Editor’s Note: September 2017

Sports aren’t for everybody. Let’s just start with that. To those who don’t follow a single sport, the teams and the players are just places and names. There’s no history, which means there’s no context. It can seem like a colossal waste of time and mental energy rooting for logos with nothing tangible coming back in return.

For some, sports fervor can wax and wane with life circumstances. Moving away from home can change how closely you follow your teams. Family and work obligations can as well.  Or sometimes you just lose interest and move on to other pursuits.

I grew up in a sports household, where the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins were in our living room on a daily basis. I would follow all of them closely as a boy, teenager and young man. These days, I save most of my rooting energy for the Patriots. Sorry (not sorry), the rest of America. I funneled almost all of my general sports interest into the National Football League, with the Patriots as the focal point, because I find football to be the most fun. It was a choice of sorts.

I say this not to inspire the wrath of readers, who are likely Cardinals fans, but to make the larger point that sports are personal. Every sports fan’s DNA is different and there’s typically an interesting history behind it.

I also say this because in our September issue Frontdoors celebrates Valley teams and athletes in our first-ever Sports Giving Back edition. This coincides with the start of football season, the most wonderful time of the year.

The theory of sports-as-very-personal also applies to the athletes themselves. You root for certain athletes for your own reasons. Having now met Larry Fitzgerald a few times, I will root for him anytime he sets foot on the field. I am officially biased in favor of Larry. The same with David Johnson, the star young running back for the Cardinals. He isn’t as well known in the community as Larry but he has the same friendly, respectful demeanor as his teammate. They are both on the same plane – extremely approachable and down-to-earth — as Shane Doan, the former Coyotes star who is now a free agent.

This month I also was lucky enough to meet someone else I will root for on and off the court: Mercury star and WNBA legend Diana Taurasi (see story inside).

In this month’s Next Doors, contributing editor Tom Evans writes about how the Phoenix Suns have a roster full of young men who don’t have to be shown how to help the community. They just do it. Also inside, Frontdoors writer Jamie Killin wraps up the efforts our sports teams are making to make the Valley a better place. The Valley’s teams and the athletes continue to help those in need and build stronger bonds among us all, sports fans or not.