Tradition

You ever wonder how things get passed down and no one ever researches WHY the idea stood so long???

That's pretty much why there are so many branches of Christianity. One person stood up and said, "You know what, I don't agree with this one thing. Who's with me?!!" And it kept happening over, and over, and over again. And in each branch, the same beliefs are passed down to the next generation.

Same thing with family recipes. One grandma made a bomb version of potato salad 200 years ago and now the only way for anyone in your family to make potato salad is the way she did. Why? Because one person stood up and said, "This potato salad is the best." And the recipe gets passed down to the next generation.

What about track and field? Michael Johnson ran a 43.49 in the 400M in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA to break the Olympic record (narrowly missing the world record by two tenths of a second). That's incredibly fast. Was he coined the fastest man in the world? Nope. Not even after he backed up that performance with a 19.32s 200M dash. The person who won the 100M was. Why? Because some time ago, someone stood up and said that the 100M dash was the measure of who the fastest person in the world is. And the theory got passed down to the next generation.

On Thanksgiving, millions of families sit down and have a Thanksgiving Day Turkey because hundreds of years ago, that's what they ate. Why did they have turkey? Because there was an abundance of them around at the time. So from that point, it just got passed down that at Thanksgiving, you have turkey. I'm sure the Pilgrims and Native Americans ate all kinds of water creatures and what-not because it was also abundant in that location, but the thing that stands out... the turkey.  

People become fans of something based on influence. Whether you have the love of a team shoved down your throat from your parents, ideas from friends or any other medium, it's influence. I am a Skins fan. I grew up in the Washington, DC area and I believe in supporting my home squad. I've watched them win two Super Bowls, and I've seen them suffer miserably. It doesn't change my love for them, they're still my guys at the end of the day. They may upset me periodically, but they will always be my team. Even my stepdad is a Skins fan and he's from South Carolina. Why is he a Skins fan? Because when you grow up where he did during the time he did, that's the only team that came on TV... influence.

I don't get the bandwagon fans... the ones who only like who's good at that time. Then once the tide changes, they find someone else to root for. Flakes.

I don't get the "I love every team playing them" fans either... They just really want to see one particular team lose all the time... not normal.

But other than the people who like Dallas because of racial reasons dating back to when George Preston Marshall was around, I don't understand the DMV folks who cheer for Dallas. Some do it because they want to be the family rebel. Some do it because they like the colors. Some do it because they detest Snyder so they will root for their worst enemy. Some claim they watched them all the time growing up here (for real??) And then there's always some that have it passed down to them from their parents who were cowchick fans. Then you have those guys who root for them because they heard that phrase: "America's Team."

The cowchicks got their nickname from Bob Ryan (who is now the VP of NFL Films). He felt like at that time more people in America were Dallas fans than anything else so in an NFL Films production, he told the narrrator to call them "America's Team." There was no ballot... there was no drawing. Just one dude who decided to call them that based on what he thought. And it just kept getting passed down over and over. (Realistically speaking, if one person stood up and made that assumption every year about which team had t the most fans, every year we'd have a new America's Team.)

Which makes me wonder... If some of these Dallas fans in the DC area would go back and research the reason(s) that they are fans, would they feel differently?

The folks who had it passed down to them, their mind was made up from the beginning. Can't you think for yourselves?

The folks who dislike Dan Snyder, well, their fan-dom was spun out of hate. Seek therapy.

You can also appreciate a certain color and not appreciate a team. I have plenty of silver articles of clothing/accessories. Blue stuff too. Will I change my allegiance because of it? Nope.

The rebels like them because they wanted to be different or they were in cahoots  with a friend/family member. Message: MAKE UP WITH THE PERSON.

The people who claim they grew up following them: if you spent your whole life here, you couldn't have possibly had a fair chance to follow them, because every network here is geared toward the Skins. Besides, NFL Sunday Ticket hadn't been invented yet. Have you even been to the city of Dallas? I have. It's a nice city. But I will NEVER like their football team. GO SKINS.

I know who some of the players are on their team (even though some DMV Dallas fans don't), and I think that a lot of them have legit talent, But I still don't like them. GO SKINS.

I might be going out on a limb, but some people here might like them because they like country music or something and they feel like cowchicks goes along with the persona... I dunno. But I bet you 75% of the guys on their team can't even line dance. GO SKINS.

Why do I dislike them?

#1 - I never voted them 'America's Team'

#2 - When I was growing up, I saw a team full of law breaking bums who got praise from millions of people including their owner because they won games

#3 - Because I will always LOVE my Skins.

What I'm saying is, unless you weren't a fan of the Skins because of the way Marshall ran the team years ago, any reason a DMV native can come up with for being a Dallas fan is pretty silly. If you grew up in Texas or spent a great deal of your life there, that's fine too. But if you're from here, I CHALLENGE you to evaluate why you became a cowchicks fan and see if there's some reasonable cause for you to draw allegiance to the star. 

Go on... I double dog dare ya.

GO SKINS.

#HTTR

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