2014 NFL Regular Season

[schlaufuchs]

Yeah it's precisely that. It's the fact that, in spite of winning: 3 WS, 4 SBs, 1 Stanley Cup, and an NBA Championship over the last 15 years and having the most prominent Sports Cable Network in the business based right next door and constantly riding their dick 24/7, the Boston fans largely (stereotypically) continue to act as the poor, scrappy underdog who nobody pays attention to or gives proper respect to. The "You don't understand suffering like we do" kind of tripe that Bill Simmons is all too happy to roll out every damn year. It gets old when your market is the center (or an equal/second center) of the sporting universe and you're acting like your team is the Atlanta Hawks or somesuch.

I have no problem with people being happy when their team wins and celebrating, and I have even less of a problem with bandwagon fans. Is it annoying that I've been priced out of Warriors and Giants games now? A bit, but it's made up for by having more people I can celebrate my team's success with. A louder and more rowdy atmosphere at the games I do go to or watch on tv. That's fine. What I dislike is when fans take on a sanctimonious attitude towards their team (The "Cardinal Way" type bull[feces]) and the "You just don't understand sports like we do" crap that you tend to get from Boston fans. And the ubiquity of fans of Boston teams adds to this. They are everywhere and the disproportionate majority that I have met taken on the guise of Bill Simmons'representative in the room telling me about all the torture and suffering and anguish they had to face waiting for the Sox to finally win one. Well guess what, there are other teams out there that have had extended championship droughts.

 

[illram]

As a Boston fan I have switched over from "you don't understand pain, let me tell you a story about Grady Little" to "drinking the tears of other fans' sadness" mode. This probably was firmly cemented after the C's won the title, completing my sports trifecta. The latter mode of obnoxiousness is a little more personally enjoyable for me. E.g. this recent superbowl win... oh man that was priceless. Especially with all the deflated ball nonsense. My powers of darkness were well fed and shall now last through the long night of winter until Spring...

HOWEVER, had Lynch run that ball in for the TD and won the game, I might be singing a different tune and waxing about how cosmically painful the last three superbowl losses were. This is why I love sports.

 

[Sommerswerd]

OT- My lady co-worker (who derserves some good luck) won the lottery yesterday-

My brain is swirling even thinking about it... sitting across from a millionaire.

Sorry for continuing an OT discussion but... you're "sitting across from" her Why the heck is she still at work

And yea going to the vet sucks... Thank the gods for smartphones and OT threads on Civfanatics to pass the time... I guess I can clarify that Philly fans are the worst behaved fans I have ever observed... Jets fans, (who consistently brawl in the stands) are pretty bad too though...

On BoSox fans... I have a soft spot for them (although as a New England native, they have been particularly frustrating/annoying over the years for me) because a good friend of mine who was a lifelong BoSox fan and literally wore a fitted BoSox hat EVERY day (even in Winter) died of liver cirrhosis in 2004 during the WS, the night before they won. So I just lost the will to say anything bad about the BoSox after that, and I am just happy for them, for him.

 

[dgfred]

Well, if you knew me you would probably be there too . Joke. She only works 2 days a week... says she is going to keep on.

Still ashamed of how envious I am.

 

[illram]

Some more thoughts on Owen's thoughts. Since Owen to me you are a very rational sports fan and your comment makes me think long and hard about Boston fans and what we are.

Someone on another forum made a very, very articulate post about Patriots fans in particular and why we as a tribe seem outwardly overly defensive even though we are fans of a hugely (recently) successful franchise. I am making the Patriots/Boston distinction because I think this is a point perhaps uniquely suited to the football part of the Boston fan equation. I will boil down this very good and long post into my own unarticulate and run-on sentence laden tl;dr version: we (perceive that we) get no respect, no respect I tells ya. Example: deflate gate and spygate and all the 49er greats and Aikman and others who are coming out now and saying the Pats victories are tainted and all the rest. It stings. It sucks.

See, the Pats sucked for a long time. Basically the entire history of the AFL and NFL up to 2001. We were not quite Buccaneers level of suckiness but we were close. And now we are legitimately having one of the greatest runs of any franchise ever in the history of sports, let alone the NFL; we have one of the best if not the best QB ever; we have one of the best if not the best coach ever... and yet we have great color guys like Cris Collinsworth, during an amazing 4th quarter dissection of the Seahawks D by Tom Brady, talking about deflated footballs. It sucks. Why not talk about how Tom Brady is making the best Defense in the NFL look powerless in the most pivotal point of the season? 4th quarter do or die 3rd and 12 completion? "I told him to look in my eyes and tell me he did not deflate the balls." What??? (Yes Cris Collinsworth really said that, and during that play. Google it.) How about "wow that was an amazing play!" Or "ow I think Edelmann has a concussion and they are not doing the concussion screening the NFL promised to always do." Something. Anything other than the stupid irrelevant "Patriots don't deserve nice things" schtick. Agonizing.

