California Canary

As a massive Norwich fan from California, I think the nature of American sports is simply different than that in England. One thing that completely separates American sports from British sports is the amount of major sports to choose from as well as how many teams might be in a market. If you''re born in Norwich, you''re an NCFC fan, end of story. Also, it''s a given that you''re passionate for football and if you''re attending a live sporting event it will be a Norwich game. With 5 major markets (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS) plus a legitimate college scene (which seems completely strange to foreigners) and multiple teams in a market, it is not a given that you become a fan of a specific team. For me, I''m a baseball fan, college basketball fan, MLS fan, and EPL fan. While I obviously can''t attend EPL games, within an hour I have 3 Major League Baseball Teams to choose from, 5 college basketball teams (as well as two professional basketball teams), and 2 MLS teams. There''s also an n NFL team, 2 major college football teams, and 2 NHL teams. With so many teams to support and so many sports, you lose that allegiance inherent to birth in a specific place. You also lose some of your hatred because of commonalities with your rival; University of Southern California fans bitterly hate University of California Los Angeles fans but there is often a unification as a Lakers, Dodgers, and Chargers fan. If you''re born in Norwich, you go to Norwich games and are bred to hate Ipswich. If you''re born in the USA, it simply does not work like this except in a place like Green Bay which only has American Football rather than MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, and a real college powerhouse. Having gone to games at Carrow Road as well as games all around the USA, it is simply different; there is still a love for each team but bloodlines, area of birth defining THE team you support and bitter hatred of rivals is more an outlier than a norm. It''s certainly not a worse sports culture and I''d say Americans are equally or more passionate about sport than their English counterparts, but sport is simply different.