When did i become an Eagles fan, and why? Am I a bandwagoner without knowing?

I went over to read the comments and i still think they’re bandwagon fans for being fans of boys and yanks

 I became a fan of the Eagles in ’94 when I was 8 years old. I looked at my father and wondered why we dont have a favorite team since i had just started to play football. He said well the Eagles just got a new owner, lets start at the beginning of an era. So I did, i think they won like 7 games that year and it was miserable, but i developed my hatred for Giants/Cowpokes/Skins right then and there. But I grew up in Central New York and as a huge Cuse fan, many people think i just followed him to the pros for a fav team. So i get called a bandwagoner all the time

When did you all become fans? and why?

My friends in New York post-college are mostly Yankees fans, so a couple years ago, I decided to be one too.

Growing up in the 70’s in Queens NY was tough being ant kind of NY sports fan. Giants/Jets were terrible at that time so it was either Cowboys/Raiders/Dolphins or Steelers. I loved the Cowboys because of the cheerleaders, and they were always on TV, and loved watching them on Thanksgiving, plus they had Staubach, Dorsett, Newhouse, Pearson etc etc etc….those were my boys, and I have been a diehard ever since

For me, I became a Cowboys fan as a 8 year old because they were the best team at the time I started watching football and understanding the game.

In addition to being a lifelong die-hard fan of these two teams, I also root for the North Carolina Tar Heels (Jordan and Carter are my two favorite players) and the Michigan Wolverines (guilty of being the #1 team in the country when I discovered college football at the tender age of 6). have a son in his own image who he can share his love for his favorite football team with?That’s where I came in, and I was fortunate enough to grow up while Dallas was winning 3 Super Bowls in a 4-year period.

Haha I like this line the best

if he also roots for the Stormtroopers when he watches Star Wars.

Those are great.. “I’m not a bandwagon fan, I just started liking them because they were winning.”

I wish to share with them my story. I was born in Philly, and it’s always been a part of me. But I moved a lot as a kid… so I can see how some may get confused when they were little living in places near a team that was good. In 1986, I was 6.. and we lived in NYC (My dad was going to school there). The Mets won the Series… and I will admit, I cheered… I had no idea what the word “Rival” meant, all I knew was that in the campus that we lived in there was a lot of happy people singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”… and they had a player named Strawberry which was funny, I never understood the Coke references though, I liked cherry… (I also thought Orel Hershiser’s name was really cool, cause it was like a mix Oreos and Hersheys.. but he was a Dodger, and could find no love)… Anyway, I still liked my Phillies, but I cheered for the Mets cause I was little and didn’t know better… Within a year, we had moved back to Philly area, and I listened to there games on the radio when going to sleep, wondering if we’d get a party too… and also how a guy with 500+ HRs (or whatever he had back then) had the nickname “Strike Out Schmidt”… HK never called him that, but some kids at school did.

The next year we moved to SW Florida.. between Tampa and Miami. There wasn’t much baseball, my natural swing (which now kills me in golf) was barely utilized… It was pre-Rays/Marlins and most people down there loved the Braves, and they were good then.. In Football was king.. I had my choice of several local college teams that were good FSU, UF, Miami seemed to trade top spots.. and for the NFL while Miami was decent and had a lot of local fans, Tampa was still in White and Orange and had that can’t win underdog thing going on, which I could sympathize with.. OR I could do what I did, and love my hometown friggin Eagles. I had maybe 1 game a year on TV that I could watch (one of the Dallas / Philly games always made TV).. but why the HELL would I cheer for anyone else? I was older than 10 and now old enough to know better.. I watched whatever games I could, and when i couldn’t I’d watch the game on just for the score update. I had always cheered Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, 76ers.. and still haven’t stopped.

In baseball I hated the Braves and was really happy and shoved it in friends faces when the Phillies beat the Braves in 1993 to get to that World Series. When the Marlin’s came to be.. I went to Miami, to cheer on the Phillies… wearing a Phillies Jersey & facepaint (red everywhere, white “P” in the middle of my face)… we yelled like crazy.. and we lost the game, 2-1.. but I got to see Dutch hit a solo HR. I always cheer loudly for the Eagles against all the Bucs fans got tons of crap for our troubles against them earlier this decade.. But how I do I love to rub wins in the faces of my Gint/Cowgirl ‘Wagoners as they’re big here too.. well the NY fans may actually be relocated, but all the Dallas Fans aren’t from Texas.

