You like THE STEELERS?

The other night I was talking with Tim and he wanted to know how the movie count was going (I think I was around 650 at the time) and he was really impressed and all "So you're really going to make it? That's incredible." Turns out he really didn't have any faith that I would make it this far or actually be able to accomplish the goal and so we got to talking about how I was going to deal with football season and how that would affect my time with movies and I told him I was planning on only watching Alabama and Steelers games (yeah, that's really turned out well) and he was like "Who?" and I said "Alabama and The Steelers" and he was all "The STEELERS?" and I was like "yeah..." and he was all "The crap, dude?" so I had to explain to him why I'm a Steelers fan and it was really the first time I'd ever thought about it. I'll cop to not being the most loyal of NFL fans. Alabama is a constant. I've been a Bama fan ever since I knew what football is and I'll root for the Crimson Tide until the day I die. I've also become a UAB fan recently. I've lived my whole life in Birmingham, enjoyed Blazer basketball since I was a kid, and graduated from there. They've put together a decent football program and Hackney is one of the funnest QBs to watch out there so they have my support and loyalty and I'll pull for them anytime they play. But if Bama and UAB were to ever play? Then my loyalty would be with The Tide. Being an Alabama fan is part of the core fiber of my being, getting a degree from UAB is just something I've done. As for the NFL, there isn't really a team that's so significant to my identity like Alabama. For a while as a kid I was a Cowboys fan because my Grandfather loved Dallas. My grandparents lived there for awhile when my mother was a kid before moving back to Alabama and both Bama and Dallas were his two major passions in life. But I never really cared about Dallas. Hell, I never even watched pro-football. I just knew that Big Daddy was a Cowboys fan and so was I. And then one day, during a visit from my grandparents, he and Dad were watching them and I came and watched too and while they rooted for Dallas I secretly pulled for the other team because I had never seen anything like it. All the pro teams I knew of had fanciful names like Cowboys and Jets and Dolphins and Falcons and wore bright uniforms and they had superstar pretty boy quarterbacks with good looking wives and they just seemed like a bunch of grown ups playing a game, and suddenly there were these big guys in Black and Gold and they were called Steelers and they looked mean and they were scary and they hit like that was all they ever wanted to do and they ran the ball and knocked everyone out of the way instead of passing all the way down the field and they were tough and gritty and they were football. Ever since then I've called them my team, but, like I say, I'm not the most loyal NFL fan alive. There were long stretches when I didn't even watch pro-ball. I've flirted with being a Niners fan because of Joe Montana, a Chiefs fan because of Joe Montana, a Titans fan (who open against The Steelers on my birthday) because they are close and because I like Fisher, and a Falcons fan because they are close. I always watch Green Bay when they're on because I like Brett Favre, and I've even reverted to a little bit of Cowboys fandom because I like Bill Parcells. And really, I'm not even all that excited about this season. College Football in general and Alabama Football in particular is my true passion and after following the pros heavily for the past few seasons I'm starting to feel a little burned out by it again. I didn't bother with any of the pre-season games and I don't intend to watch the Pats/Raiders season opener this week. But I'll watch Sunday and I'll root for Pittsburgh against Tennessee and I'll probably start losing interest because there is a strong possibility that they've replaced one one-season wonder with another and the wild ride of last season will be just a memory and my fair weatherdom will rear it's ugly head and it will be 2008 before I watch anything other than the Super Bowl again. But whatever their fate this season or next or for the rest of my life, I'll say I'm a Steelers fan above all others and I guess that will just have to do.