I live in NJ. I'm a Yankee, Rangers, and Knicks fan. So why am I a Cowboys fan?
My father found a unique way of getting me to watch sports at a really young age. From the age of 6 on up he would offer me bets. I'd use Christmas and birthday money. Dollar here dollar there. It started with Basketball and ballooned from there. But it got me to watch the games and got me to play the sports really early.
It was the 1975 season and I was almost 9 years old. We had a system of how we dealt with the NFL playoffs, and he broke that system. At that time I had no favorite NFL team and I didn't care about the Cowboys. I grew up to like the colors black and red. Even at a young age baby blue and white didn't charm me. But he insisted that I couldn't have the Steelers, I had to take the Cowboys. And was very adamant about it. He was a Steelers fan, obviously. But if you want your son to follow in your footsteps, take one for the team and pony up the 5 bucks. But no. He chose a different path. A path that led to competition. So I rooted for the Cowboys and they lost. But oh no, that won't do. Out of spite I claimed the Cowboys as my team and followed them ever since to his dismay. After just a few years it was too late to change me. I was a fan knee deep.
I loved the trash talk we had with eachother over the years. The only regret I have is that he didn't live long enough to see the Cowboys beat the Steelers in 1995. He died that summer. I spent 40+ bucks on a bottle of Hennessy and poured half of it over his grave and drank the rest myself. Not right there of course.......But I let him know we beat you!
