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Just wondering, for those of you that have ever had a local team that you rooted for change towns (such as Oilers to Titans, Expos to Nationals, Nordiques to Avalanche, etc.) did you remain a fan after the move? If no, why?

Also, if you live in a town that was the beneficiary of the move, did your allegiances change to the local team? For example, if you were a Redskins fan in Baltimore, did you become a Ravens fan? Why?

I have been wondering about how others feel concerning this for quite some time. I for one would keep my allegiance with my team, no matter where they play. If my Predators ever move, I would buy the Center Ice cable package to keep up with them.

If it matters to anyone, I like the Nashville Predators and Tennessee Titans, both of which came to Tennessee when I was in middle school and around the time I was getting into sports other than University of Tennessee football and NASCAR. Just wanting to put that out there before someone attacks me for being "contradictory" by rooting for local teams that were elsewhere or nonexistant 15 years ago.

Well, the Redskins moved from Washington, DC to Maryland and I'm still a fan!

Seriously though, I would be devastated if they were to move to - say, Los Angeles? Not that there's any danger of them moving but still, I don't know how I would react.

I know that there are a lot of people in Maryland in general and Baltimore in particular who have conflicting emotions about the Colts. It would be weird I think to be from a city that lost one team and got another like St. Louis, Houston, Baltimore, etc.

I guarantee that if the Cowboys were to move to Richmond, or Norfolk (I know it's impossible) I would still loathe those bootlickers!

It's not on the same scale but Richmond lost the AAA Braves a few years ago and now we have the AA Flying Squirrels (San Fransisco Giants farm team). I still root for the Atlanta Braves but not the Gwinnett Braves. I cheer for the Squirrels but I don't care for the Giants.

A number of my friends were Atlanta Braves fans but they have or are gradually switching over to be Nationals fans. Not me, I've got too much Braves stuff to change now.

Flames moved to Calgary and I was a Calgary fan until we got the Thrashers and I then became a Thrashers fan. They moved to Winnipeg and I went back to being a Calgary follower again - F**K Winnipeg!

I would stay a fan if my team moved but if they moved & changed their team name then it really wouldn't be my team anymore

I live by these.....

1 – If you grow up in an area with major sports teams, those are your teams.

2 – If you grow up in a massive area with multiple teams in multiples sports, than you must choose teams. Pick the Niners or the Raiders, not both. Pick the A’s or The Giants, not both.

3 – Once you’ve committed your loyalties to a team, that’s it. That’s your team. If you move, you’re still a fan of your original team. You cannot change teams because you changed geography.

4 – If, however, your team moves on you, all bets are off. For example, you grew up in Baltimore and the Colts left you. You do not need to be an Indianapolis Colts fan (but you can be). You are now free to choose to root for whichever team that will be your new team. Once you choose a new team, you are and must remain loyal to that team forever. And you can take as long as you like to choose your new team because grieving over the loss of a team knows no limits.

5 – If you grow up in a barren wasteland like South Dakota or Montana, which has no pro sports teams, then you become a fan of your father’s sports team.

6 – If your father doesn’t have a team, or was absent because you were a rotten kid, then you are free to choose any team but you are then committed to that/those teams for life.

7 – If you grow up in the middle of a large state like California and you do not have an obvious geographical choice, then you must still choose a team within your vicinity. Living in Fresno does not allow you to be a Pittsburgh Penguins fan.

8 – Apparel/Ticket = Fan! Once you put on that team’s hat, you are that teams fan. Period. No wearing apparel of any other team other than your team in any given sport is allowed.

9 – Military brats are granted full exemptions from all rules because they carry guns and defend our rights to say and stand by things like this list.

I am more of a coach fan then a team fan. I grew up watching the Steelers since that is where my Dad was raised. I fell in love with the Nolan style of smash mouth ram the ball down your throat style of play. I stayed a fan when Cower took over since he had same style. Even though I love the steelers I dont follow them as much with new coach, since he sucks.

So if Cower was to ever get a new coaching job I would probably add them to my list of teams I love to watch.

#1 Steelers
#2 Saints (live here so have too, plus Payton is good coach)
#3 & 4 NY Giants and Denver

I like following the last 2 since the QBs are local boys and used to watch them play at Newman.

Born and raised in Colorado so the the Broncos are my team, but I spent a lot of time in Minnesota as a kid so I've always loved the Vikings. Luckily they only play each other once every three or four years. I don't think I'll ever have to find out if I'd remain a fan of either team since I don't see them moving.

How do you feel about all this talk of them changing the name??

Minor league stuff is a bit different with a lack of media coverage and affiliation changes. Baseball teams seem to change affiliations among other minor league teams quite frequently. Since 1995, the Nashville Sounds have been the AAA affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Milwaukee Brewers. I have never felt any loyalty with the the major leage affiliate. And, if the Sounds ever left town (which if the city don't hurry up and build a new stadium they just might) I probably wouldn't keep up with them.

With teams moving and towns getting a second team, several somewhat recent ones haven't made sense to me:

1. Houston - they refused to build the Oilers a new stadium and they left for Nashville (thank you Houston) yet just a few years later they build a new place to get an expansion team

2. Cleveland - the Browns move to Baltimore never made sense to me, they had a rabid fan base. Them getting a new team made sense due to the large fan base

There are others but these stand out the most to me.

