Go Niners!

When I was leaving Santa Cruz CA to move to the Midwest a friend of mine asked me "You're still going to root for the Niners aren't ya?" Not, "hey buddy we will miss you around here", or "will you be coming back for a visit?"

It was a quintessential guy moment in a bar. And I really didn't watch football out in the tall corn for a couple of seasons. I was busy exploring the beautiful fall forests with a recurve bow in my hand looking for the elusive wild turkey.

Lately I've considered taking up football watching again. And as I thought about it I figured I had better pick a local team so I had a chance of seeing them on TV without buying one of those $10,000 sports packages from the cable company. The closest areas with an NFL franchise are Kansas City (the Chiefs), St. Louis (the Rams), and Minnesota (the Vikings). I never much liked the Chiefs and I still think the Rams should have stayed in LA so I'm looking at the Vikes. I discussed this with my bartender (bartenders are licensed dispensers of sage advice) and she said, get this, "I could never root for the Vikings because of Bret Farve."

WTF?

"What's wrong with Farve?" I asked. "Oh my sister thinks he is dreamy", (they still say dreamy in the heartland) "and I can't root for a team with Farve because she adores him."

Now I'm liking the Vikes. The purple jerseys, the horns, they have a great up-and-coming RB out of Iowa named Albert Young (Albert, go figure that for a name for an African American), plus they located in the next state up. I could actually drive up for a game. But the signs are against me. Try as I may to blend in with the locals fate has fingered me as a Niners fan. This little vignette illustrates the point well: My wife and I were driving along Dodge street in Omaha one day when I saw a bar called the 49er. I turned to her and said "Is that cool or what? The have a bar named after the 49ers!" Her terse reply was "This is 49th street, genius." I still see things in terms of being a 49er fan. Besides, the Niners won their first 3 exhibition games (take that Dallas!). It looks like my fate is sealed.

Now a bit of historical confession is in order here. I used to be a Raiders fan. Remember when they won the Superbowl from a wildcard slot and President Reagan called to congratulate them for being the first team to do so? The very next year the Raiders showed their true colors and moved to LA, turning their backs on the Bay Area. After that the Niners caught fire and started to win Superbowls. The words "Montana to Rice" are etched into the minds of Niner fans forever.

The jury is still out. Perhaps I'll try to follow both the Niners and the Vikes. The turkey's will certainly appreciate that.

After note: There is a guy running around Omaha with a Detroit Lions jersey on with the number 16 and the name 'Owen' on the back. (Think back to last year's season for the Lions.)