As some of you might be aware I’ve been in search of a college football team ever since it started looking more and more likely that the start of the 2011 NFL season might be, at the very least, delayed.
I grew up going to Patriots games with my Dad. That fanship had been fostered since the early days of the 80s when I fell in love with not only the game of football but everything that went into being a fan. The Patriots are in my blood, on a level that no other football team will ever be able to achieve.
However, I can’t bear the thought of going into the fall without a weekend football game to look forward to, so I’ve weighed options from teams all across the country and have finally decided that…. drumroll… my college team will be…
The University of California Golden Bears!
Okay now before you click away thinking this site is about to turn into BearsPropaganda.com I assure all my Patriots fan followers that we will remain faithful to the Pats. You’ll only have to deal with occasional Cal stuff, and that’s assuming that my heart is able to accept this new forced fanship. There’s definitely no guarantee of that.
I realize that I might alienate some of my readers as well who might have previously existing NCAA fanships, especially in the Pac-10/Pac-12. To those of you, sorry, I hope we can have a civil college football relationship as I have with many reasonable Jets and Dolphins fans.
For those of you who don’t have a college football fanship allegiance I invite you to join me on this journey.
Here are the reasons I chose Cal:
- They’re a good team, but not so good that I’d be considered a band waggoner. That was my biggest problem when considering Oregon or Boise State (the other two finalists).
- They run a 3-4 defense just like the Patriots do.
- They almost always have a good collection of pro prospects.
- Being on the west coast they should have minimal conflicts with my east coast Pats readership brethren.
- I’ve attended a game at Cal, and it was an awesome campus with a lot of tradition. Plus it’s a quality institution and not just a football factory.
- One of my best friends Hondro went to Cal so I’ll have someone to watch the games with.
- Their color scheme (navy & yellow) will provide new schwag opportunities that will neither conflict with the Patriots, nor any of the teams I hate (Jets, Colts, Dolphins, etc.)
- They have a young team, with an open battle for starting quarterback. Sounds like a good time to hop on board.
So where does one begin when starting a new fanship? Well back in 2006 it was Ian Logue’s PatsFans.com messageboard that really opened my eyes to the world of hard core fanship so I’ve been looking for a good Cal messageboard but I have yet to find one that even scratches the surface of what PatsFans is.
However I have found one blog that looks like it will provide some good insight called BearTalk. I’ve begun to research the returning players and where the positional battles will take place. Similar to my draft research, I’m starting at ground zero.
Finally comes the first official schwag purchase. I’ll be weighing a few different items over the next few weeks. This is somewhat easier since I’ve sworn off buying any Patriots-related stuff until the lockout is donezo.
I fully reserve the right to abandon this forced fanship attempt in the event of the NFL lockout ending. But until that time I will focus some of my energy that is usually reserved for Pats analysis to the Cal Bears.