Is this being an overly defensive prissy Boston fan? Maybe. Probably. But it is, to ironically prove Owen's point, a pain uniquely in my opinion felt by Patriots fans.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Or "ow I think Edelmann has a concussion and they are not doing the concussion screening the NFL promised to always do."

Because when it comes to taking the Patriots leading receiver out of the Super Bowl rules were made to be broken, like any other rules that may get in the Patriot's way.

Couldn't resist.

Meanwhile, that 'poor Patriots just having a run now after such sadness' thing is what is so tiresome about Patriots fans. They are a decade and a half into a very good run and they still want everyone to pull out a hanky for them about the previous decades when they only managed to get to the Super Bowl once and they lost that. My kids can't even remember a time before the Patriots current run, and they aren't kids.

As always though, you yourself represented the fan base far better than most.

 

[North King]

No one's asking you to mourn the Pats. They're asking you to accept that they're going to be haughty for a while because they're winning for once, and want to enjoy it while it lasts.

As does every freaking fanbase of a team that's winning in all of sports.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

No one's asking you to mourn the Pats. They're asking you to accept that they're going to be haughty for a while because they're winning for once, and want to enjoy it while it lasts.

As does every freaking fanbase of a team that's winning in all of sports.

One can hope that at least some fan bases get over it when their team's 'winning for once' has gone on for a decade and a half...but that may be a vain hope.

 

[North King]

Well I'd like to say the Packers fans have been pretty muted about their run of success, but I could be wrong. And am highly biased.

 

[JollyRoger]

Pats fans should never live down the second gayest logo in NFL history:

 

[BirraImperial]

I don't really dislike the Pats, except when they stomp on my team I hate the bandwagon fans who root for the Pats and don't even know who their QB was before Brady...the fans that only watch the Super Bowl because "it's the cool thing right now" and don't even understand the basic rules of the game.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I don't really dislike the Pats, except when they stomp on my team I hate the bandwagon fans who root for the Pats and don't even know who their QB was before Brady...the fans that only watch the Super Bowl because "it's the cool thing right now" and don't even understand the basic rules of the game.

I don't even know that. Of course I'm not a Pats fan.

Tony Eason? Steve Grogan? Jim Plunkett is way too far back... Oh, wait, Drew Bledsoe. That was obvious, wasn't it. My bad.

 

[illram]

I love Pat Patriot. Waaay better than the flying elvis they have now.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I love Pat Patriot. Waaay better than the flying elvis they have now.

The Minuteman logo is Classic!!! Pats vintage Uni is the Best Best Best in NFL... Takes me back to to 3rd Grade when I almost jumped ship from the 49ers to the local team (Pats) when they were playing in the Superbowl... Gawd what a curbstomp that was I gave up the idea of being a fan of the local team then and there and went back to the 49ers and never looked back...

The uniform was sweet though, whites and the reds... especially that logo

Speaking of "local" ... Illram I could not help but notice you have your location listed as San Fran and you are a Pats fan... So in solidarity I have revealed my location to coincide with my fandom Just seemed appropriate.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

On that note...

Are you a hometown fan? Closest team fan? Fan of some distant team that was your home team? Fan of distant team just because? If you are a fan in the distance, do you actually have a home team?

I was born and raised and live near LA, but was never a Rams fan. For some strange reason as a little kid I became an Eagles fan, which I have stuck with through thin and thick. I also admit to being a secondary Raiders fan, which grew when they came to LA and maintained even when they left...but I was pulling for the Eagles in XV.

I recently entered a pact to become a Rams fan if they come back to LA and even put them ahead of the Eagles. Not sure why I'm suddenly leaning home team at this late date.

 

[classical_hero]

Speaking of "local" ... Illram I could not help but notice you have your location listed as San Fran and you are a Pats fan... So in solidarity I have revealed my location to coincide with my fandom Just seemed appropriate.

We have made note of that in the various baseball threads and his love for the Red Sox, but he was born in Boston, so tha explains his passion.

 

[BirraImperial]

What if you're foreign?? Are you allowed to pick a team from whatever criteria you like??

 

[Civitar]

Well, I'm Swiss and I'm a Vikings fan because I'm from that region and my dad has been a Vikes fan since they lost the Hail Mary. One of my French friends, who has no connections at all to the USA or American football other than that he likes violent sports, picked the Eagles because they were playing the Giants in the first game he ever saw and he thought they "played with courage". This was when they still had Donovan McNabb, so I'm not sure what he actually saw. And some of his friends just picked whatever team that came from cities they had visited (so there is now an enclave of Jets/Giants/Dolphins/Saints fans in western Switzerland). So yeah, I guess you just pick whatever team however you want. Though the Vikings do require some serious dedication to keep supporting...

