Thanks to
@datruth55 for finding this for me, I mentioned I thought it'd be an interesting thread, and unsurprisingly it's been done a number of times on here apparently. Maybe resurrecting such an old thread on here is frowned upon? Apologies if so.
My own story - I am absolutely a diehard, albeit I haven't been following the team as long as a number of you.
I'm Irish. I wasn't particularly into football until just over 10 years ago. I started watching it, really enjoying it, but hadn't picked a team. Then came the first international series game - Dolphins & Giants @ Wembley. Myself and a bunch of my friends went to it. Other friends of mine were also at the game, who are huge Dolphins fans (I didn't know this at the time), although I didn't meet up with them.
Anyway, I'm at the game (horrible, horrible game) and for some reason I feel an affinity for the Dolphins. Not sure why, but they immediately had a connection for me. On top of that, I realised they stunk. That was, as you all know, the lovely 1-15 year. I knew their record was really bad. I'm also a big soccer fan, have been all my life. My team is Manchester United. As you can imagine you get a lot of talk about only following them because they're successful etc (not so much in recent years of course). So I decided there and then, between my random afFINity (see what I did there) for the Dolphins, and the fact they sucked, I said "This is my team. No-one can ever claim I only follow these guys because they're successful, I'm coming in at the bottom". And oh man, have I been at the bottom for a while now. Ha.
My other friends who were at that game? I constantly give one of them crap, telling him he could have saved me. He knew what I was getting myself in for, he could have told me to pick a different side.
But you know what? I wouldn't change it for the world. I love this Franchise, just as much as I hate it most years. :)