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Originally Posted by cdcox
All of the first 4 options would apply for me.
I started following them in '69 when my family lived briefly in NY. Dad was a big fan. We moved back to KC in '71, but by then I was already a diehard.
I noticed a similar problem on polls of other teams. I am very familiar with the stars of the game (not just Chiefs) from previous eras. I liked to read NFL history when I was a kid. My guess is that those who grew up in the '80s and '90s were too busy playing video games to spend much time learning about the history of the game and hence lack the knowledge to make informed votes in many cases.
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Being that I teach 12-14 year olds, I get to witness first hand how sports team allegiance is formed. Here in Central PA, if I have a class of say 30 kids, all of which like football, I would say probably 10 would be Steelers fans (proximity/family influence) 7 would be Eagles fans (Less Eagles fans, and I think it's because in the 70's, when these kid's parents were kids, obviously the Steelers were the team, so they carried that tradition over. And let's face it, the Eagles are good now so they're easy to root for). Then with the remaining 12 you get an interesting phenomena, which I blame on the internet and satellite TV. You might have 2 Broncos fans, a Ravens fan, a Dolphins fan, 2 49ers fans, 3 Cowboys fans, and 3 Packers fans or something along those lines. Kids have no loyalty. It's the flavor of the month with kids nowadays. I know a particular kid who is Broncos fan, White Sox fan, Lakers fan, and Red Wings fan. For a college team he likes Texas. Wha? When I was a kid in Leavenworth, ALL of my friends were Chiefs fans, because that was the local team. And I'll reiterate, this was the 80's! Same with the Royals and Jayhawks. Interestingly, all of my grown up friends are Steelers fans. They all grew up in this area, and all grew up rooting for the Steelers.
The new trend is disturbing to me. It means the end of loyalty to your home, and the beginning of prostituting your allegiance to whoever happens to be good at that point so you can look cool wearing their stuff.