Is there a trend in sporting affiliations?

Hello homies n peeps,



I just noticed a post by BB wherein he states that he is a Liverpool FC fan.

This got me thinking.

I too have been a Liverpool fan, although I don't follow football as much as I used to. I was wondering if there are certain shared, intrinsic character traits that make us support certain teams/individuals above others. Instead of trying to identify those traits I thought it would be interesting to see what other sporting affiliations people have. Perhaps we can then see some trends eg Fed fans tend to like Liverpool FC, Nadal fans tend to like Real Madrid (just kidding) and Murray fans tend to go for Glasgow Rangers (ok now I'm getting absurd).

So.. here are some of my sporting affiliations past and present. Please feel free to add your own.

Tennis: Fed, Graf, Becker
Football: Team: LFC
Individual players: Diego Maradonna, Zidane
Boxing: Ali, Naseem Hamed
Snooker: Steve Davis, Ronnie O' sullivan
Athletics: Carl Lewis (not so keen now, after the PED revelations)
Formula 1: Schumacher, Michael

As for other sports that I don't follow very closely, I still tend to get excited if a phenom appears eg, Jordan in Basketball.
Generally, I think it can be seen from my affiliations that I tend to go for the 'naturals' or the flair players as opposed to the industrious types. I suppose some would say I'm a bit of a glory hunter in that I tend to pick the best, however I always stay loyal to them even when they start losing.

Anyway, bit of a rambling post.

You can add any sports that I've missed.



emancipator - universal tennis correspondent and leading expert on Football, Boxing, Athletics, Snooker, PED's, and Zidane.

tennis: MacEnroe, Evert, Graf, Agassi, Federer
racing: obviously various horses, but jockeys Fallon (he's bad but such a natural horseman), Frankie, Jamie Spencer
three day eventing: lucinda green, ginny holgate, pippa funnell, ian stark and william fox pitt
football: I love to watch Barcelona, but I will nominally support Man U to show solidarity with rest of house. Players: Messi and I love watching Torres both from Liverpool days and now at Chelsea, also enjoy Drogba - perhaps should just support CFC!
athletics: don't really follow, but like rest of world stunned by Ursain Bolt, as I was by Carl Lewis - what peds?!!!!! I though sprinting sorted out after Ben Johnson!
forumula 1: Lewis Hamilton

Tennis: Agassi, Roddick, Djokovic, Nadal
Football: Team: Arsenal, Ireland & England
Individual players: Sneijder, Balotelli, Fabregas, Ljungberg
Boxing: Marciano, Roy Jones, Hagler,
Athletics: Asafa Powell
Formula 1: Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso
Rugby (only follow internationals): O'Driscoll, O'Connell



i think with the exception of roy jones and agassi there are not many of my favourites that are necessarily flair players, although i like to watch games/matches where flair players are involved like federer/ronaldinho/ray leonard these are not my favourite types of sportsmen. My favourite teams or individuals, usually play with a high intensity and fight for every point/opportunity

Tennis: Federer, McEnroe, Safin
Football: Team NUFC naturally
Individual players: Messi, Shearer.
Boxing: Ali, Lennox Lewis
Snooker: no thanks (almost as dull as darts)
Athletics: Ovett (never liked Coe - arrogant or Cram - mackem)
Formula 1: pass

Other sports?

Golf Seve (magician)
Rugby union Lomu (freak!)

Regarding affiliations then where you are born usually dictates which footie club you support with the obvious exceptions of parental/peer pressure or if you happen to be a Man Utd. fan (still to meet one who actually comes from Manchester).

Nobody who has seen Messi play though would not rate him - even the most blinkered Real Madrid fan would surely agree. For that reason I'd also have to admit a grudging respect for both Best and Cantona. I'd be very reluctant to make the same gesture towards any Sunderland player no matter how good!

Newballs,

I agree with your football assessment, I was going to mention the regional thing but as I'm not from Liverpool (universal entity) but still support them, I thought I'd throw it in.

TP,

Unfortunately Lewis also failed some drug tests.

I started a thread on it in the athletics section:
https://www.606v2.com/t14389-carl-lewis-a-tarnished-legacy

Since Johnson there have been many, many failed drug tests.

