Fan is short for fanatic, and some of us hide this fanaticism better than others.

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I'm not a person who disguises their likes and dislikes but you can understand why some people would. For instance, I know a doctor who like me, is a Las Vegas Raiders fan.

I don't know him all that well, but enough to know that he does not advertise that he's a fan. He's a level headed professional, it makes sense that he does not tell people that every Sunday he dresses like it's Halloween and shouts at his TV.

When the playoffs come, all bets are off, and those same type fans come out of hiding and show their true colors, but what are those colors? When it comes to pro baseball, basketball and hockey, fans typically root for teams based on region but that is certainly not true of the NFL.

For a variety of reasons, the NFL has fans of every team, in every state in our nation. I am a Raiders fan, as I've mentioned many times but I have neighbors who root for the Jets, another who roots for the Cowboys.

This is just the way it is and seeing as we are in the thick of the NFL Playoffs, I wanted to give fans of all kinds an opportunity to shout out their team, whether their squad is in the playoffs or not.

Danbury Area Folks Share Their NFL Fandom for Playoffs

I am an Oakland/LA/Las Vegas Raiders fan, and have been since I was a kid and I'm often outnumbered in NFL conversations, but not completely alone. In the NFL, there are fans of all kinds in every city in America.

Before the Raiders losing playoff game against the Bengals last weekend, I reached out to my friends who are Raiders fans and asked them to send me a photo of them wearing a jersey or celebrating the team in some way. I had a great response and it kicked off a fun sports conversation but it was for Raiders fans only.

I wanted to give the same opportunity to all NFL fans in the Greater-Danbury area, whether their team was in the playoffs or not. I sent out the call on my radio show and on social media and these are the responses I got back.

I'm still upset about the Raiders loss to the Bengals, and I won't get over it until the Raiders are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy and that could be a long time. That's the deal with rooting for an NFL team, the experience is largely disappointing, until it's not.

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