Casual Friday: Your other favorite sports teams

Casual Friday is back after I did an open thread for 4th of July and then just completely forgot to do it last week.

This is a Seattle Seahawks site first and foremost and we talk Seahawks. However, I imagine most of us on here are sports fans in general and follow other teams. Whether it’s soccer, basketball, hockey, etc. there are many ways that we torture ourselves by living through the success of sports teams.

For the NBA I support the Portland Trail Blazers. I know this is a sore spot for people who were Seattle Sonics fans and I hope a team returns there soon. When I moved to the Seattle area, the Sonics were in the middle of what proved to be their final postseason run in the city before moving to Oklahoma City. I live in Oregon now and even before I moved here I decided on Portland because I’m a Damian Lillard fan and he’s from my hometown, plus they turned in a spirited performance in the 2015-16 playoffs. Outside of Seahawks games, I have never in my life been this ecstatic over a win than when Dame sent the Zombie Sonics home.

I do not follow Major League Baseball but I did attend a San Francisco Giants game once as a kid. They lost to Atlanta and John Rocker was heavily booed by the fans because... he’s John Rocker.

I used to follow the NHL more closely and as such rooted for the Vancouver Canucks, but I’m a lapsed fan on that front. We shall not speak of Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins. When Seattle gets an NHL team I’ll happily jump on the bandwagon. Someone more knowledgeable than me tell me what the hockey equivalent is to establishing the run.

The picture you see at the top is of your reigning MLS champion Seattle Sounders. Much like the Canucks, I’m a lapsed Toronto FC supporter. They were the newest expansion franchise in 2007 and the Sounders didn’t join MLS for two more years. Toronto FC is a powerhouse now but when I rooted for them they once went an MLS record 824 minutes without scoring a goal.

Manchester United is my Premier League team of choice. My former next door neighbor was a big fan and I even got some gear as a little kid, but closely following the Premier League didn’t occur until sometime after the 2006 FIFA World Cup. A much hated and historically terrific club, they’ve not won the league title in seven years but you damn well better believe Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood, and Marcus Rashford will help lead this team to glory again!

Lastly, college sports is just something I don’t have as much time for. I follow University of Washington football and just largely stopped following the basketball team. The pacing of college sports is excruciatingly bad and my primary job writing about MMA and boxing means I block off most Saturdays for that instead of all-day college football.

Ultimately though, no team captures my attention and draws more emotion out of me (good and bad!) than the Seattle Seahawks.

Now it’s your turn! Who are your favorite sports teams outside of the Seahawks?