For College, this is the only thing I’ve actually gone kind of Bandwagon on.. I start by saying, I lived in Florida during HS. So even though my home(state) pride had me love Joe Pa & Penn State.. there was a chance I’d actually be attending one of the state schools. College ball was never as exciting to me as NFL… I think I started liking FSU, but never Bowden… then I realized they didn’t have an academic program (I was choosing a possible degree too)… My older brother ended up going to UF for engineering, so I ended up cheering for them. And my dislike for Bowden made it easy to jump wagons. I was happy when I got my acceptance UF, also to UCF (better for computers than UF, not so much for Engineering or Football).. and I was happiest when I was accepted to Villanova.. but then said when I realized I’d be paying Out of State Tuition, instead of a free ride to a FL school on scholarships… I chose UCF (and software) and have been been to 2 UCF @ UF games.. wearing my Black & Gold.. luckily there’s no real rivalry and I was always with my brother in Orange & Blue.. because the tickets he’d get us were always in the UF student section… I don’t consider myself a Philly or UCF bandwagoner ever.. those are my teams due to my life not their records, but I’m not immune as I’m not sure I can argue against being on the Gator’s wagon.. but I am there for family.

Those are great.. "I’m not a bandwagon fan, I just started liking them because they were winning."

The key word here is “started.” You could make the claim that these guys were bandwagon fans for starting to like them when they were winning. But the definition of a bandwagoner, or frontrunner, etc, is that they continually like who’s best.

So, I started liking the cowboys when I was 9. They were winning Super Bowls, yes, but I started rooting for them mostly because my parents were Giants fans. You can understand that, right?

So, sure, maybe I was a bit of a frontrunner then (though I didn’t know it, at 9 years old), but a true frontrunner would have bailed when they started to suck. Real frontrunners are people that liked the cowboys in the 90’s and are Steelers / Patriot fans now.

You can’t call someone frontrunner when they root for a 5-11 team three years in a row. If they were really a bandwagon fan, they would have jumped off the Dallas bandwagon, and On to someone else’s.

Yeah, I’ve been an Eagles fan all my life. There are pictures of me in Eagles garb at 2. And where I was at I could’ve chosen Steelers, but I just liked the Eagles better. I grew up through the Cunningham, Reggie, Buddy Ryan era, so even though they never won much, it was still fun to watch. And I watched the Phillies as well, even though they only had that one good year (on the cover of my books in school I had a schedule of all 162 games and listed what the final score was and their record at the time).

I sort of lost contact with all sports through the late 90’s- mostly because my friends weren’t into pro sports either, but I started following the Eagles and Phils in 02 again when I started hanging out with college friends who were into sports. Been following them closely ever since.

He’s basically rubbing in the Yankees WS win over the Phillies, but here’s what he wrote…

Subject…

Feels a bit like the great late 70’s

Body…

Steelers and Yanks dynasties! What’s better than that!!!

I think it’s time to cut off all contact.

AHH passing some guy I work with in the hallway and he screams go Yanks at me… I didn’t even know he was a Yankee fan but I do know he is a Cowboys fan (who by the way didn’t even know felix jones or tashard choice by name – after I had to remind him). Sad sad “fan”

There is a complete and utter difference between being a front running fan and a bandwagon fan. Assuming you become a fan when you are old enough to make the choice, it is more than likely you are going to pick one of the following: A good team, a local team, or a team your family/friends like. But the difference is, you are a legitimate fan of a team if you pick a team and stick with them. For me, my father was a Dallas fan all throughout his childhood, and that paired with my family in Texas led to me becoming one as well. But I vaguely remember the Super Bowls(Being that I’m only 22), and my more clear memories are of the 5-11 seasons and the recent collapses.

A bandwagoner fan is more along the line of what you see in recent Steeler fans, and all the Yankee “fans” that have popped up recently. It is fine picking a team for the series(hell, I was cheering for the Rays hardcore last year), just don’t call yourself a fan of the team.

Nothing wrong with picking a team and sticking with it, just stick with the good and the bad.