Don't really believe there are any correlations. Football support from childhood tends to be visceral, sentimental stuff with no real cogent reasoning behind it. Arsenal are my number one sporting passion, yet I only support them cos they're the first team I ever watched as a wee pup and they turned out to be a good side and my loyalty has stuck.

Generally, I love flair but I also love backing the underdog in many instances. My taste in sports is generally an wide, eclectic mix with some convoluted logic behind it.

emancipator,

Another thought provoking thread.

Tennis - Murray, Henman, Federer, Becker, Henin, Graf - These are players I would pay to watch again and again. Murray and Henman yes for the nationalist in me. The others just have me gripped when watching. I would've added Agassi had I not read his book and felt underwhelmed as to what was behind the man's emotions.

Football - I am a Blackburn Rovers fan. Individual players I have watched that I could again and again are: Schmeichel, Zidane, Messi, Best, Ronaldo (Brazilian) Le Tissier, Cruyff, Van Basten, Bergkamp, Zola, Cantona. I mean gosh there are so many. I think in terms of teams, Brazil's 1970 World Cup side, AC Milan's side of the 1990's, Barcelona's current side from 2009 to now. Any fan I think could spend all day and week with such memories.

Boxing - Benn/Tyson (Early Years) Mayweather. I think Benn from 1990-1995 was the most exciting fighter I ever saw. I mean that man had wars and times when he went into fights as the underdog and (the McCellan fight springs to mind) pulled out a performance. His match against Henry Wharton remains my favourite. That was just pure punching at it's best. Tyson in his early years was just frightening. I have to admit at times I felt he would kill someone because his speed and power was just not human. Mayweather for me has been the best I have seen since the 1990's. His speed is electric. His jabs are the cleanest I have seen. I remember that match against Hatton where Hatton was just chasing ghosts. I remember after the fight Hatton looked like roast beef and Mayweather didn't have a single mark.

Athletics - Sir Steve Redgrave for sure. Daley Thompson appealled to me alot os an all conquering hero. I think Roger Bannister deserves a mention for that 4 minute mile. Given the fact it was pure grit, determination and endurance. Watching now just has me cheering.

Golf - Jack Nicklaus/Greg Norman. Nicklaus at the Masters 1986 and US Open 1972 remains the most amazing performances I have seen. Greg Norman has the best swing I have ever seen. So effortless and clean and precise. Despite his so many 'near misses' I enjoyed watching his game.

Cricket - Ian Botham (Legend on and off the pitch) Any Ashes Series. You have to love a bit of Cricket. I love watching any Ashes Series. The tension in the air is just edgy. I love it.

Formula 1 and Rugby? Pfffttt

Good response LK,

I must say our tastes correlate quite a lot.

Many of those that you mentioned were people that I followed with enthusiasm except, in order to keep the OP short, I opted to only mention the very best imo.

I remember our discussion on the footy thread. Alan Shearer at Blackburn was one of the best strikers I've ever seen. The guy had an uncanny ability to find the target, both off the ground and in the air. I also loved how he was so direct, give him half a chance and he'd try his luck, mostly he would at the very least test the keeper. He was also so strong similar to mark Hughes. Just an awesome player, particularly before the knee injury.

I left out Cricket. My cricketing heroes were Viv Richards, Tendulkar, Khan and Botham.

Mark Hughes was great. Probably the most dangerous player in the last 10 minutes of a game I have seen. You always felt when he was on the pitch, he could poach or steal a goal out of absolutey nothing.

Hughes held the ball up as well as any player I've seen. He was so strong and adept at controlling and shielding the ball and then distributing it to runners from midfield.

Special mentions to:

Duncan Ferguson - Just for Muppet those burglars

Amy Williams - For succeeding in the winter

Good to see Shearer get a mention, he was brilliant at Blackburn. Even after his injury at Newcastle he was a fine player, and that was having definitely lost quite a bit with the injury. Anyway, on to my favourites:

Tennis: Becker, Agassi, Nadal

Football: Newcastle - got to follow your hometown team...

Snooker: Jimmy White

Cricket: Graham Thorpe, Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose

Not an avid fan of other sports but was captivated watching Tiger Woods win his first major, and also at the Masters in 2005 I think. Love to see history being made, and both Michael Johnson at Atlanta 1996 and latterly Usain Bolt were fantastic to behold. Agree re the Ashes, the series in 2005 was fantastic.

Being a southpaw myself, there is a bit of a left-handed bias with many of my choices.