2015 NFL Season

[gunnar hendershow]

It's all just karma for signing Greg Hardy.

Your face when it's finally the defense's fault your team loses.

The secondary is like a barrel AFTER you're done shooting the fish in it. 

4 losses by a combined 17 points - 6, 4, 4 and 3. We could be in a far better position right now. 

Four hundred and sixty yards given up to Josh McCown, The guy so bad last year he had a meme dedicated to him and lead Tampa to #1 overall. Just makes my head hurt.

Atleast Lions fans have Michigan and Sparty... We've got the Terps... 

The secondary plays so far off receivers, it completely comes down to the scheming.  So Pees doesn't trust our pass rush with everyone hurt, okay, that's fine.  But you're conceding 10 yard passes out of fear you're gonna give the QB so much time he'll find a guy open way deep.  Jimmy Smith is a big, physical CB and you don't take advantage of that at all.  Have him jam the guys at the line and knock them off their routes.

Injuries have devastated this team, that happens.  But Joe Flacco's been good in spite of that, and he's shown that he probably is elite.  Unfortunately for him nothing else about this team is.

[DMN in the House]

Had to google the barrel guy too. Because he passed away before I followed football. You say that it's not about how long i've liked football but you keep bringing up things that existed or were created prior to me following football. At every single turn you bring up duration of fandom. If you really maintain that it's not about how long i've supported the team, then I urge you to re-examine your examples. They don't match your message. I'm sorry I wasn't following football when you were, nor when all these examples you raise existed, really I am. However that doesn't mean I like it any less than you. Just not as long. 

Were I inclined to believed that correlation is the same as causality, I might agree that simply because I followed a team at a certain time then what immediately preceded it (them winning) would be the cause. Thankfully I know it is not. I would point out that until last year, I only followed the College game as I consider it to be more enjoyable. Those of you who are my Facebook friend will find a cropped screencap from 16 August 2014. It's of my email confirmation to the first NFL tickets I bought. This was the day I decided to be a Broncos fan. It had nothing to do with Denver winning. It was because I was planning my trip to the US, and I was going to be in town for a week - it was nothing more than happenstance that lead to two Broncos games being on during the week that I was in town. I planned my trip around the Avalanche schedule, and lucked out with the Broncos. I decided that I might as well commit to being a fan if i'm going to spend nearly $500 on tickets. I was in the house - I was twelve rows from the goal line that Peyton Manning threw the ball over to break the career touchdown record. I was there. I was a part of that history. That's why i'll remain a Denver fan. I don't expect you to believe me now, it would be only too convenient for me to simply say that i'll always be a fan. All i'll say is that I find it a grotesque insult that you're attributing my fandom to bandwagoning. And i'll ask you to come see me when they're bad. I'll show you then. And I hope that when somebody's team finally beats Denver (which is gonna happen, we're playing far too badly to not start losing real soon. Also we play Green Bay in two weeks) that I take it in better grace than you have :\

Words are cheap, and if you're still a fan in the lean times, then I'll be happy to take your ribbing in a better light, but, as of right now, you're the definition of a bandwagon fan. It's ok, pretty much everyone who begins their fandom when the team is up starts there, you just have to prove otherwise.

The reason I bring up barrel guy is because it's a well known piece of Broncos history, and, yes, I expect a nnon-bandwagon fan to learn these things. I learned about Oakland Raider history from before I was a fan, one would expect you would be interested enough in the team to do likewise for Denver. It's one way to show you're not a bandwagon fan, and, for a NFL team, it's as simple as watching videos online, NFL Films' work is not hard to find.

Of course, if you're not interested in doing so, that's completely fine, but then don't expect it to be taken well when you decide to talk shit.

As far as 'grace' goes, as Maxx said, you came at me, after a comment that wasn't directed at you (or even the Denver fanbase), and was nothing if not self-deprecating, so I'm sure that when Oakland does beat Denver it won't be difficult to show more 'grace' than you have. 

I should have left it alone, as, when it comes to talking about the NFL, you're pretty much a joke anyway.

[Dan]

...

 

 It's ok, pretty much everyone who begins their fandom when the team is up starts there

 

[gunnar hendershow]

We have Brits who've chosen the Browns, Jaguars, and Texans as teams to support.  You'd think they would all have decided to be Patriots or Steelers fans.

[Lineker]

Nah fuck the Pats. Even we know that.

[Twist]

Telling other people how real of a fan they are, or not, is bullshit.

Plubby's fandom is has nothing to do with anyone else's experience as a fan but his own. If he wants to give people shit then he can. If you don't like it then mute him. Don't undermine his fandom because his 'banter' upset you.

[GhostMachine]

The only time you can call someone out on their fandom is if they're clearly a bandwagon fan and you can back up the claim.

And I mean someone who switches allegiance when a team they like starts to suck, or always claims to like whichever team is at the top of the heap.

Edited October 12, 2015 by GhostMachine

[Pizza]

Telling other people how real of a fan they are, or not, is bullshit.

Plubby's fandom is has nothing to do with anyone else's experience as a fan but his own. If he wants to give people shit then he can. If you don't like it then mute him. Don't undermine his fandom because his 'banter' upset you.

