When is okay to switch allegiances?

A surrogate team...MAYBE (I can think of a few teams I root for but not necessarily a fan). But you don't give up on your team. That's like turning your back on your family. I don't care if your team has sucked over the past billion years. You stick with them and ride the highs and dwell on the lows. Eventually they will get better, and when that day comes, it will be the most rewarding experience of your life as a fanatic of that team. On a side note:

Matt Millen should have been fired YEARS AGO. He must have some dirt on the Ford family...

Unless you are a total fair weather fan or a total frontrunner, you never give up on your team!! Look, I know maybe that picking to root for the Arizona Cardinals, or the Detroit Lions, was not the greatest choice one could make but, you made it and you should have to live with the consequences of your choice. It isn't about quitting on a team, you are quitting on yourself! It shows very poor character when somebody is a frontrunner. Being a frontrunner IS the absolute bottom of the barrell in terms of sports fans. I have immense respect(and pity) for Detroit Lions fans and their hardships. You don't have to buy the tix to the games to be a fan. As a matter of fact, some fans do a complete INJUSTICE to their team by going to the games week in week out, win or loss. You need to hit your team in the pocket so they make neccessary changes to make your team more competitive(not add black to your once pimp jersey's D-Town. The Lions look lile a total joke now that they added the black. What a horrendous idea that was). I lived in Detroit for a little while and the fans there are tremendous. It is d@mn shame that franchise is such a joke and in no way represents the fans of the Lions in any way, shape or form. Be proud of you r dedication to that wretched team, it is hard god d@mn work rooting for a team that bad! Respect yourself for it!

I can speak from experience that going through the storm with your team makes success taste that much better!

dont live in the bay, not a GSW fan, but even I watched them 07 playoffs and was so happy to see them doing what everyone (even I) said couild not be done...........one of my all-time favorite sports memories

The game where they clinched was surreal to me. I cried.

I became an Eagles fan when the Colts slipped out of town in the middle of the night! I wll never go back to being a Colts fan!! never! GO EAGLES!!!!

OK so there is an exception to every rule...

Never, if you swicth then you never alligned in the first place, you were fairweather.........switch allegiance isnt that an oxymoron?

I personally would never switch from my team. Fans do get rewarded. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a prime example, finally winning a SB after years and years of futility. The Pats are also another example, with Robert Kraft coming along after being one of the worst-owned franchises for years.
The Lions one was kind of a joke, but really, that team is cursed or something. There's some positive news, though: http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/09/22/william-clay-ford-jr-adds-voice-to-fire-millen-movement/
The son of the owner wants to fire Millen

IT IS NEVER O.K TO GIVE UP ON YOUR TEAM. EVER.

word Peags, word

LMAO THIS WAS THE BEST ARTICLE I HAVE READ ON THIS SITE! Keep it up... lol.

I absolutley hate front runners. You stick with your team through thick and thin. The greatest fans in the world are the fans that watch their team even when they are bad. Think about browns, cardinal, and lions fans. These peope have never even seen their team in a super bowl. Yet their real fans never jumped ship. Ive been through years with the giants with dave brown, danny kenell and never gave in, and it paid off now that my team is a contender and a plyoff team every year. POint being stick with ur team...or dont watch football PERIOD.

I will NOT become a Cards fan just because I moved to AZ. EAGLES all the way, until the day I die. EAGLES~~~~

That would be hard to do anyways..but Larry Fitzgerald has a cute behind.

I never noticed, I'll have to check it out! DMac has a really nice butt too!

love me some football pants....mmmm....

its ok if you were already a bandwagoning fan to begin with. We don't need you!

I BECAME AN EAGLES FANS IN 1993 WHEN I MET MY HUSBAND AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE HE HAS BEEN AN EAGLES FAN SINCE HE WAS TEN.I WAS A DIEHARD DOLPHAN BUT I SOON REALIZED THEY HAD ABSOLUTELY NO HEART OR SOUL,BESIDES POOR DAN MARINO.I STARTED WATCHING EAGLES GAMES WITH MY HUSBAND AND HIS DRINKING BUDDY SABATH OUR ROTTY,BLACK LAB MIX AND HAVE NEVER WENT BACK I LOVE THE PHILADELPHIAEAGLES MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF AND I AM NOT AFRAID TO SAY IT,BUT I WOULD NEVER EVER TURN MY BACK ON THEM NO MATTER HOW BAD THE DID!

If you were still a Dolphins fan you'd be very happy today!!!!! They beat the Pats!! I stilll can't get over that one!

can't either, ha

I am a diehard Raiders fan I don't think anyone would be calling me a front runner today. lol!
but somehow I found myself married to a 49er fan?! that is his only flaw.
He tries to convert me regularly - but I have still never been to a 9ers game (don't think i ever will). He on the other hand has found himself tailgating with me at the Oakland Coliseum many a time. ;-p I will never switch teams ever ever ever even if I moved to the moon!

