Serious question.

When is enough, enough? What do they have to do to drive you away?

OK, losing. That one is a given. But if that's all it takes you weren't much of a fan to begin with. In fact, you probably pick the team you follow based on the probability of a winning season. They lose, you choose, you're gone.

The answer depends on the sport and it depends on whether it's the pros or college. Start with baseball. I'm an Oriole fan. There's no hope. Not today, not tomorrow, not ten years from now. But I can absolutely, positively say that I won't ever stop being an Orioles fan. Can I get an amen from the brethern on the North side of Chicago?

Maybe it's history. In hockey it's the Montreal Canadiens for me. You don't stop pulling for Les Habitants. Maybe it's the red and blue uniforms, or the tradition, or something else. The sense that if hockey is a religion, the home church is in Montreal. I'm not happy with management not spending what it takes to get better, but I'm not giving up. Every year about this time they give us hope that dies in March, but life is tough. You get over it.

Which brings us to the Cowboys. When Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry that should have been it. You don't fire Tom Landry. That's a long time ago, but it hasn't been forgotten. Jones will always be an outsider, the George Steinbrenner of the Cowboys. When T.O. was signed, there was another reason to leave. Couldn't do it. Now they have Tony Romo and leaving is out of the question. It's like having Don Meredith back.

i'm a knicks fan. OK, I said it. Are you happy? Now here's the problem. How do you pull for a team with management that functions the way Caligula ran the Roman Empire? How do you cheer for Stephon Marbury? When other teams are openly saying your guys don't have heart and don't come to compete why shouldn't you grab you coat, tip your hat to Spike Lee, and head for the exits?

But it's difficult. You want to stay for the kids. Jamal Crawford, David Lee, Nate Robinson. But is there anything left to save? Wasn't it Mick Jagger who once said, "Faith has been broken, tears must be cried?" Well, you can't just wander in with Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry and pretend it's the same team Walt Frazier and Willis Reed represented.

Then again, where do you go? I should support the Charlotte Bobcats, but I don't think there's a long-term relationship there. Robert Johnson's mismanagement will cause them to go bust within five years. As a Texan it should be the Mavericks, but pull for a team owned by Mark Cuban? No way. Maybe I'll adopt a stray. Take in the Atlanta Hawks. Well, no.

College sports are different. "Be True to Your School", all that sort of thing. But my school (UNC-Greensboro) doesn't even have a football team. Since my dad was in the Navy 23 years I've always pulled for them. Most years they've been admirable losers who fought to the last whistle and always came up short.

Ironically, winning is ruining being a Navy fan. WIth winning has come three separate sexual assault scandals, a multi-player steroid controversy, and a coach (Paul Johnson) who gets paid $1.8 million a year. Navy isn't Navy anymore, and only Army is what Navy was. Which leads to thoughts of pulling for Army, which leads to thoughts of walking into the ocean and letting the tide carry me away. Yikes!

In NCAA basketball I pull for UNC-G and even go to a few games each season. But that's not my favorite team. It's Virginia. Why? Because years ago UVA's basketball team was made of up of slow white guys who could hit the outside shot. Since I'm a slow white guy who can hit the outside shot it just seemed to fit.

Will I quit now that Virginia doesn't look like me on the court? No. I like the coach (Dave Leitao) and the team. They are no longer mostly white and they aren't a bunch of outside shooters anymore, but that's OK. They still fight hard and that's what counts.

So, there you have it. At the end of the day even one way loyalty counts to a sports fan. Plan B is hard to find and so is the energy to find a new team. We get taken for granted by management, abandoned by players who walk away for money, and ignored by college programs that are run by a small group of big money types. But they are our teams and we'll remain faithful.

Even if they won't.