race? I’m sure that it is for some people, but for me that just won’t work. I don’t need to put my money on a favorite, I just want to be in the race. How, then, does someone go about picking a new favorite team? I found it to be anything but an easy question. There is no handbook, or suggested guidelines for finding a new favorite NFL team. There is no self help course, or after school special to shepherd the freshly unattached football fan to the appropriate team. I do not personally know anyone who was able to successfully pick a new favorite team, without losing the credibility and respect of the sports fans around them. I found myself wondering, is there a way to do this and come out the other end with my dignity intact?
As with any long term meaningful relationship, when it’s over you rebound. And no, I don’t just mean in that go out and find someone you hope is not there when you wake up in the morning type of way. Instead, it’s in the I’m in the market for the first time in a long time, and I don’t even remember what my type is kind of way. You can’t rush into anything with some floozy, and end up with a decade of bad memories and scars to prove it. No, the trick to the situation is to not rush, instead to give yourself time for the next great thing to happen organically. After considerable contemplation, I’ve decided this is the best approach to finding a new favorite team.
My target date is week 1 of the 2020 season. That’s 2+ years from the Chargers’ departure from San Diego, and is admittedly an arbitrary estimate. It make take some effort, but I am officially announcing my fan free agency. For 2 years, I will focus on being a fan of the game of football and not one particular team. I will root for who I’d like to root for based on nothing but my scattered interests. I will root for the players and organizations, yes multiple, that I for some reason or another have been impressed or entertained by. I can seek out my future NFL fan home free hopefully free from the bias that true football fans, and rightfully so, subscribe to. In the interim though, I will sit back and revel in the spectacle of the NFL season. In 2 years, I’ll jump back into the dance, but this time it will be with the prettiest girl in the room. I’ll be taking the next 2 seasons to make sure of it.