A tale of two cities and their sports teams

I am not from around here. I grew up in New Hampshire, just five minutes from the… I am not from around here. I grew up in New Hampshire, just five minutes from the Massachusetts border and a few hours from Canada.

I’ve never unintentionally used the word “yinz”, I only saw Pitt Stadium from the outside and to me, Mt. Washington is a 6,000-foot mountain, not a little hill with two trolley cars to the top.

However, I never forget to use the letter “r,” I’ve never been to Cape Cod and it took me a long time to learn how to pronounce Worcester.

I like living in Pittsburgh. I enjoy the city and there is always plenty to do.

But I like New Hampshire, too. It’s peaceful, but not quite in the middle of nowhere.

I can’t say that I enjoy one place more than the other. There are many reasons why I like both and they both feel like home.

And that’s not where the problem ends.

I grew up watching and rooting for the Steelers, the Pirates and the Penguins because those are the teams that my dad rooted for.

But when basketball season rolled around, we watched the Celtics. Not because my dad was a life-long Celtics fan, but because Boston was the closest.

I was always the only person in school cheering whenever one of Pittsburgh’s teams made the playoffs.

My friends, knowing who I was rooting for, would cheer for the other team. And when my teams lost, they would not let me hear the end of it, especially if they lost to a Boston team.

Eventually, I began to hate any team that was from Boston, not only because that’s whom everyone else liked, but also because they were always the ones who were on television.

There is no way I could imagine the number of times I turned the television on a Sunday afternoon to watch the Steelers, only to find the Patriots amidst another losing season.

Or I would turn on ESPN to see if the Penguins were on that night, only to find the Bruins skating up and down the ice.

By the time I reached my senior year of high school, I’d had enough of Boston sports.

But then a funny thing happened – I went away to college. Suddenly, everyone was rooting for the same teams as I was. No one was harassing me for wearing a Steelers hat or a Penguins jersey.

And even though I could now watch the Steelers on Sundays, I missed being able to watch the Patriots every once in a while.

After dealing with a decade of losing with the Pirates, my interest in the Red Sox has continued to grow. In fact, after the last two Augusts, I’ve found myself thinking the phrase “wait till next year” more often than I ever had before.

While I don’t think I can ever bring myself to really enjoy watching the Bruins, last year’s extended run through the playoffs got me watching the Celtics a little closer than before.

But what has become the biggest problem is the sudden “rivalry” between the Steelers and the Patriots.

I have been a Steelers fan all my life and at one point, I really hated the Patriots.

I was glad to see them losing, but when a team that has struggled for so long, and happens to reside so close to home, starts to win, it’s hard not to root for them.

It’s hard to have two favorite teams, especially when they play against each other.

Fortunately, I was unable to watch last year’s championship game and did not have to deal with the internal conflict that built up during the week leading up to the game.

But last Monday was entirely different.

While something as meaningful as a trip to the Super Bowl was not at stake, it was still difficult to watch and I would imagine it will be every time they play.

Do I root for Pittsburgh because that’s the team I’ve always followed? Or do I cheer for New England because that’s where I’m from?

Like I said, I’ve been a Steelers fan all my life, but I can’t help but feel loyal to the team so close to home.

Joe Marchilena is the assistant sports editor for The Pitt News and he was glad to see the Pats finally win the Super Bowl, he just wishes that they didn’t have to beat the Steelers to do it.