I may have skipped over it DivideAndConquer but what is your rule on if a team moves into your town? For example, someone living in Nashville prior to the Oilers leaving Houston and they liked let's say the Falcons. Do they remain a Falcons fan or do their loyalties change to the Oilers(Titans). I know a lot of people that switched to the Titans when they came to town. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't have a favorite pro team at the time (I only cared about college football) so I didn't face this decision.

I was 7 or 8 when the Colts left town in the middle of the snowy night. My mom was from northern Virginia, so it wasn't a hard switch for us/me to the Redskins.

When the Browns moved to Baltimore and the team became the Ravens, I did not care - a) I was in college and b) I didn't care about anything AFC. When I started living and working in Baltimore in the early 00s, I was going to a ton of Ravens games and having fun rooting for them, but I was never really a fan.

The 'Skins being competitive last year brought my attention back to them. And when the Ravens won the Super Bowl and I didn't care, I realized I was just a 'Skins fan (and a Flaco hater).



As far as the Redskins name, I get it to an extent. But... It's not a racial slur. And hasn't been in decades (centuries?). It's hard for me to understand anyone getting worked up by it. Words change their primary meanings from time to time. If you ask most anyone what redskin means they are either going to say a football team or a potato. They aren't thinking "racial slur for Native Americans."

The St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) moved to Arizona but remained the Cardinals so I'm still a fan of the team. I grew up liking them and the Los Angeles Rams so I still like the Rams since they are now in St. Louis.

I was a Seattle Super Sonics fan until they moved and changed the name. Now I couldn't care less about the NBA.

Well, it's not the topic but you did ask...

I am a Redskins fan. I have been for as long as I can remember. Obviously I'm not offended by the name. Let me explain why, I have numerous reasons.

First, and most importantly, from what I have seen and read the vast majority of people who responded to polls (both recent and months or years ago) have expressed either positive or indifferent answers. Indeed, there was a large group of people who weren't even aware that "Redskins" was supposed to be offensive.

Support of the name among Native Americans is much greater than the detractors. I've done a lot of research about this and have read or watched interviews of both the pro and con sides. What I have learned is that Native Americans by and large don't really care. There is one tribe (the Oneida of New York) who is very vocal in their opposition to the name but when you talk to almost everyone else they don't care.

I keep reading quotes from Native Americans saying the same thing, "We have more problems to worry about like unemployment, alcoholism, suicide, etc. - you know, real world things - than what a professional sports team calls itself. A lot were offended that "once again, the white man is telling us how to think".

Here's one link: Not everyone is offended
...and another: Va Tribe says what's really offensive
Read this one and find out that most Native Americans (90% keeps coming up) have no problem with it: No consensus

Second, along the same lines. Do you know how many high schools use the nickname "Redskins"? And how many of them are majority Native American students or are actually on reservations? Look at this: High School Redskins
or this: Rick Reilly on Redskins

The bottom line for me is that we LOVE our Redskins. Why would we want to call our team by an epithet? We glorify our team's ability to go out and compete at the highest levels. The only people nowadays that would ever use the term Redskins in a derogatory manner are Cowboys, Giants and Eagles fans. And they're not talking about Native Americans when they do so.. they're talking about a group of ethnically diverse players and coaches who play a game somewhere near Washington, DC.

I think it's just another example of PC bullsh!t gone too far. Bob Costas - white guy, Peter King - white guy, Bill Simmons - white guy, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

How about they get off of their high horse soapbox and try to change something meaningful. There are plenty of things in this world that could use a little bit of attention from these grandstanding, politically correct, moronic windbags.

Other than that, I have no opinion...

As a former season ticket holder, I'll clue you in on the late
Mr. Adams. Bud wanted originally more seats in the dome, so he
could make more money. His contract with the Harris County Sports
Authority, which owned the dome, was a flat fee. X amount for
11 dates. A county bond was voted to spend $50 million to remove
the world famous scoreboard and put in 12,ooo more seats. Then
Mr. Adams wanted a new stadium with more ammenities, and greater
cut of pretty much everything. His big fuchup was to publicly
shop the team to the Jacksonville City Council. This (banned)
folks like me off. Then the price of my season tickets doubled.
Then Mr. Adams started whining and (banned)ing about everything,
including the condition of the field and seats.
If you've ever seen his Youtube digit salute to Houston, go find
it. Very few here in Houston wouldn't take ten seconds to piss
on his upcoming grave.

I will admit ignorance on this. I didn't realize all this happened until reading comments people were putting on articles announcing his death. I was basing it off what I heard others say about why he left Houston and did not do my own research. I was around 10 when they announced we (Nashville) was getting a team and that's all I really cared about. The only thing I heard was that it was some kind of weird deal by our then mayor to get a team in town. I should have looked deeper into it at some point but all I was seeing was that I now had a NFL team minutes from my house.

There are entire generations of people (myself included) that grew up with the word "Redskin" being the name of a football team, and that's the only primary meaning of the word. Heck, when I first saw redskin potatoes on the shelf, I thought of football.

I never thought to break the word down into "red" and "skin" and really think about what it meant. Likewise, until I saw some old westerns (probably black and white ones, ironically), I had never heard "redskin" used for "indian".

Unfortunately Majority Rules Does Not Apply In The US

This is exactly why I asked. It seemed to me that the only people complaining about the name were middle-aged, rich white men. Most of the people I've talked to about it didn't even realize that redskin was supposed to be a derogatory word.