Tuesday Morning Interrogatory: Do You Have Any "Secondary" Teams?

Yesterday stunk. The news on Twitter, some sad puppy news for a friend of mine...just crud all around. This made me a poor snark partner for the gnomes. They tried to cheer me up with a diagram that explains why Tim Beckman is Tim Brewster's long lost brother but it wasn't enough. So instead of flailing around and delivering subpar snark, I decided to open things up and get some opinions. I might ramble a touch before I get there, but sometimes writing helps me feel better so I hope you'll roll with it.

I think at this point you all know that I no longer roam the heathen lands of Madison, WI as a beacon of truth and righteousness. Instead, I have moved to the strange and mystical Land Of Bourbon, just across the river from the Queen City of Cincinnati. If you follow me on Twitter (@GoAUpher, if you're willing to excuse a shameless plug) you'll know that my wife is originally from here. You may also have caught on to the fact that she's a die-hard Cincy sports fan. Especially the Bengals. She LOVES the Bengals.

You may also have figured out by now that she's a VERY understanding person when it comes to the Gophers and my unhealthy and insatiable love for them. She puts up with my moods (and helps brighten them on many occasions), she is cool with me watching football all day Saturday, she HATES the Badgers, and she doesn't mind it when I need to blog stuff at odd times. So when she asked if I would be a Bengals fan, I ignored the part of me that didn't need another team to crush my hopes and dreams and said yes. Because lord knows if she can embrace the neverending gut punch recovery assistance that is required of a Gopher fan spouse the very least I can do is take on the same role with the Bengals.

The best part for me is that I'm enjoying it. We went to our first Bengals game on Sunday and unsurprisingly I still love watching football live. I know part of this is the fact that the Bengals are in a stretch of being good. Part of it is the fact that I'm not primarily a Bengals fan (though thanks to the Vikings BS I'm letting them take my full affection for a while) so the late season chokes don't hurt the same. And part of it is being here in Cincy, where the town lives and dies by it's teams (even though everyone says they should know better). For me, making the Bengals (and the Reds, for MLB) my "2nd team" has made Cincy feel much more like home. I know that not everyone does that, but for me it would be odd to live in a town where the teams aren't rivals of mine and not enjoy the experience. Most importantly though, it's fun to watch my wife get as crazy as me about her team and have her teach me the history of a her team and why people here care so much about them.

All of which was a long winded attempt to set the stage for my question...

Are you a fan who has a secondary team?

If yes, why?

If no, why?

I'm putting a poll up, but I'd love for folks to share explanations in the comments. Could be for any sport (don't feel the need to confine it to the Gophers/CFB). I'm just curious to know if I'm an oddity in our community or not. Most importantly, I'm interested in us having a chance to talk about something sports related that doesn't involve the Gophers QB's. We could all use a quick break from that.  =)