Face it, no matter what you may think, every football player has a favorite team growing up. Very few players who reach the NFL level look back and say, “I didn’t really have a favorite team growing up.” No, instead they talk about how growing up in Texas they loved the Cowboys, or how in the Bay area they loved the 49ers.
I could go on, but you get the picture.
For Pittsburgh Steelers 3rd round pick Justin Layne, he grew up in Cleveland rooting for the Browns. His family were, and I use past tense intentionally, huge Browns fans until the Steelers called his name with their third round selection.