Pledge of allegiance
Changing your favourite team
BEN POGGEMILLER STAFF
I’ve made a life-changing decision recently that will have a deep impact on my life — especially on Sundays. I changed my favourite NFL team. I have been a Green Bay Packers fan since my formative years when I liked the team colours and noticed that they had a quarterback, Brett Favre, who threw the ball a lot.
By no means was I a football fanatic. I mean, I would watch the occasional game and cheer for the Packers when they won, but the success of the team was barely a blip on my radar. This all changed during the 2005-06 NFL playoffs. Despite the Packers not making the playoffs, I found myself riveted by nearly every game. With a new appreciation for the sport, I find myself glued to the television nearly every Sunday this year, soaking up as much NFL goodness as I can get.
Which brings me back to my lifechanging decision. I have always liked Brett Favre, and I still do. He’s an icon and a legend, and is surely headed to the pro-football Hall of Fame. His presence on the field is enough to inspire the whole team. But his time is nearly up. He should be retiring in the next couple of years, which will leave the Green Bay Packers with, to put it bluntly, nothing. I came to the realization this year that Brett Favre is the Green Bay Packers.
That is not meant as a slight to the rest of the team. There are plenty of good players on the roster. Donald Driver is an underrated receiver, and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila is an excellent defensive end, but they can hardly be called team leaders capable of carrying the whole team. Once Favre leaves, there will likely be a vacuum, possibly relocating the better players and imploding the team.
In reality, this shouldn’t affect my ability to cheer for them now, but it looms in the back of my mind. I’m going to need a rock-solid team in the future to cheer for and follow closely. I need a team like the Seattle Seahawks.
Switching team allegiances was not an easy decision to make. I didn’t want to seem like a fair-weather fan. Just because the Packers don’t have a winning record anymore doesn’t mean I should abandon them. A winning record is certainly not the only reason I’m switching to Seattle. I also didn’t want to be accused of jumping on the bandwagon, seeing as the Seahawks won the NFC championship and earned a trip to the Super Bowl last year. I needed legitimate reasons for switching.
Luckily for me, the Seahawks are not exactly a far cry from the Packers. Their head coach Andy Reid and starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck both were members of the Packers during the ’90s. Both cities come from northern American states, whose citizens most resemble our own.
There is a key difference between the teams however. The difference is the Seahawks’ ability to not only perform competently, but win, without their star players Hasselbeck and running back Shaun Alexander. This allows for a fan experience that is not based solely around one or two players, such as the relationship I have formed with the Packers.
More importantly, I needed a team that gives me hope for next year. Sure, they’re not perfect but no team is. I still love the Packers, and I’ll still wear my T-shirt with pride, but once Favre is gone, it’s over.
The team switch is difficult in any sport, and your motives will be questioned, but that’s a good thing. So if you see me wearing a Hasselbeck replica jersey, you’ll know that it came with a price: $109.99 plus tax.
