FanHouse

I'm a proud graduate of the University of Michigan and part of that pride is the sports tradition. During my time in Ann Arbor Charles Woodson led the Wolverines to a National Championship, the hockey team won a pair of titles and the basketball team, well, I got to see the last year of Ray Jackson and Jimmy King and wonder what might have been if the whole Fab Five stuck around. There's very little that could get me to root against Michigan in any setting.

That includes my beautiful wife, a graduate of a certain school in East Lansing. I love her deeply but that doesn't mean I don't want her Spartans to suffer beatings on a regular basis. My lack of respect for her alma mater reared its head at our very first meeting. I found out she went to Michigan State and, being the smooth lothario that I am, responded, "I went to Michigan, that must mean I'm smarter than you." Somehow I avoided getting a drink thrown in my face and two years later actually convinced her to spend the rest of her life with me and have my children, a trick that even David Blaine would have a hard time pulling off.

Why am I telling you this? Because Dan Shanoff shared the roots of his fanaticism for the Florida Gators on his website today. He roots for them because his Gator-fan wife turned him on to the magic of rooting for a national power after his own collegiate days at Northwestern. It's a great piece and made me think of the one time that my wife got me to root for Michigan State.

When we were still dating she had to take a trip to Las Vegas for work in February 2005. The trip coincided with Valentine's Day so I tagged along. While she was working, I'd amble into the sports book at 3:30 or so, bet the early slate of pro and college basketball games, settle down with a beer and watch them. While there I spied the big board of odds to win the National Championship and saw that MSU was going off as a 12-1 bet to win the whole thing. I thought to myself, what a great Valentine's gift! A $50 wager on her team to win the NCAA tournament. My reasoning was that it would show her I was thinking about her even when doing things for myself.

What can I say, I'm a romantic. Anyway, fast forward a month and the NCAA Tourney is in full swing. The Spartans, a five-seed, cruised into the Sweet Sixteen where they would face first-seed Duke. Even as a Wolverine it wasn't hard to stomach rooting for the Spartans in that matchup. I'd just as soon root for Ohio State , or nuclear holocaust for that matter, as I would for Duke and was rewarded with a ten-point MSU win. That set up an epic Regional Final with Kentucky. If you don't remember this game, it was a classic. Double-OT with Patrick Sparks of KU UK sending the game into overtime on a wild, in-out-in-out-in three-pointer and Shannon Brown sending it to a second extra period with another three. Tom Izzo's team finally pulled through and went on to meet North Carolina in the Final Four. It was getting hard to not like this team.

This bet had a serious chance of paying off and now I was a full-fledged Spartan rooter. North Carolina, though, had a loaded squad. Roy Williams coaching Marvin Williams, Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashard McCants. They were Goliath to our brave Davids. My lady and I watched the first half and I could barely keep my seat as the Spartans opened up a five-point halftime lead. We spent the break discussing options for celebrating with her winnings after our Spartans took the title on Monday night. Because I went to Michigan the most excitement college basketball offered was the occasional NIT bid. This felt better.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. The future champions from Chapel Hill put a beating on the Spartans in the second half and ran away with an 87-71 win. I felt almost as empty inside as I did when the Knicks blew the 1994 Finals or when Johnny Damon's grand slam ended the misery that was the 2004 ALCS and realized to my chagrin that I was actually rooting for and caring about Michigan State. It was an odd feeling that made me feel close to the woman I loved and repellent at the same time. I picked a fight with her on the way home about something inane but really because it was her team that made me care, more than she did truth be told, and I'm petty.

Fandom is a funny thing. In his piece Shanoff writes about how biology, geography and college acceptance decide which teams we root for. In my case it's totally true, I'm from New York and root for New York teams except for Michigan, because that's where I went to college. My first kid is on the way and I hope he or she shares my allegiances but in a way my three weeks seeing how the other half lives taught me that it's okay if they don't. We'll still find a way to share the experiences, the highs and the lows of sports together. Unless they fall for the Red Sox.

I'll always look back on those three weeks fondly because of the shared experience with a woman I was starting a life with and because it showed me what I was capable of doing for love. And money, sure, but mostly because I loved my wife and let her take me on a ride.

Previously on FanHouse:
USC, Ohio State, Michigan and the Hundred-Yard Stare