Fan for Life

I remember as a little kid growing up watching sports.  I loved gathering around the T.V. staring in amazement at the wonderful scene i was witnessing.  I grew up a Utah Jazz fan, a BYU Cougars fan, and a San Francisco 49ers fan.  After 22 wonderful years of my life I still have a great passion for sports and I still have a burning passion for my favorite teams.  Who can all forget John Stockton's last second three pointer against the Rockets in the 1997 western conference finals that sent the Jazz to their first of two consecutive NBA finals.  Even though they lost both years to MJ and the Bulls (I'm still convinced that Jordan pushed Russell) it was great memories.  The Jazz progressed eventually saying goodbye to the greats of John Stockton, Karl Malone, and Jeff Hornaceck, but eventually it brought forth a new era in the late 2000's with Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, and "Money Man" Mehmet Okur.  In the last couple years the team has change quite a bit now with Big Al, Paul Millsap, and "Baby Face" Gordon Hayward leading the way.  Even with all the changes, the up and down years, i will always be a fan of my Jazz.  Even if that means I have to listen to Matt Harpring as a an anounncer and it ever so witty commentary such as "The Early-Oop" and "Swat Lake City", I will endure just to watch my favorite team play.

This last year we witnessed one of the greatest years of college basketball at BYU with Jimmermania.  The games were absolutely insane to watch and Jimmer dazzled everyone with his sick crossovers and insane three point range.  I remember as a young lad attending the Football and Basketball games with my Dad.  I saw some great games and remember some great players coming through.  I was able to go to cougar stadium to see other great teams such as Notre Dame and USC play.  I remember the historic season in 2001 with Brandon Doman and Luke Staley, and who can forget the Beck to Harline play in 2006.  I was able to be on the 2nd row of the BYU vs. Utah game in 2007 with Max Hall's 4th and 18 bomb to Collie.  No matter where BYU is at either at the top or not doing so well I will proudly wear my blue and white and cheer on my cougars.

It seems with all sports you will have times of great excitement and sheer joy but at the same time there will be many times of disappointment.  In the past decade I have not been disappointed more times than as a 49ers fan.  Who can forget the glory days of the 80's and 90's when we had Joe Montana winning Super Bowl after
Super Bowl, throwing touchdown after touchdown to Jerry Rice.  After Joe Montana came Steve Young who kept the legacy growing.  I loved watching Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Garrison Hearst, and a very young Terrell Owens.  I remember going ecstatic when Steve Young made a last second touchdown to Terrell Owens to defeat the Packers in the 1998 playoffs.  After that they had a couple more good years.   Steve Young eventually retired, Jerry Rice left to the Raiders, Jeff Garcia stepped in and did alright for a couple years, and T.O. became a head case and diseased teams for the next decade.  2002 was the last time the Niners made the playoffs for a while.  2004 brought and abysmal year leaving the team with a 2-14 record and the number one overall pick in the draft.  With that pick they took Alex Smith, i'll honestly say i wasn't to excited about that pick but he has grown a lot as a player and has become quite effective.  Over the next several years they added great plays like, Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree, Joe Staley, and who can forget about their defensive with Justin Smith, Aldon Smith, Patrick Will, and Carlos Rogers.  With all these great additions it has finally become our time.  After finishing the 2010 season at 6-10, 2011 became our year.  Playing with great tenacity all season and being led by one of the best defenses in the league the niners ran off to a 13-3 season having the best turnaround of any team in history, and giving them the number two seed in the NFC.  They had finally made it back to the playoffs.  Their last game against the Saints could not have been any better.  It definitely brought out the 10 year old boy in me as a cheered on my favorite team in the playoffs.  No one could have asked for a better game, with 4 total touchdowns between both teams in the final four minutes ending with Alex Smith hitting Vernon Davis for the game winning touchdown with 9 seconds left.  Only one more game til the Super Bowl.

Some people are bandwagon fans and jump from team to team.  How many people do you know who say their favorite teams are the Patriots or Heat but they couldn't tell you who was on the team before Brady was there or before Lebron teamed up with Wade.  It doesn't matter where my team is I will always cheer for them and I will always be a FAN FOR LIFE!!!