I'd say baseball is my wife, College hoops is the ex i'm still friends with and could have married and boxing is the slutty babysitter.
Red Sox have been the centerpiece to my life since forever. Baseball is always #1, it's what I do for a living, what gets me out of bed, yadda yadda. It's what our family talks about during the holidays, the game we're known for playing.. you know the drill...
UConn hoops were my life as a kid (apart from the Whalers).. I loved playing basketball and it was arguably my best sport. In the late 80's/early 90's I followed literally everything the program did. Went to the camps in the mid-90's had all the Major players as coaches, charmed my way into JC remembering me year in and year out, etc. What's weird is - for some reason I just kind of fell out of college hoops for like 4-5 years. NO clue why, really. I moved to Mass (if you count the Springfield area as such) and you'd be surprised at the difference 5 minutes over a state border makes. I always checked in, followed from a distance, but never really got the bug like I had it. Then the 2014 team happened, I had two daughters and here I am chasing childhood feels again. I missed it a ton and am glad to be back in the loop.
I don't tell people - but I love boxing. Yeah, it's a twisted scrap of compared to what it used to be - but there still isn't a better moment in any sport than the five seconds between the ring clearing and the opening bell of a blockbuster fight. I watch UFC casually and I'm sure my pro wrestling habit is some sort of psychological self-loathing. I call it a 'habit' becuase i'm not sure I even enjoy it anymore yet still, compulsively every Monday night.
I used to be a big football fan - grew up as a Bo Jackson/Raiders fan; but once I got to college, the Patriots really won me over. The Snow Bowl was probably the official break up. I wouldn't say I follow the Pats obsessively, but i'm somewhere between casual fan and devotee. I watch every Sunday, get super into things come playoff time and go to a game a year. But if I miss a game here and there - that's OK.
Hockey lost me somwhere. Whalers moving killed the sport for me as a fan. Can't get into the Hurricanes. I spent WAY WAY TOO MUCH TIME as a kid HATING the Bruins, Rangers and Canadians to lend my allegiances to another team in the interim. I was a sports journalism major in college and rabidly covered hockey to the point where I had my first internship editor relentlessly trying to get me on-camera gigs with ESPN. No idea why I just stopped watching - but seriously, 2002 came and went and by 2003 I was gone. Just dropped it and no freaking clue on god's green earth why. With pro investment gone, my routing interest gone - it's hard to plug back in.
I've legitimately tried to get into the NBA. Loved it in the 90's, but the style evolved and then totally and completely lost me. I've spent hours of time trying to will myself back into the league, but it's just not there. Ditto for college football. Even with UConn doing their thing, I can't get into it. I'm a total bandwagon soccer fan. Every world cup comes up - i'm glued. I used to be big into Chelsea before they got really good, but I'm smoked enough as is with sports - Chelsea's hard to cram in.
So that's me in a nutshell.
