Loyalty of Long-Timers to Their Towns

Growing up in central PA, and Baltimore not having an NHL team, I grew up a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. My brother lives in Pittsburgh now, so we're both cheering on the Pens to win the Cup.

He and I were having a conversation in which we were stating some ridiculous "Locks" for the game, and my brother said, "Lock it up, Bill Cowher throws out the octopus in game 7 and credits some relative living in Detroit." This, an obvious reference to Cowher spinning the siren in Carolina and doing an interview on the Vs. Network stating he was rooting for the 'Canes. So I asked him if Pittsburgh fans were bitter about that, and he said that he and many others he's spoken with feel it's as bad if not worse than if Cowher had gone to coach the Browns (since, as he said, Cowher's already coached the Browns).

This led me to an interesting question of how much loyalty a long time coach/player/whatever should have for the city they coached/played in. Cowher has long been a Carolina resident, and I believe has been spinning the 'Canes siren for at least a few years now (may be wrong about that, but I believe I've seen that before). He certainly has ties to the area as both he and his wife are NC State grads.

But he coached for 15 years in Pittsburgh. He actually grew up outside of Pittsburgh as well, which adds a bit of extra flavor to the debate.

I can certainly see how something like this would sting Steeler and in general Pittsburgh fans. But I'm also not certain that I can find much fault in Cowher's loyalty to the 'Canes. My feeling is that he's taken on a loyalty to the area in which he's living, and that shouldn't make him any less of a Pittsburgher - or specifically, a Steeler - than he was prior to the NHL conference finals.

But maybe I'm viewing this through tinted shades?