My Team

I didn’t grow up in Seattle. I moved there when I was 17 from Canada. I was there when the Seahawks became the 1st Pro football team in town. Thus, I have been a fan since the beginning. Because of this, I have the right to moan and complain. I get to rail against the coaching staff and assorted play calls I would never had made, assuming I would have been in a position to do so.

Not unlike my love of the Anaheim Angels…

With the Angels, it is different. I was a Mariners fan prior, but over the course of time, I became fonder of the Anaheim franchise and chose to become a fan. This happens in life, sometimes our loyalties change, and we become ardent converts. In religion, it is known as ‘seeing the light’.

There is no more vehement fan than the converted fan. You can apply this to sports, religion, or the car you drive. Once you make this discovery, you find it harder to take it when your team makes errors; and yet you make a distinction between the coaches and the team. You are loyal to the team, but feel free to suggest minor changes (fire the bum) to improve the outcome.
I think the one thing that remains constant is the way you are willing to defend your team against critics who are not fans of your team.

As I said earlier, I moved here when I was 17. In fact, at 17, the United States was the third country I had lived in. My parents brought me here and it changed my life forever.

The first thing I got to do upon arriving in Seattle was to sign up for the Draft. In 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War, this was no minor issue. In Canada, we were seeing kids my age heading the other way.

I opted to accept this. I really didn’t understand the war thing, but I knew I liked where I was living.
Years later I sought my citizenship here. I had in fact become a fan. I still am.

The one thing that is different about being a new citizen versus being a sports fan, I get to vote. I get to be an active part of the selection process that picks the ‘coaching staff’. I get to be upset with the current staff and work to make a difference. What I don’t do, not unlike my love of the forlorn Seahawks, is whine about the team itself.
Maybe because I wasn’t given my citizenship by birth, I take it less lightly. Like my loyalty to my adopted baseball team, it is very real.

I want be an American. I am Proud of this right.

So while I may at times not like the coaching staff, my loyalty to my adopted country does not waiver.