Sports Bar - "The Ken Wickens Rule"

Today, I'm going to lay out a rule that any sports fan can invoke when involved in an argument revolving around their changing alliance to a new team.  It is called, The Ken Wickens Rule.

First, a little background on the evolution of the rule.

Ken, an old friend of mine, was a die hard fan of every St. Louis based team from the first day I met him in Grade 9.  He knew just about everything worth knowing about the baseball Cardinals, the football Cardinals and the Blues.  No matter how bleak things got, especially with the football and hockey teams, Ken was a true believer. 

Then, as those who follow the NFL know, Bill Bidwell, the hapless owner of the football Cardinals, pulled a semi-Ursay and moved them to sunny Phoenix, tearing the football lovin' hearts out of Cardinals fans everywhere.

Ken decided then and there that he was not following the Cards to Phoenix and went about selecting another team to cheer for.  To his credit, he did not chose one of the "cool kid" teams like the Cowboys or Steelers, instead he chose the  perennial door mats (at the time) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  It was at this time that our peer group (for lack of a cooler word), decided to adopt Ken's philosophy in the event that one of our teams ever moved.

The rule, as it sits, states that one must support the team(s) that they have cheered for the longest, without regard to their on-field/ice success or failure.  Anyone changing teams, especially to a team enjoying some success, would be shunned and/or constantly berated.  In a harmless, playful manner of course...

I myself was forced to invoke the Ken Wickens Rule when my hapless Los Angeles Rams replaced Ken's football Cardinals in St. Louis.  I chose the hapless at the time Detroit Lions whose only bright lights were Barry Sanders (Barry, come back!) and Herman Moore.  We would travel to Detroit at least once a year to a game and I eventually became a season's ticket holder so it only made sense.

So, I encourage you to get on any friends who all of a sudden are Packers, Patriots or Saints fans.  Shun them, tell them to give their head a shake and let them know that to be a fan is to be all in, as a team's fortunes rise and fall like the stock market.

Unless of course, they are Toronto Maple Leaf fans, for which, unfortunately, there is no hope.  Leave them be, with their brief signs of October hope and the inevitable rocking back and forth talking to themselves that happens after they are mathematically eliminated in January. 

There is, unfortunately no rule to address what they are going through.

Cheers!