Everyone has their reasons why they are loyal to their sports team. Whatever the motives behind fan allegiances to their favorite team, these loyalties are emotional and can last a lifetime.

I can still remember the day I first fell in love with the Dallas Cowboys. My infatuation with the team began while watching Super Bowl XII in 1978 when the Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos. It was a game I never forgot, and to this day my allegiance to the team remains incredibly strong.

I was only eleven years old at the time, and if not for my older sister who had decided to watch a game called football, I may never have become a fan of the sport. At that time we lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and my family never watched any football games. But as often happens when a younger sibling follows in the footsteps of the older one, I decided to watch the Super Bowl because my big sis would be watching. There had been a lot of pre-game hype over who was going to win, and it sparked my sister’s curiosity. At the start of the game we both liked the uniforms of the Broncos and Cowboys as we tried to decide which team to root for. Being an animal lover, I was more inclined to side with Denver solely because their helmets had a horse on them.

Then the magic began to unfold. The Cowboys took the field, and with quarterback Roger Staubach at the helm leading "Da Boys" to a great victory over Denver, our allegiance with Big D was sealed. From that day forward my sister and I have never rooted for any other team. Through all the team’s victories and agonizing defeats, we remain loyal fans.

I often wonder where this team loyalty comes from. I’m not from Dallas and I’ve only been to Texas once in my life. My sister and I have even joked about one day visiting Texas Stadium (before its demise) to watch a home game as if we were sports pilgrims on a spiritual journey to our football mecca. We were, after all, baptized at a young and impressionable age and have worshipped at the altar of the Cowboys ever since.

I’ve chided my uncle numerous times for always switching team allegiances whenever he’s moved to a different state. The team he rooted for usually depended on where he was living at the time. I have lived overseas and in several different states, but my love and loyalty to the Cowboys has never changed. Although I was born in Oakland, California, and later in life returned to live in the Bay Area, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a San Francisco 49ers t-shirt or hat. It would feel unnatural.

Logically it seems ludicrous to be so loyal to a team whose players are sold and traded constantly. Do players really invest any emotional ties to the city they play in knowing their tenure may be a short one? Just recently the city of San Francisco was packed with millions of screaming and adoring fans celebrating the Giants and their World Series win. The players were treated as the conquering heroes who brought pride back to their great city. We get upset when those players we come to know and love decide to join another team, especially a rival. It feels like we’re being cheated on. How dare they switch sides after all the love and support we’ve showered upon them! Traitors! Our society values loyalty so much that we lose sight of the fact that players are getting paid to do a job and not to venerate the city they are playing in.

Unlike so many fans, especially the male ones, I don’t identify with certain athletes and follow their lives or stats closely. I don’t perform strange rituals before games to show my support for my team, and I don’t live vicariously through them. It always puzzles me when some obsessed fans set cars on fire and create havoc on the streets of their city to celebrate a team victory. Yes, it bothers me when the Cowboys lose and I feel elated when they win, but I know it’s just a game and life goes on. I don’t know why other fans are loyal to their teams. All I know is that at the age of eleven, I watched a beautiful and exciting game called football, and the winning team took my breath away. I’ve been hooked ever since.