What is thier incentive to change if you keep buying a pathetic product?

IF you have something better to do then why watch the game, why go to the game or buy season tickets?

I guess I ask because I am a fan of a historically pathetic team. Is there anything to be gained by continually watching them suck? No effort on my part will make them better and watching them makes me miserable? Is there any reason to go to the games simply because I'm a fan?


What is the value I guess I'm asking of being a die hard fan of a pathetic miserable bunch of losers?

no and no. but fans will try to make you feel like less of a fan if you stop going to games, watching, etc. the whole 'i stuck with the team' load of shit.

Ok, I think you are making up my mind then. I could be kayaking or canoeing something outside on a nice day rather than making myself miserable. I still care, I'll still check the stats and read the columns but the blood pressure will stay in the right levels. Makes sense. I mean if they were even sort of relavant I might watch but I've been doing this for 20 years or so now, I think I've seen enough losing.

It's not like my actions alone will ever turn Atlanta into a sports town anyway.

Thanks.

i dunno man, joey harrington may need some moral support this season. i'd rethink it.

its a great mystery.

every night the Dodgers make me pissed off and miserable. every sunday the rams make me scream and yell and be pissed and ruin my day and night.

so what the fuck is wrong with me for A. letting a group of strangers determine my mood and happiness like this, and B. keep watching them and going thru it

I think you will get your answer by asking any Colts fan what last February was like. Years and years of misery had to feel pretty great when you finally break through and win it all. That is the only reason I can think of for putting yourself through it.

i wish I could remember the 1988 Dodgers a little better, i was only 10....but when the rams won the super bowl, fuck it felt like a million blow jobs all at once for the next 3 days.

of course, super bowl 36 still makes my insides hurt to this very day, probably will forever. or until the rams win another one.

Its because we know we will get the most satisfaction when our teams win. "sticking" with your team through losing seasons, and having them win would be more satisfying as opposed to "Jumping ship" during losing seasons, and having them win.

Also its a loyalty issue. Some people pride themselves on it.

there's no other option really

It's not like I'm changing sides though really, I'm just tired of seeing the same thing over and over and over.

when the team has no talent, it dosen't matter what kind of coaching they get because they don't have the talent to win.

Roddy White is a bum, he will NEVER be good. Michael Jenkins was not even that good of a WR at OSU and now 4 years in the league...he is what we thought he was.... Joey Harrington is an interception waiting to happen I know because I look at stats and see, that he's generally a poor decision maker. He is not ever going to get much better than that.

They have ancient people in key positions...Wayne Gandy is like 37 at LT and Joe Horn is 35. It's a young mans game and Warrick Dunn is also 30+.

No playmakers other than Norwood a 3rd rounder and potentially Laurent Robinson is the only WR worth a shit.

The DL is a mess, linebackers are too small in the middle, and fast but out of position a lot on the outside, also because the interior of the line sucks they can't stop the run because the guards are on the linebackers consistantly.

There is really nothing other than the coaching staff to be remotely excited about. If I'm an owner I'm pissed at the pathetic lack of talent, and I could care less how nice a guy the GM is...his head has to roll for this because I can't fire myself for the idiotic decision to hire Jim Mora Jr who brought in Greg Knapp, perhaps the two worst coaches in the league who then combined that with Alex Gibbs desire to put sub 300lb linemen against 345lb athletic DT's. It's a dinasaur ideal and piss poor planning. We've known the issues for years, and yet they continue to turn a blind eye, so why give them my money? Even when Mckay has tried to address the issues he's chosen poorly.


It's the same problem at almost all of the historically pathetic teams. Idiots in the front office taking bad players in high draft positions.

All good teams draft very very well and get rid of high priced free agents ready to have serious injury problems to teams that aren't smart enough to draft thier needs ahead of when they need them.

you're in luck. In the NFL, turnarounds can happen almost immediately. It acceptable for your interest level to decrease (not reading every article/blog about the team and not attending every game).....but you cannot ever jump ship. If you had an owner who didn't give a fuck, you might have grounds for doing so...but even that's acceptable only in extreme cases.

Oh sure but the owner has given a fuck for now 6 years... we have some of the nicest practice facilities and offices in the league, everything a team can ask for. He's spent millions, hell 27 or so of his own is now sunk in to the dreary Georgia Dome and he's got to rent from the city unlike the Cowboys and Redskins..etc. so I have a lot of respect for that. He's really trying to do what he can to put a winner on the field and in the community.

Turn arounds come fast for teams that have a lot of talent but are poorly coached. The Falcons were extremely poorly coached and they lack talent in almost every vital position forget depth, they don't have freaking starters.

Everyone of the good teams. Chicago, NE, Colts, Chargers etc.. Everyone of them are STOUT on the line of scrimmage. Everyone of the bad teams has at least some kind of issue either with depth or size or skill on the line of scrimmage.

The Falcons are awful on both, and it's not getting better anytime soon.

I'm not going to stop being a fan, but at this point, I'm closing the curtain on the execution unless there is some kind of bright spot, or I have nothing better to do.

well, the new coach could be a bright spot. Good owner + solid coach = a decent foundation. Unfortunately, the Vick debacle fucked them from a roster, cap, and overall karma standpoint. It's going to take at least a year or two to get out from under that cloud...or until they get a legit franchise QB.

look on the bright side, this time next year you'll have a brand new brian brohm jersey

You've got to earn your stripes!

Any mother fucker can by a Cleveland Caviliers Eastern Conference Champions shirt, but only the truly dedicated have a god-awful bright blue and orange cavs hat with the "hoop V" logo and a Mark Price signature from 1987.

I'm with you Electro; we're in the same boat. I want to follow a winning team too and this year's team may be as bad as the '96 and '89 squads. I will still watch the games and read about them in the paper and online but I've adopted the Chargers for this year and next. Of course I don't have the emotional attachment I have with the Falcons. I don't mean the NFC title game against the Vikings or the Lambeau playoff victory. I'm talking about sitting with my dad on Sunday afternoons as a kid learning the game & it's history.
My grandmother loved the Braves and through her I started following them too, even through the dredge seasons of 100+ losses in the late 80s. I didn't expect them to have success since they hadn't before so their run in the 90s was especially sweet. It's easier to romanticize a baseball team but the same principle is in there. Look at the best teams in the NFL now; I remember the Patriots, Chargers and Colts all being awful. The Bills stunk before their Super Bowl years. Even Tampa Bay won a Super Bowl and their history pre-Dungy was worse than ours. Same thing can happen here, even if it gets worse before it gets better.

There is nothing worse than being a bandwagon fan.

I would have trouble trusting someone who switched teams based on who was winning. I've always throught of sports as a mini-sociological experiment. How you behave in sports is a reflection of how you behave in life.

If you're the kind of person who is willing to dump a team when they start losing, are you the kind of person who can dump a friend when things get tough? Maybe, maybe not, but I will be very suspect of the loyalty of a *bandwagon* fan.

Let's make sure we're on the same page here with definitions.

Bandwagon fan: a fan who jumps to whatever team is doing well presently.
Fairweather fan: a fan who sticks with the same team but only roots/pays close attention to that team when it is doing well.

A/D?

By my definitions, I hate bandwagon fans, but have no problem with fairweather fans.

Sports are supposed to be fun above all else. I don't see any reason why someone should have to follow a shitty team if it upsets them just because the team is "theirs".

On the other hand I do thinks it's sleazy to abandon a team that's typically good but is going through a down period (like the Packers or Niners).
But if a team is usually bad you shouldn't be expected to be "loyal" to them.