Supporting the Home Team

I'm from Kentucky. Well, more specifically, eastern Kentucky. There aren't too many pro teams that close to these parts. In fact, the only sport that most people care about here is University of Kentucky basketball. Not college basketball, Kentucky basketball.

Though I also grew up a fan of the Big Blue, I've also loved professional sports. The closest professional sports town is Cincinnati, where much of my dad's family lives. Because of that connection and being the closest "big" city, I've become a Cincinnati fan, as far as the Bengals and Reds.

But, when I went off to college (at Western Kentucky), I found myself farther away from my beloved Bengals and Reds. I could still catch the Reds on cable, still being the closest MLB team, but in Bowling Green, the craze isn't about the Bengals, but about the Titans.

Every Titans game is on, right down to the preseason games. While the Bengals are still available on TV every now and then, each Sunday (or sometimes Monday), if I wanted to watch the NFL, more times than not, it was the Titans. At first, I was frustrated, not being able to watch my beloved Bengals. I would watch the Titans games in disgust, not being able to watch Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson (before he was Ochocinco) hook up for a game-winning touchdown in that big 2003 season.

But while I was still into the Bengals, there was this new team growing on me. The Titans were fun to watch. A few years later, they really exploded, when this rookie Vince Young could scramble and make a seemingly 15-yard loss, a 30-yard gain. The country was becoming mesmerized by this scrambling quarterback.

I remember the day I officially became a Titans fan. During Young's rookie season, 2006, the Colts were in Nashville on the first Sunday of December. Favored as always, the Titans came back from being down 14-0 to take a 17-14 lead early in the fourth quarter. The Colts tied it on a field goal, but the Titans had driven down just into Colts territory with about ten seconds on the clock. Looking at an impossibly long attempt, kicker Rob "My" Bironas nailed a 60-yard field goal that would've been good from a couple more yards, the game-winner.

Then, last season, the Titans were dominant through the regular season, capturing the best seed in the AFC...that is, until they ran into the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs, who got by Tennessee 13-10. I felt for the guys on the home sideline in Nashville. That's when I truly knew I'd become a fan.

I still love my Bengals, but now, I say I love my Titans, too.