Dallas Cowboys' fans might have a new favorite baseball player. Washington Nationals prospect Bryce Harper has just made a lot of enemies in his own team's home town with comments he made recently. Despite being in a community that includes teams like the Washington Redskins, he publically professed his love for the Dallas Cowboys.
According to the Washington Times, Harper tweeted his love for Dallas and his hatred for the Washington Redskins.
"I love my Nationals, but im not a Redskins, Georgetown, Wizards, nor a Capitals fan!" he tweeted. A later tweet read: "Cowboys cowboys cowboys for life!!! I hate those redskins! Hah."
Wow. That is possibly the dumbest and coolest thing I think I have seen in awhile. For one thing, Harper is a member of the Nationals, a team whose ballpark is 15 miles from that of the Redskins' stadium. The two teams share a hometown and a lot of the same fans.
There is also no more heated rivalry in professional sports than that between the Cowboys and Redskins. From the early years when the Redskins tried to block the Cowboys' entry into the league to the years of animosity between the franchises, if you are a fan of one you hate the other.
Harper is a Cowboys' fan which means that, it doesn't matter who he plays baseball for, he cannot bring himself to support the enemy. However, he probably should keep his hatred to himself and not flaunt it on Twitter because he surely wants his team's fans to support him. His Twitter remarks seem to have been deleted, so maybe he was warned about the effects they could have.
A great example of someone who puts their feelings behind them is Kevin Durant. He is a former Texas Longhorns player who came to Oklahoma City to play for the Thunder. There is little love lost between Oklahoma and Texas when it comes to college sports but Durant never flaunted the fact that he was a Longhorn. He still supports his college team but did not run to Twitter and tell everyone that Texas rules and the Sooners suck.
As a result, his play did his talking for him and now he is one of the most beloved players in Oklahoma.
Harper is a young player and he is expected to be one of the best hitters in baseball when he makes it to the big leagues. He was the first overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft and Washington needs him to step up to help them make a move. The last thing they want is for his mouth to turn fans against him.
I don't have a horse in this race because I don't care how the Nationals do. But anytime someone speaks up and tells the world how they feel about the Redskins, I am a happy Cowboys' fan.
Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys' fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys' related news, good or bad
