Jon Hamm chose his favorite football team based on an act of spite. The beloved Mad Men actor recently explained why a boy from the Midwest would root for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was hate.
“In the 70s football was all about the Redskins and the Cowboys,” Hamm told NFL Films. “Two teams I hate to this day. So, I thought what better way to get back at the Cowboys than to root for the Steelers.”
Well, that wasn’t the only reason. There was also a slight, albeit tenuous, connection to one of the Steelers players.
“They had a guy on their team name Jack Ham,” John Hamm said. “Which was about as close as you could get to my name. So, it just fit.”
The NFL inducted Ham into the Pro Hall of Fame and he’s considered one of the pioneers of the outside linebacker position. But Actor Hamm wanted to be like his idol in more than just name though.
“I played linebacker in high school and he was the guy I wanted to be,” Hamm said. “Him and Jack Lambert. Football in the 70s was a little bit different. The guys weren’t mountains carved out of granite they were kind of like regular guys but they were terrifying”
Jon Hamm Not the Only Celebrity Who Idolized NFL Player
All NBA analysts consider Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be one of the greatest centers to ever play the game. The NBA and UCLA hero always wore jersey No. 33. He chose it because the number had significant meaning to him. It was the same number New York Giants fullback Mel Triplett, his favorite player, wore in the NFL.
“He wasn’t like a major scoring threat or anything,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says in the above video. “But he was a tough guy. I thought I could play like him, be the big running back. Of course, I was the long non-running back who ended up playing basketball.
“He wore No. 33 and that’s why I wore No. 33,” Abdul-Jabbar says. “In seventh grade, we got new basketball uniforms at my grade school and they had a No. 33. I picked it and from that point until the end of my career, I was still wearing No. 33.”
