On Sunday afternoon, John Wall irked a few folks in the Washington area when he wore a Cowboys jersey to FedEx Field to watch the big game between Dallas and Washington.
#DallasCowboys fan @JohnWall repping that throwback @EmmittSmith22 today for #DALvsWAS pic.twitter.com/yLxIMDwlxS
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) September 18, 2016
Plenty of people were not pleased. Fox Sports rounded up a few tweets from fans who were less than thrilled. And of course, there were people who tried to bunch Wall in with other Cowboy fans who just run for frontrunners.
And BTW.....what the hell is up with John Wall wearing a @dallascowboys jersey to a @Redskins home game? He's from Raleigh, NC.#WTH
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) September 18, 2016
As it turns out, Wall roots for the Cowboys, because his mother roots for the team, as Michael Lee documented six years ago, shortly after Wall was drafted:
"I like the Cowboys, because of my mom. People aren't going to like me because of that," Wall said, laughing. Wall said he witnessed first-hand how intense the rivalry is, as he saw someone at the game get heckled and challenged to fights for wearing a Cowboys jersey. "I got to stay with the Cowboys because I can't switch teams, but I'm going to support D.C. no matter what.
So people are basically mad John Wall for:
- Staying loyal to the team he grew up rooting for, even though he moved to a new city.
- Rooting for the same team his mother, who raised him single-handedly after his father passed away at age 8.
And on top of that, they’re completely missing the irony of this situation. Where do you think John Wall got the idea it was okay to root for the away team at a Washington sporting event? Maybe it was when the Verizon Center was half-filled with Kobe Bryant who booed him the last time the Lakers were in town. Or maybe it was when a swath of football players somehow find the time to clear their schedule to catch the Wizards play when Steph Curry was in town. Or maybe, just maybe, it was that time the team’s official Twitter account posted a photo of their starting quarterback holding up a Spurs jersey and treating it like it was the next step towards becoming the next great dynasty (Looks like things are going swell so far!).
If you want to get mad at one transplant Washingtonian for rooting for a rival team at a game in D.C., that’s your call. But if you’re upset about what he does wearing a Cowboys jersey in Washington, you should be a lot more upset about how he’s treated when he’s wearing a Wizards jersey in Washington.