Raising Your Child to Root For The Home Team

  I have been faithful to my team for 23 years now, win or lose the Hawks are my team.  I also have 3 children ages 5, 4 and 3.  My five year old Ashtin is a spittin image of me.  Every where I go, he wants to go, whatever I'm doing he wants to do.  He's getting to that fun age where he is starting to be able to truely think for himself.  That's why I ask you....How do you get your child to root for the home team?

  We have been playing football in the front yard everyday since about a week before the preseason began.  He would go put on his Hawks jersey and say, "Come on Dad, let's go play football, we'll be the Seahawks."  Of course, I would say alright and to the front yard we would go.  I'd have him run some routes and he started getting good fast.  Consistantly catching balls and making good throws.  Everything was dandy.  That is until yesterday.  Now, I don't know if it's because he just started school or what, but as usual he came home and said, "Dad, lets play football....but this time...I don't want to be the Seahawks....they're kinda weird."  I said, "WHAT?!!!?, well what team do you want to be and he replied, "Let's be the team with the black shirts and yellow pants and diamonds on their helmets, they're cool."  The frickin Steelers, can you believe that?  I said whoa whoa, how about another team.  He said ok, how about the team with the black shirts and pirates on their helmets?  I said THE RAIDERS?!!! holy cow, you're killing me son! But he insisted.

I tried to explain to him the importance of keeping the 12th Man alive for future generations and he insisted that he should be a different team.  I even went as far as throwing him a bunch of bad balls that not even John Carlson could of caught and told him that had he been the Seahawks he would of caught those balls!  What can you do though?  I guess just raise your kids to learn and love the game.  Who knows, maybe one day he'll actually be a Steeler then what do I do.....