Great article. I agree with the surrogate argument. I just pick a team in the opposite conference, so that rooting for the two doesn't conflict.

You never give up on your team. I had a moment of crisis when I was 12, and I chalk it up to trying to fit in. But I regained my senses.

Gambling, though? That's like rooting for the team you use in Madden.

i ALWAYS play with the eagles in madden

When your an Eagles fan. Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!

i was waiting for that one from you FIVE, what took so long?

Hey.....you know I have to give you guys a little grief. I didn't get to watch the Eagles game on Sunday. Heard it was some good smash-mouth football. What's the status on Westbrook?

yeah great defensive game on both sides.westbrook's day to day so far.

NEVER!

Go RAiDERS!
EVEN THO WE'VE BEEN PLAYING LIKE CRAP OVER THE YEARS I WILL NEVER ROOT FOR ANY OTHER TEAM ..

ONLY BOSTON FANS DO THAT!!!!!! LOL
PATRIOTS
CELTICS
RED SOX! LOL
YEA YA BOY DONE PEEPED THEM OUT! HAHA
Go LAKERS!

yeah, no passion for our teams in Boston...a lame sports town...the Red Sox, the Celtics from the 60's to now, and the NEPat passion...we're bandwagoners allright, lol...that's the funniest thing I've ever seen on here!!...no passion with some of the longest Sports histories and rivalries of all-time...yeah, Boston has no passion for their teams...sigh, funny though, gotta give it to ya

I FORGOT ..

This is going to sound sexist (because it is), but the only acceptable way to change your football allegiance is if you are a chick.

you mean like Alyssa Milano?

I will never switch I have been and EAGLES fan all my life and always will be E-A-G-L-E-S

Get him Spot!!!

i also will die an eagles fan,ps i still sometimes root for the dolphins as i did sunday,that was great,but i only bleed eagle green baby!!!

I am a dolphin's fan and have never changed my allegiance to them. I don't care if I marry Jessica Alba and she threatens to leave me if I do not switch teams. I will always be a dolphin fan through thick and thin. And to say I switched because they have no heart sounds like a frontrunner's comment to me. We don't want fans like that anyway. Besides, the Eagles have won as many championships in the last 20 years as the Fins have, exactly zero.

And that is what it means to be a true fan!!! You love them no matter what.

It is NEVER allowable to switch teams.If said person had ever been an actual fan this concept would be inconceivable.As an example, I have been following Temple football for years and years and in return have received nothing but loss after painful,embarrasing loss.Occassionally there is a glimmer of hope but it is ALWAYS quickly snuffed out. It would be easy to never go to another game.No one cares about the program.No one cares that I am a fan.No one cares if they never played another game again. However, giving up on the team would be giving up on myself. I relate to TU football and until they pull the plug and disband the program I will always watch.Even if it makes my eyes bleed.

I know this is talk about being a fan of pro football, but I've always preferred the passion of the college game. I was born an Alabama fan, raised an Alabama fan, and I will die an Alabama fan. If you want to see long-suffering and a devotion that sometimes borders on delusional thought, look no farther than the fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Still, the sanctions and our pain is over, and the pain of our cowardly betrayer, Phillip Fulmer, is just beginning. Do you know how sweet it is to see him at #3 on the Coaches' Hot Seat ranking after what he did to us? http://www.coacheshotseat.com/CoachesHotSeatRanking.htm

SECFOREVER IT IS ALWAYS A GOOD FEELING WHEN SOMEONE YOU DESPISE GETS THEIRS IN THE END.

Truly, you have no idea how good it feels. :)

Since this is a site full of die-hard fans, maybe a better question:

When is it OK to stop hating a team?

When a team has done your team wrong, can you ever forgive them?

And you have the perfect person to answer that question in me. My answer: Until the taint of the person who did you wrong is gone, so five years after the person who wronged you is gone. If it's a pattern of behavior, or if what they did is particularly horrible, my answer is never. As an example, I forgave Spurrier for his mouth long ago, and I do have a good bit of respect for the Gators. I even respect Auburn, because, well, they beat us fairly each of the last six times, and when you lose that many years in a row, you deserve to take some heat for it. It just makes you hungrier for your team to exact revenge on the field. However, with Phillip Fulmer, I will NEVER forgive or forget what he did, and I will NEVER forgive the Tennessee Volunteers. If I have a son who plays football, I will also teach him to hate the Volunteers so much that he would rather not play ball at all than accept a scholarship to play for the Vols. So, in short, it depends on the offense, but in some cases, the end is never.

Teams I haven't forgiven since the 1990's:

New York Giants
Dallas Cowboys
Green Bay Packers
Utah Jazz

I hate the Jazz too. I call them the Jizz.