Casual Friday open thread: Your other favorite sports teams

Welcome to Casual Friday, an offseason open thread where we chat about other stuff that’s not Seattle Seahawks related.

Today we’re sticking to sports but we’re branching out a bit. You’re all here (except lurking trolls) because you love the Seahawks, but surely you’ve got other favorite sports teams right?! RIGHT?! Of course, American football really might be the only team sport you follow closely and as a result you’re a Seahawks fan and nothing else, in which case just say so!

Basketball is my second favorite sport behind football, and after a long time without a favorite team I’ve survived an eighth season as a Portland Trail Blazers fan. Damian Lillard is from my hometown and one of my favorite players, and beyond eventually moving out here to Portland he’s one of the reasons they became my NBA side. The 2019 Western Conference Finals run is one of the most exhilarating moments I’ve experienced as a sport fan (outside of the Seahawks), right down to knocking out the Zombie Sonics with Kevin Calabro on the call.

But the fun’s over. They have three losing seasons out of four and have very blatantly tanked the past two seasons while playing some of the worst defense I’ve ever seen. I know I wasn’t supposed to talk about the Seahawks in this open thread, but this story sure feels familiar to Seahawks fans if we remember some headlines from a couple of years back. Dame Time’s running short and the front office’s time trading for and signings of first-round busts who were benched on other teams and hoping they become good players is over.

On the soccer front I pull for Manchester United, which was cool when I started following them while they were regularly winning or competing for trophies under Sir Alex Ferguson. The last ten years have not exactly replicated Sir Alex’s success, although I believe in Erik Ten Hag! I don’t have any MLS team but I can unequivocally say that the Portland Timbers celebrating goals with sawing off part of a log is corny as hell.

I’m more of a casual hockey follower who watches some regular season and a bunch of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As a lapsed Vancouver Canucks fan (we’re talking a long time ago), I’ll shamelessly hop on the Seattle Kraken bandwagon for this playoff run.

I’ve really fallen off on college sports viewing. College basketball is unwatchable to me outside of March, but this year I watched more college football than I have in a long time for Seahawks-related reasons. I guess I still pull for the Washington Huskies but I’m not that invested anymore.

And lastly, I don’t have a baseball team. I’ve played the game (badly) as a kid and will watch the World Series when it’s on, but it’s just not my thing. If I ever really became a big fan of the sport I’d have been a San Francisco Giants fan, both because I’m from the area and Barry Bonds was doing cool stuff. Anyway, did you know Victor Conte was part of the 1970’s R&B group Tower of Power?

Join the discussion in the comments below! And for our international readers, I’m sure you’ll have anywhere from your country’s soccer leagues to rugby and Aussie Rules football and cricket and everything else under the sun. Formula 1 teams count, too.