Readers share their stories of unusual ways they became fans

Two weeks ago I penned a column pondering the illogical nature of fandom, using the arbitrary way in which I became a fan of the Duke men’s basketball team as an example. Afterward I encouraged readers to share their stories about how they became fans of teams, which I would present in a future column.

Thank you so much to everyone who responded. I ended up with more stories than I can fit into one column, so some of the stories, as well as the strange tale of how I became a fan of the Arsenal soccer team, can be found on The Herald’s website. But here’s a selection of your stories about the unusual ways in which people become fans of teams:

Jeff Brown, Everett

For me, the most unlikely team I ever became a fan of was the 90s Buffalo Bills.

My parents were hosting a Super Bowl party for the first of the four Super Bowls that they lost. I wasn’t really interested in the first 59 minutes of the game; it was just kind of on in the background. But then, in the final seconds of the game I noticed that all of the adults in the room were intently glued to the TV, even those who didn’t really care who won.

“What’s going on?” I asked my dad. He uttered the fateful words that would usher in my Bills fandom. “If the Bills make this kick, they win the Super Bowl.”

Had Scott Norwood made it, I probably never would have been captivated by the Bills. Being that I was a kid growing up in the Tri-Cities, on the opposite side of the country from Buffalo, there was absolutely no reason for me to adopt this team. They weren’t a popular team or from a big market. None of their players were media darlings like many of the Cowboys from that era, or Steve Young or Brett Favre. They had no rich tradition or history.

But once he missed I immediately felt horrible for the Bills and decided that I wanted them to make it back to the Super Bowl again and win it. Each successive year the Bills would give me new hope, dominate the AFC in Patriot-like fashion during the regular season, and march back to the Super Bowl only to rip my heart out once again in the big game.

I swore the Bills off for good after they lost to the Titans on the final play of the “Music City Miracle” game in 2000. After I watched the replay in disbelief and noticed that, shockingly, Frank Wycheck’s perfect cross-field spiral had indeed not gone forward, I decided that this Bills team was certainly cursed/doomed and would never win it all. They’ve been nothing more than average since.

Yet despite the pain of losing four consecutive Super Bowls, being a Bills fan for the better part of a decade taught me a lot about life. Whether they were coming back from 35-3 down in the third quarter against the Oilers, or Don Beebe chasing down Leon Lett to force a touchback, or even in more recent years Jim Kelly battling cancer and MRSA, the Bills were fighters. They never quit, never gave up, ever. They didn’t play for the limelight, they played for their coach, they played hard, they played for each other. For me, that’s all I could ever ultimately ask for in a team.

Besides, the best part about rooting for the Bills? They ultimately prepared me for a lifetime of rooting for the Mariners.

Dan Todoroff, Marysville

I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. The reason is silly and borderline stupid, but for 30 years I have been a die-hard Eagles fan.

In 1987 I was living here as a transplanted Californian from the East Bay. Obviously, I was born a Raider fan, so moving to Seattle was hard. However, the year I moved up here the Raiders left Oakland and moved to L.A. So I was a shunned Raider fan. I kind of adopted the Seahawks since we were local and big NFL fans. We actually became season-ticket holders for the Seahawks in 1991 and I am one today.

Here in my world everyone was either a Raider fan or a Seahawk fan and it became nauseating. So one day my friends and I decided we were done. We put all the teams into a hat (minus the Raiders and Seahawks) and we all drew a team. To this day, the four of us are all big fans of the teams that we drew. I drew the Eagles, the rest is history.

Jeff Walyus, Arlington, Virginia

Many of you may have played bubble hockey in an arcade. Of course, bubble hockey’s precursor was those great slide hockey games. As a kid I remember killing many an afternoon playing my brothers’ hand-me-down Bobby Orr Hockey game. And none of this plastic crap — the board was wood, and the interchangeable players were all metal.

By the time it got handed down to me there were only two complete sets of teams left, so my buddy Sammy always took Toronto and I was always Montreal. There. If you were wondering how someone from North Jersey becomes a Canadiens fan that’s how it happened. Damn, did I get lucky on that one.

Follow Nick Patterson on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.