I have one piece of sports memorabilia in my home. It's a signed football I received from my mom for Christmas in 1991. I was 11. It was more than two years removed from my father's death and one year removed from our family of four uprooting from our native Southern California and moving to Denver to be closer to other family.
I was born in San Diego in 1980, at the start of the glorious "Air Coryell" era for the Chargers. My mom tells stories of me jumping in front of the television as a toddler, believing every team to be the Bolts and every player to be running back Chuck Muncie, but I don't know if I thought deeply about my allegiances before relocating to the Rockies.