I grew up in Connecticut, but became an ardent Cowboys fan in 1967, the first year they lost to the Packers in the NFL Championship game (the year before the notorious "Ice Bowl"). I loved Roger Staubach, Bob Lily, Walt Garrison, Jethro Pugh and the rest of them. But then Jerry Jones bought the team and I started losing interest. Troy and Emmit brought me back to the fold for a brief while, but Jones couldn't get his ego out of the way of running the team, and its been utter mediocrity since. (Perhaps this year is different... I don't know. I haven't been paying attention.) But football in general has lost any allure for me. It seems all the fans want is to see players annihilate each other, something the league understood when it covered up the damage the sport does to the brain.

But I do remain a big baseball fan. Perhaps not as much as I used to. And for the same reason you cite: players changing allegiances so quickly. It's their right to do so, but it does diminish my fan loyalty.

Great article!