Rick wrote:I've never hated a team because of their success. It's their blowhard fans that makes me want them to lose. Outside of those same said fans, I have nothing at all against the team. If their fans weren't so nasty about it, maybe they could have been labeled America's Team. As it stands right now, there is a lot of venom toward that team, and the Patriots fans have nobody to blame but themselves. With the exception of JrnyScarab, he's been very cool.
You may not have personally ever hated a team for their success. That said, if you watch sports, you know the drill. Teams with a lot of success ALWAYS have as many people who hate them as fans who root for them. The Cowboys, Yankees, and Patriots all come to mind. As far as Patriots fans for only having themselves to "blame", as you put it...I'm not sure I really get your point. I certainly can't speak for Patriot's fans everywhere, but I'm pretty sure most of us could care less how many people hate our team. The amount of people who like or despise a team has ZERO impact on wins and losses!
I honestly really wouldn't expect that many people, outside of the New England area, to be huge Patriots fans. Just like there aren't a whole lot of Ravens fans outside of Baltimore. As I said in my previous post...I actually LOVE everyone despising the Patriots! It's actually quite amusing to me. It's just all the whining I can't stand. I never whined when my teams sucked, and I certainly don't apologize because Boston has a couple of decent teams, who win a few games, at this particualr point in time. When the Celtics won three championships back in the 80's, to give their franchise 16 titles, I constantly heard people saying negative things about the Celtics and how much they hated them. Interestingly enough, after two of their players died (Len Bias, and Reggie Lewis). and they became a DREADFUL franchise, nobody outside of Boston had anything negative to say about them any longer. Why is this??? Because they were irrelevant and not winning any longer! The only people who are ever critical of teams who constantly lose, year after year, are their own fans!
NFL Live (on ESPN) showed several plays from last night's game that were clearly penalties that should have been called against Baltimore that simply weren't called. The officiating wasn't great, on either side of the ball last night. That said, Baltimore is the second most penalized team in the entire NFL, so the fact that they had 13 penalties called on them wasn't exactly earth-shattering news! Bring on the Pittsburgh fans. This may finally be the week for the Patriots to lose one, and if it is, it's all okay. I'd much rather lose now, than in the playoffs!
John from Boston
running their heads. It's the over-trumping of your own, and the trashing of other teams.