So Plubby can talk shit but shit can't be talked back to him. 

"lol it's cute you thought your team could beat mine"

"lol you've been a fan for three minutes"

"Whoa. That is offensive. How dare you undermine my fandom."

 

[Twist]

It was hardly a fan giving another fan shit. He was writing essays trying to undermine his experience as a fan. Thus, bullshit.

[gunnar hendershow]

I call people out all the time when they're johnny-come-latelys who think they can be jackasses.  In fact usually it's the johnny-come-latelys who enjoy being rude and think that's how sports fandom works.  I'm seeing it all the time with Patriots fans from Maryland whose aunt's college roommate was from New Hampshire, or Seahawks fans from Maryland, etc.  At least with Steelers and Redskins fans there's been a built-in fanbase here since before even the Ravens played their first game.  Eagles fans too, since Philadelphia isn't that far.  It's telling when you're at a bar watching a game and it's the guy decked out in his Peyton Manning Colts jersey cheering for the Broncos on the silent TV in the back corner because "I love Peyton" is the one being obnoxious.

There's different reasons people start cheering for sports teams, but there's definitely a level of etiquette you find in the more entrenched fans and not in the "tailgate warriors" crowd who just like going to games to get drunk.

[Lineker]

So how about tonight's Steelers/Chargers game huh guys.

[HC]

Bolts by 3! Scobee's Curse causes Pittsburgh to miss the game-tying FG.

[Your Mom]

I think I kinda get both sides of the issue so I'm just going to admit not taking a side makes me boring and move on  

[DMN in the House]

We have Brits who've chosen the Browns, Jaguars, and Texans as teams to support.  You'd think they would all have decided to be Patriots or Steelers fans.

That's not what I meant. I'm saying that, if you choose to cheer for a team that is currently doing well, then you are going to look like a bandwagon fan. If you, as Dan and many others have, choose a team that's not doing well, that won't happen.

I'm going to drop it, but damshow explained it better than I did. If you're new to the fandom, and especially if it seems you're more a fan of a player than the actual team, then it comes off as obnoxious to take shots. You don't get to just decide 'oh, I like this team now' and start slinging shit at people who have been fans for over two decades and knows more about your team than you do. 

[HC]

I think we're all a special breed of weirdos that emotionally invest our hearts and souls in the athletic achievements of millionaires that has no bearing our actual lives whatsoever. 

[Dan]

We have Brits who've chosen the Browns, Jaguars, and Texans as teams to support.  You'd think they would all have decided to be Patriots or Steelers fans.

That's not what I meant. I'm saying that, if you choose to cheer for a team that is currently doing well, then you are going to look like a bandwagon fan. If you, as Dan and many others have, choose a team that's not doing well, that won't happen.

I'm going to drop it, but damshow explained it better than I did. If you're new to the fandom, and especially if it seems you're more a fan of a player than the actual team, then it comes off as obnoxious to take shots. You don't get to just decide 'oh, I like this team now' and start slinging shit at people who have been fans for over two decades and knows more about your team than you do. 

I was just playing. I get asked all the time "why the Jags", usually by myself on Sunday evenings. 

[GhostMachine]

The Texans I can understand. But I'm surprised that anyone supports the Browns or Jaguars. 

[Plubby]

Spoilered for those who are done with the topic of bandwagoning. If you're not interested, don't click it.

I'm fine to drop this too, I want to close my side by clarifying the bandwagoning thing generally speaking and why I reacted to it. To me, bandwagoning is when you pick a team because they win. I have outlined that I picked Denver because I spent time in their city. I spent a week in Boise first, i'd have picked their NFL team if they had one. I guess I could have picked Seattle because I had a stopover there on my way to Boise, that'd have really tossed your salad

I spent ten thousand dollars to be able to see all of these teams that I decided to support, to be able to spend time in their cities, and enjoy the fan culture...that's not the actions of a bandwagon fan of any team. I'm confident that I have spent my entire sporting fandom proving that while my reasons for supporting teams may often be quite silly - and that would apply to arguably any team that I support other than the Knicks (who I picked because I have friends in NYC who are quite passionate about the Knicks) or the Denver Broncos, that I stick with them, and it has absolutely nothing to do with how much they win, or how much they won when I decided to follow them. If you think that because the year that I was in Denver was 2014 and that was the year they were winning that therefore I am bandwagoning, then we're going to have to agree to disagree.

 

 

How far can San Diego go with only Melvin Gordon as a realistic running option? I'm kind of hoping they just chuck it a lot given that I have Keenan Allen and Philip Rivers in  fantasy, but when Gordon doesn't fire they seem a bit lame-duck on offense.

[Maxx]

I would say the fact that he's a Knicks fan is punishment enough for anything he says about football.

[Plubby]

Tell me about it  Not only that, i'm a huge Amar'e Stoudemire fan, and I started following the Knicks in the second year of his contract. So I just got all the injured/bad/punching a locker room Amar'e, none of the "actually pretty good first season" Amar'e, and then he left the team so I have the tragic-awkward Amar'e Knicks jersey  RIP, me.