Hello

[CaliRoverNYC]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Jay, I grew up in California moved to Pittsburgh and now I live in New York City. Like many Americans I grew up playing "soccer" but never really thought of it as a spectator sport until 2002. leading up to the 2002 World Cup I began to watch the US national team, and during the cup Brad Friedel played out of his mind for the Yanks. Since I didn't know that one isn't supposed to pick a Keeper as one's favorite player, I anointed Big Brad with that title. After attempting and failing many times to purchase a Friedel USA shirt I finally bought a Rovers shirt with his name on it. (not realizing at the moment of purchase that keepers don't wear the legendary Blue and White halves) Soon after the world cup I began to miss watching the sport and turned to watching the Premier League. My Premier League habit grew larger in college and I began to develop a sense of pride in the hard nosed style of play that the media associated with Rovers. I was too innocent to understand that many of these words associated with Rovers style of play were meant to be derogatory, I was also too American to care how the game is "supposed" to be played.

After moving to NYC I grew tired of watching matches alone surrounded by fans of the big four so I started NYC Rovers. The group didn't really take off however until Steven (BPF) moved to the states and started helping me run the club. Thanks to the success of NYC Rovers I feel for the first time in my relatively short fanhood that I am a part of Blackburn Rovers. We joke that the NYC Rovers are the unofficial New York ambassadors to Lancashire, but in some cases it actually feels like it, and that has brought Rovers much closer to my heart than watching any number of matches on TV ever could have.