What Makes a Team Your Favorite Team?

What could make ANYONE dress up like this before a game?

Today's post is not about a big free agency splash. It's not about a potential trade. It's actually not about any individual player at all. Today, we talk about you, the reader.

For the longest time you have had a favorite team. In this team you slowly invest more time, money and even your heart. This becomes a team that you adopt as your own.

You support them through the highs and endure the lows. Chances are, regardless of how many early playoff exits you have had to painfully watch and numerous disappointing seasons where you knew they could have done better; you hung in there. This is your team. You won't give up on them.

The question I ask you today is why? What inspires you to wear their logo proudly on your chest? What prompts you to spend hundreds of dollars to just have the same jersey they have? What makes a team your favorite team?

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With these questions come answers that we have all heard before:

• I was born there
• My ______ (relative) liked them. 
• It's the city I live in
• They won the Cup
• They drafted Sidney Crosby (you would be surprised at how many times I've heard this reason)
• They have a cool logo
• I like their jerseys

I consider some of those answers to be valid but only to an extent. As I mentioned earlier, if you are going to be investing as much as we have already established into your team shouldn't it go deeper than their jersey color or logo?

I have seen some people grow up a fan of a certain team and over time change loyalties after spending many years someplace else. This happens a lot and makes sense too. Some people on the other hand make that decision once and never look back. Moving from place to place, city to city but the one thing that stays the same is the jersey that they wear when they walk into that hockey rink.

In my case: I was born in Ottawa and attended Ottawa Senators games with my uncle. I liked hockey but never got thoroughly into it until the day my uncle took me to a playoff game against Buffalo that I really started following hockey and the Senators consistently. Even after moving to San Jose and attending numerous Sharks games, Ottawa has remained my team. From the heated playoff matchups with the Toronto Maple Leafs, to the exciting Cup run of 2007, I have been there and experienced the highs and lows first hand. Even though the last few years (with the exception of last season) have not been kind to my team, the future is bright.

Ottawa is not just my favorite team because of that though. I admire the way they play. The heart they demonstrate on the ice, their never say die attitude and exciting style of play. Watching them get into line brawls and advance to the Stanley Cup finals, Ottawa has demonstrated to me that they are a team I simply enjoy watching.

I am not JUST an Ottawa fan by any means either. On any given day I can sit down and watch just about any team play. However, the Senators play an uptempo game and focus on offense. To me, that's how hockey is played in this post lockout era and watching a team play that style well makes it that much more appealing to me. Add all those factors together and you have my favorite team.

As you can tell from my writing style and previous posts, I remain neutral and do not let my personal preferences interfere when I discuss other clubs because even though I am an Ottawa Senators fan, I am a hockey fan first.

So what makes the team you support your favorite? What is your story?

Share them in the comment section!

*Don't forget to vote on our Free Agent poll on the homepage! *

Thanks for reading!