JEagle87

If you were to take a look at my favorite teams on my CBS profile, you would see teams from Philadelphia, New York and Boston. After realizing that I have violated countless rules of city rivalries and probably thinking that I am a deranged fan or a front-runner, please let me explain with my first blog entry as an introduction/disclaim about me and my favorite teams.

See, I have a problem. I love watching sports. I've worked for sports teams and arenas and love nothing more than putting on CBS, FOX, ESPN, TNT or any other channel that has national or local sports at 7 PM and falling asleep to the 2 AM SportCenter. But up until this season, I've never really been a serious fan of the NBA, NHL or College Football. Mainly because I moved around a lot as a kid and chose teams that I could follow from each move. That's how I am an Eagles fan (lived in PA) and a Braves fan (blame Ted Turner and TBS). I also attend Rider University, hence the Broncs' logo for NCAA basketball. However, since Rider doesn't have a football team, I adopted my home state Connecticut Huskies and watched them grow from a transitioning 1-AA team, to co-Big East Champions this year. Say what you want about the WVU-UConn game or the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and WVU, UConn made it, and I couldn't have been prouder for my family, two generations, including my dad, uncle and cousins, and their team.

Now we get into the strange workings of my head. I was raised on UConn Huskies basketball. My dad is an alumni as I mentioned above, and I never really found a love for the NBA. I missed out on Jordan's first run in the 90s because I was too young, like 6 years old, but did see his second run and the Lakers/Spurs dynasties of the 2000s. I really only followed Ray Allen, the first guy from UConn that I was a household NBA name. I'll admit, I have a Ray Allen Milwaukee Bucks jersey somewhere in my closet and was saddened when I heard that the Seattle SuperSonics were going to move to Oklahoma City. Then, Allen was traded to the Boston Celtics, meaning the first UConn great in the NBA, was a only a few hours away from my hometown. However, my Celtic fan hood will be short-lived after this year. No, I'm not a front runner, but Rider has a F/C that you may have heard about. His name is Jason Thompson, a 6-10 big man who could (and should) and drafted in the first round, becoming the first player from Rider ever drafted. Whatever team he gets drafted to, I'll have a jersey/hat order online about 5 minutes after, it's nothing personal to Ray Allen, UConn or the Celtics, I just have a new priority.
Now on to the debacle that is the NHL. I have attended one NHL game in my life. I was about 9 or so, and I was at the Hartford (CT) Civic Center watching Brendan Shanahan and the Hartford Whalers (yes, the Whalers) play the Montreal Canadians with a friend and his dad, who had season tickets. The Whalers won the game, then later moved to Carolina and I lost interest in the sport. However, I casually followed one Chris Drury, who happens to be from my hometown of Trumbull, CT. He's a local legend of sorts, having won a LLWS title (winning pitcher, 1989 championship game), an Olympic silver medal and a Stanley Cup. Somehow, he landed with the New York Rangers in the off-season, and the only two players I ever cared about, were on the same team.

It's been a fantastic sports year for me personally. I actually care about all four major sports teams (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) and follow NASCAR (Hendrick MS) and MLS (NE Revolution) during the summer along with my Braves. I saw two NCAA basketball conference championships, seeing Rider fall in the MAAC, and Pitt win the Big East at MSG. I also achieved a personal goal, and beat my roommate in the process, by getting a "Superstar" ranking on my CBS profile, allowing me to Blog and post on GameCenter live Glogs as well.

I don't think there will every be a point that I am truly satisfied with all of my teams at once. That's asking for too much. However, if sports bliss or true happiness can be attained, I might be pretty close.

And I'm not going to complain.

- Eagle