Who are your teams?

I think it's safe to say that everyone who knows me for two seconds knows that I'm a sports fan.

I'm also very open about which teams I support. So, here they are: NFL - I'm a diehard St. Louis Rams fan. I've been a fan since they were still in Los Angeles and they had a running back by the name of Eric Dickerson, who remains my all-time favorite NFL player. Heck, I even went to his 1999 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.

Within the family: my father is from Pittsburgh and is a big Steelers fan; my mother (RIP) was from southeast Texas and was a big Dallas Cowboys fan; my sister is a Green Bay Packers fan and shareholder.

Despite the fact that I live in Kansas City, I cannot stand the Chiefs. I also have a strong dislike of a certain team in San Francisco (which, given the Rams' history with that team, should surprise no one).

MLB - Baseball is the game I grew up on. I did grow up a Kansas City Royals fan and am just old enough to remember the team winning the World Series in 1985. My first Royals game was one year later, in 1986.

That said, I disowned the Royals about a decade ago for a number of reasons, all of them related to the team being a bunch of cheapskates. Today, I really don't have a favorite team. I just keep my eye on up-and-coming teams that really intrigue me as a fan of the game.

That said, there are baseball teams I cannot stand. Tops on that list are the New York Yankees. NBA - In terms of pro basketball, I have a team 1 and a team 1a. Team 1 is the Indiana Pacers, and Team 1a is the Houston Rockets.

NBA teams I dislike include New York, Detroit, and Chicago in its present state.

NHL - I most closely associate myself as a Los Angeles Kings fan, but will follow any team Wayne Gretzky was ever associated with. As a player (greatest all-time), that would mean Edmonton, the Kings, St. Louis and the New York Rangers. As an owner and coach (both of which he was terrible at), that would be the Phoenix Coyotes.

In terms of hockey, there's no team I dislike more than Detroit.

Soccer - Though I'm not at all a fan of what's going on in our domestic league, I do consider myself a Sporting Kansas City fan. Heck, I was at the first ever game at Sporting Park (the one where the idiot dressed like a cow invaded the pitch and "scored" the only "goal" of the game). In recent years, I have become a fan of the English game as well. Teams I support in England: Arsenal (largely a Rams connection, as the current Rams owner also owns a majority of the Gunners), Aston Villa (they're American owned (their owner used to own the Cleveland Browns) and are one of the more historic clubs in England. Everything we know today about club football is because of the Villa.) and Sheffield Wednesday (I like the name). Teams I dislike domestically: Orlando City (they know exactly what they did). Teams I dislike in England: Birmingham City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Sunderland, and Tottenham Hotspur. Other teams I dislike internationally: mostly limited to PSG. College sports - Football first. I grew up liking the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. By high school, I added Florida State to the roster of football schools I like (and, in the case of both, considered attending). Basketball: First and foremost, I follow the school that gave me a degree - UMKC. Go Kangaroos! Secondarily, I'm a closet Dukie (as we've already established earlier in this blog) and became a Syracuse fan as a result of their title run in 2003.

Schools I dislike: KU (especially in basketball, not to mention they have the worst fight song ever), K-State (especially in football), North Carolina (basketball, especially their current coach), Oral Roberts, Xavier.