A Simple Introduction

I grew up in the small town of Kodiak, Alaska. This meant that I could choose to be a fan of any professional sports teams and not get harassed for being a bandwagoner, being that Alaska has no sports teams of their own, outside of the "college" teams. I basically had my pick of the litter... Did I go with the Yankees, Lakers, and 49ers? Or maybe the Dodgers, Bulls, and Cowboys? No.. I chose the alternate ( and maybe not so smart ) route of taking the lesser known teams... and as you will find out, the somewhat over-looked teams in the professional world. My choices were the Blazers, Jaguars, and I  decided to jump on the Yankees bandwagon about 7 years ago ( right when they started their recent downfall). The two sports I follow most are Football and Basketball, and the Jaguars and Blazers happen to be my teams, they have been ever since I was old enough to fit into my Mark Brunell and Clyde Drexler Jersey's. As all sports fans know, the Mark Brunell Days are over in Jacksonville and have been for a long time, and the Clyde Drexler days are even more outdated for the Blazers ( although they do have a lot better outlook than the Jaguars at this point ). Even though the "glory days" are over for my teams, I remain a fan, and refuse to jump on the more successful bandwagons ( even though I very easily could, and use my Alaskan background as an excuse ). This brings me to my first topic on what I believe it really means to be a true fan of a sports team. 

I have played Basketball for as long as I can remember, and have been watching it for just as long. My dad and I used to watch Damon Stoudemire, Clifford Robinson, Brian Grant and the rest of the blazers squad in the late 90s- early 2000s religiously. We went through the good phases when we acquired Scottie Pippen, and arguably got robbed of going to the NBA Finals in 2000 ( See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Donaghy). We also went through the rough phases of Z-Bow, Jermaine O'neal etc. ( Looking back, those two names don't sound so bad, but we all know their glory years definitely weren't with the Blazers ). The "Jailblazer" era was a rough one to watch, and it brought Portland to a new low. Things looked up again when we had our own "big 3" of Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, and... You guessed it, Kevin.. Errr... Greg Oden. Things looked great in Portlandia for about 3 years, and then the curse of the knees struck again. Greg Oden all but proved to everyone that he really was a 50 year old man posing as a young buck, and Brandon Roy's extremely promising future took a sudden turn for the worst when he was diagnosed with inoperable knee problems ( having no meniscus is something thats kind of tough to overcome ). Things looked bad for a couple of years, until a small school point guard was drafted #6 Overall last year. Damian Lillard, and Lamarcus Aldridge have brought new life to the Portland Trailblazers, and.. Knock on wood, the injury bug is nowhere to be seen ( Portland was actually one of the least injured teams in the '13-'14 season ). 

While I didn't play near as much Football growing up as Basketball ( I was taught to gravitate towards playing one sport to hone your skills ), I followed it as much, if not more during my early years. I have been a fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars ever since their inaugural season. The Jaguars jumped onto the scene much faster than anyone ever expected. They had a core of Mark Brunell, Jimmy Smith, and Fred Taylor being led by none other than Tom Coughlin early into their tenure as a professional sports team, not to mention quite a bit of other noteworthy players ( Donovan Darius, Tony Boselli, Keenan Mcardell etc. ). Things looked great for the first 5-7 years of their existence, with an extremely improbable playoff victory against the heavily favored Denver Broncos, and multiple years where they were in the talks of being a potential Super Bowl Threat ( although never making the Super Bowl ). Ever since those days, other than a couple odd years of playoff appearances ( '04 & '07 ), the Jaguars have basically been forgotten about by the national media, and even most sports fans, and rightfully so. Things may be taking a turn with the new regime of David Caldwell and Gus Bradley in place... we will just have to wait and see how the #3 pick of the 2014 draft plays out ( I am not the biggest fan of the pick, but I believe in the guys running the front office, so I have given them the benefit of the doubt ). 

This may have seemed like a rant on two of the most irrelevant teams in professional sports at first glance, but it was all part of my master plan... to indirectly explain what it really means to be a true fan of any given sports team. Anyone could jump on board with whatever team is winning at the time, and while I'll admit you may never have to go through the agony of losing seasons over and over again, you will also never get to experience the sweet taste of victory ( when that victory does happen ), knowing that this is your team, always has been and always will be. I have friends who are bandwagon fans, and you can tell the difference when " their team " wins (url), and when my team wins (url). 

I guess what this whole introductory post is meant to say is, fly your sports flag, whether you are a Jaguars/Blazers fan or a Yankees/Lakers fan, your team is your team and even if they are painful to watch at times... know that no matter how far fetched it seems... there will be ups and downs ( sometimes more of one than the other ), and for every down year your team has, those up years will feel that much better. My name is Jory Monroe, thank you for reading NoBetterThanMonroe sports blog, stay tuned for more articles to come. I invite you all to suggest topics, and pose questions for me to write about.