Loyalties

If you know my husband, you know we watch a lot of sports around here. His loyalties are few, and run deep. First and foremost, BYU. BYU everything. Desperate enough, he will watch women's basketball games, just to root for the Cougs. Raised in SoCal, he always roots for the Lakers, USC (unless playing against BYU), the Dodgers, and the Angels. As far as the NFL goes, he usually roots for the Eagles, but only because they have the most BYU players.

And then there's me. I grew up a nomad, minus the llamas. Born in Texas. Have family in Texas and Pennsylvania. Lived in Virginia (twice), California, Michigan, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Utah, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. There are many teams I root for based solely on this fact.

It was my 6th grade year in North Carolina that I distinctly remember being introduced to sports. My family is not a sports family in the least. Sporting activities in my family consisted of racing to get the remote control first. My science teacher, Mr. Davis, was the biggest Tarheel fan you'd ever meet. He ingrained in us the chant, "Duke is puke, Wake is fake, but the one we hate is NC State!" It was that year that NC won the tournament. I think that's when my love affair with March Madness started. Ever since I've been a Tarheel fan. I had my North Carolina Starter jacket (before they became 'hood). I traced the NC logo on my notebooks. And I still cheer for them. Unless, of course, they play the Gators. They are my true #1. Three years ago we visited Derrick's sister in Raleigh and went to Chapel Hill and Durham. Chapel Hill was gorgeous, and it made me fall in love with the Tarheels even more. We got lost driving around Duke, only solidifying my disdain for them. I mean really, they are puke.

Without fail, Derrick and I will wind up rooting for the opposite team. I don't think we have ever rooted for the same team in the Superbowl since we've been married. Or the college football championship game. Or the World Series. And I usually win, which drives Derrick crazy.

I'm sure I'm spreading my loyalties too thin. Can it even be considered loyal when you have like 10 teams? Probably not. In the meantime, I continue to pick my bracket based on whether or not I've lived in the school's state. Scientific? Not so much. But it has served me well in the past.

In other sports-related news, did you hear Tom Brady married that ugly hooker Gisele on Thursday? She's hideous, right?? RIGHT?? That was a sad, sad day. It'll never last, mark my words. He'll realize he's really madly in love with me, and I'll have to gingerly let him down easy and tell him I'm flattered, really, but that I'm already married and in love with a man who is NOT an NFL quarterback who is NOT a millionaire. Sigh...

So there you have it, Joe. My Tarheel's history. I will forever root for them. And the Devil Rays (yes, I know they're just the Rays now), and the Longhorns, and the Gators, and the Patriots, and the Brewers, and....