 

[Sommerswerd]

On that note...

I grew up in Connecticut. The first Superbowl I ever actually sat and watched was XIX. I was 7 years old. Before that I had never paid much attention to football. The only player I knew was "Mean Joe" Green from the Coke commercial. Earlier in the week, my best friend at school asked me if I was going to watch the Superbowl, and he had to explain to me what it was. He was a 49ers fan and he asked me to cheer for the 49ers with him. So I did, and they won. I have been a 49er fan since. At the time I did not even know that New England had a team. The only teams I was aware of before that game were the Steelers and Cowbows.

The very next year I was suprised to find out that New England had a team when New England made it to the Superbowl. In those days no one in CT was a Pats fan, they were (and still are to some) regarded as a Boston team. CT fans are pretty mercenary because we dont have any true CT teams. Alot of people like NY teams, but you find CT folks liking teams from all over. However, since the BoSox and Pats are good now, you will see many more fans than when I was growing up. Want proof that CT isn't "real" Pats country? Check out this ESPN poll. Notice that all of New England supports the Pats while the rest of America condemns them as cheaters... That is except for CT, the only New England state that doesn't support the Pats in deflategate. That doesn't surprise me at all, as I said because that was my experience growing up. There is another reason for CT to hate the Pats... It has to do with the owner Kraft screwing us (but that is a different story ).

So accordingly, when Superbowl XX came around and I discovered the NE Pats, I naturally assumed that all of my friends and relatives would join me in supporting them in the Superbowl. But to my shock, EVERYONE was supporting the Bears... In fact, this was how I found out that my own father (not from CT BTW) was actually an avid Bears fan. So I spent the next weeks passionately pleading for people to see reason and support the local team. Everyone just laughed at me and mocked me and said the Pats were lame, they had no chance against the Bears. To this day I HATE that accursed Superbowl Shuffle

In any case, the Pats got roachstomped and I was a laughingstock for supporting them. I was 8 years old. Needless to say I was cured of any hope of being a Pats fan after that and I just became more determined to be a 49er fan and put that unfortunate Pats thing as far behind me as possible. In some ways I think the way the Pats lost really pushed me deeper into the 49ers arms. I guess the following decade of utter Pats ineptitude helped as well.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Are you a hometown fan? Closest team fan? Fan of some distant team that was your home team? Fan of distant team just because? If you are a fan in the distance, do you actually have a home team?

In my family (nationwide) we have a strict man-code about picking teams.

1. You only get to claim one team in each sport (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) as "your" team. Claiming a "second" team will get you mocked (or beat up when we were kids). You get until age 10 to pick your team and then you are stuck with them until you die. There is no switching teams. I have a cousin who occasionally tries to claim he is a Pats fan since he was 15, but we all ridicule him mercilessly because he has lived in Atlanta his whole life and was a Dolphins fan when we were kids. He didn't start trying to claim NE until he was about 20. He gets mocked and called out so much by his family in front of his friends for being a false-fan/bandwagoneer that even his friends mock him about it now. Its so bad that he doesn't even talk about football in front of family anymore.

Exceptions are:

a. If your team dissolves (reorganizes into a new team with a new name) or goes out of business, you can pick a new team. My brother refused to take advantage of this exception when the Browns went under. He waited for them to come back... In retrospect, he probably should have followed them to Baltimore. I was a Hartford Whalers fan until they went under, my one local team gone .

b. If you like a local (state) team and they change States you can switch teams. This has come up for my family in Ohio (Browns/Ravens), Indiana (Colts) and in St Louis (Rams/Cardinals) but none of them switched AFAIK.

c. You can follow/support your local team wherever you live without being mocked, but you can't claim them as "your" team. This rule also applies when a team moves to your state from somewhere else. We routinely suggest to the bandwagon Pats cousin that he could support the Falcons without being mocked.

d. You can follow/support a pro team that a sibling, child or parent plays for, without being mocked but you can't claim them as "your" team.

e. Any pro team you play for or work for can be added as a second "your" team.

d. There is currently a dispute about NCAA (football, basketball) teams. Specifically whether you can add your alma mater as "your" team, whether you can add your grad/professional school as a 3rd "your" team and whether you have to graduate to be able to legitimately add the team(s). Pretty much the college grads want to add their schools (or switch), the college attendees that did not graduate but went to powerhouse schools want to add or switch, and those who did not attend college want to deny us from adding any teams.