Nate's Guide To Boston Sports

As I've been settling into being a Bostonian, I've given a lot of thought as to what my attitude should be towards its local sports teams. Generally, whenever I've moved to a new city, I've adopted its local sports teams...one of my friends would always tease me that I claim more "home teams" than anybody he's ever known. For instance, I've been known to support the Vikings (grew up in Minnesota), the Rams (spent 7 years in St. Louis including their lone Super Bowl victory), the Eagles (tough to live in Philly without rooting for the Iggles), and the Colts (this one's a stretch--my parents live there, and they happen to have a good team right now). Now I have to figure out whether or not to adopt the New England sports teams into my legion of home teams. These are big decisions. Here's what I've decided so far:

1. Basketball: the Boston Celtics. Decision: I'm in! For one, things are happenin'. The Celts have signed one of the members of the All-Nate Team in former Minnesota Timberwolf Kevin Garnett (in a deal brokered by none other than Hibbing, MN native Kevin McHale), which is going to be as exciting as hell. They also have Ray "Jesus Shuttlesworth" Allen (probably an All-Nate Second Teamer if I ever got around to making one up) joining up with quality forward Paul Pierce, and it's going to be great to see how this fantasy lineup meshes. I also don't feel too guilty about hopping on the Celtics bandwagon, since I had definitely committed to rooting for the Celts during their epic 80s rivalry with the LA Lakers.

2. Baseball: the Boston Red Sox. I've decided I'm going to take a stand against the Bosox, no matter how hard it's going to be. I would feel a little hypocritical rooting for the Red Sox given that I've spent the past few years openly rooting for their collapse (in part due to my Yankees-crazy friend from residency, Dave Portnoy). I'm not sure why I feel this way--by all accounts, it's a good group of guys and Lord knows the team has had their share of bad luck. But I've always felt that the Red Sox fans were a little full of themselves, and besides they don't really need another member of Red Sox Nation, they have enough. I'm going to be secretly rooting against them to collapse as we approach the pennant stretch coming up...

3. Football Americain: the New England Patriots. The jury's out on the Pats for me. On the plus side, they also seem like a good group of guys, they've had success without overpaying for asshole superstars, and (in another link to Minnesota sports) they have signed former Vikings WR Randy Moss to a contrast. On the other hand, they were responsible for spoiling the St. Louis Rams' second Super Bowl attempt and perhaps they've enjoyed a little too much success. I'll see how I feel as the season progresses as to whether or not I'm going to count the NE Patriots as my fifth "home team."