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Drinking the Kool-Aid, is it a bad thing?

Did something happen at ES this summer? I wouldn't know of course but an awful lot of converts this week alone. Nice to see some of the old guard so Welcome home!

This explains it:

Nothing real crazy, a thread popped up that was an attempt to reminisce/educate Skins fans about the "legend" that was Andyman. As per the norm for ES, it turned into a bit of bash fest for the first page, then suddenly the old guard came around to defend themselves (Art, Tarhog, DieHard, etc...) and before you know it was a nostalgic ride through ES lore. And then I woke up and found myself here. Weird stuff.
 
Blue Collar and Enforcer - welcome guys :cheers:

I move fluidily from one group to another depending on mood, the last game, and what I feel the membership needs at any given time. Sometimes, I force myself into homer mode, just because someone has to be that guy.

First time I think I've seen you admit this... Hey that's why you make the big bucks! ;)

All kidding aside, the yang and yang that we strive for is difficult I know, but I couldn't think of many other people I would like to pull me from the deepest despair of our fandom .

And for this, we thank you.
 
Did something happen at ES this summer? I wouldn't know of course but an awful lot of converts this week alone. Nice to see some of the old guard so Welcome home!

Apparently it had something to do with streaking en masse. Close your eyes and just imagine. It wasn't pretty.
 
So glad to see new and friendly folks come on board this great place! Welcome!

As to the cool aid....I'd much rather drink a gallon and be disappointed than drink a whole lot of piss and vinegar and be proven accurate..

Here's to high hopes, passionate support for the REDSKINS (suck it paper-non-grata from DC!) and another season of ups, downs and in betweens for our community!
 
Welcome to the board. It may take you a few weeks to realize it, but you've just upgraded tremendously.

I feel the same way about the Skins. I haven't given us a chance to win anything in at least a decade. Now, I'm more optimistic than I've been in the last ten years combined.

That confidence emanates from the belief that we now have one of the top 3 or 4 coaches in the league. He'll win. I'm not sure who the QB will be on the field when it happens, but he'll win, and win big.

Welcome to the board.
 
Pessimism is the risk free, easy route, chosen by the defeated, and bandied about as "realism".

Being a Homer, drunk off his ass on kool-aid, defiantly pissing into the wind, flipping a Burgundy & Gold finger at lowered expectations, is the path of the brave.

I'm glad to see more folks on my route.

Welcome aboard!!!
 
And Chris was exactly right, when he quoted Submitted:

Nothing real crazy, a thread popped up that was an attempt to reminisce/educate Skins fans about the "legend" that was Andyman. As per the norm for ES, it turned into a bit of bash fest for the first page, then suddenly the old guard came around to defend themselves (Art, Tarhog, DieHard, etc...) and before you know it was a nostalgic ride through ES lore. And then I woke up and found myself here. Weird stuff.

New meat! New meat!

First, in the general sense ... the day I stop being excited about opening day of a new NFL and Redskins season, please point my wheelchair toward a cliff and give a stout shove. Burgundy and gold football has been in my blood since I was 10. 43 years and counting. I figure I have maybe 35 more before I no longer recognize what the beginning of September means. In a complicated, cynical adulthood, few things remain that are pure escapism, pure entertainment, pure passion. Redskins football is such a thing. And the always-present possibility that THIS just might be year the team climbs the mountain again, well, it's more than a sugary kid drink ... it's just this side of Life's Blood.

As to the more immediate, grounded sense ... to me, for anyone other than a truly unhappy sort there is enough to be excited about about this specific team to make optimism easy. There's a GM. Wasn't too long ago that alone would have made many a Redskins sourpuss smile. There's a new coach, selected by that GM, with a credible pedigree; a young, qualified coordinator of the sort we used to only dream about in the post-Norval days. There's a very young QB we've already seen do historic things, heading into year three with so much potential and promise it's not a stretch for even the skeptic to concede that the generation-long march in the desert searching for The Franchise may finally be over. And there is talent spread up and down the roster, on both sides of the ball, deeper than we've seen here in many seasons. No, not a finished product, but trending up. Sharply.

So it comes down to expectations. If anything but a playoff berth is one's base expectation heading into 2014, he may well be disappointed. Because we can't know how long it might take for the new coach and all the developing talent to hit their stride and turn potential into hard results. But to look at where this team and its fans have come from for most of the past 20 years, and look around today, it seems to me it would take an unhappy soul to not look to Sunday afternoon with anything but anticipation.

Bring it on.
Om, I have missed your posts so much! I am being totally serious.
 
Welcome to the board. It may take you a few weeks to realize it, but you've just upgraded tremendously.

I feel the same way about the Skins. I haven't given us a chance to win anything in at least a decade. Now, I'm more optimistic than I've been in the last ten years combined.

That confidence emanates from the belief that we now have one of the top 3 or 4 coaches in the league. He'll win. I'm not sure who the QB will be on the field when it happens, but he'll win, and win big.

Welcome to the board.
I was wondering where you went!
 
I find easier to drink kool-aid when mixed with some vodka.

I am excited and nervous this year. The fact our starting offense did not score a TD bothers me. If memory serves me correct we did the same thing under Schottenheimer.

I know RG3 is a lot better than Tony Banks, but some productivity with 1st team offense would give me a better feeling.
 
Quit Drinking the Dallas Cowboy Kool-Aid Long time ago

I know this is the wrong site to say this, but being a life-long Cowboy fan, my kool-aid glass got a permanent hole the year Jerry Jones fired Jimmy Johnson. How can anyone drink the Kool-Aid over there they way they operate!!

For the Redskins,:untroubled: I am excited about this year. I think it is going to be a lot better than a lot of you negative ninnies (sp?) think it will be.
 
I have a pretty good feeling. I can't explain what I saw last season. A fresh start with a new coach seems like a no brainer. I look to watch us actually develop a qb instead of what I saw with the last 20 or so. If Griffin isn't the one...we can develop Cousins. This is a contract year for both I expect to see the offense moving and scoring regardless of whom it might be.
 
Is it wrong to drink the Kool-aid? Absolutely not. 2012 proved to us that at any given time, a team can click and do special things. I've had to train my brain to understand, that at any given time, things can turn for the better. I've fought within my mind that change over the course of a game, a month, a season, things can go from seemingly negative, to the ball bouncing off a helmet and being intercepted for a a TD. I've also learned that a 21 point lead can evaporate equally fast.

We can go from the worst, to first, and back to worst again. The margin between the best in the league and middle of the pack on a players perspective can be measured by .10. There is absolutely no reason to think this team cant greatly improve itself. We've made moves in the right direction, and we're in year 3 of a re-build, entering phase 2. There are more things we need to do, but the talent level has gone up. I'm drinkin the Kool-aid and can't wait til the season gets rolling.
 
Man, I don't even know where to start with this topic anymore. I'm unafraid to say I'm a bit lost, lol.

For those who've known me from ES, I've always been an unabashed homer and could never understand the concept of looking at the team "realistically" or with anything other than a positive outlook. We're fans, right? To me, that meant hoping for the best no matter how circumstances presented themselves.

But last year... last year was devastating for me. Anytime I think about it, I'm at a loss for words. Like, how? How could we go from a young, steadily built team under the hand of Shanahan for the past 3 years that just nabbed our franchise QB who lead us to a division title via an historical (and arguably the best) rookie season, even with a salary cap penalty hampering us... to that. It's like that Seattle playoff game destroyed everything, not just Robert's knee at the time.

I'm amazed at how fast the fall was, I guess. And it scares me. I don't know if the team, as it is now, will ever recover. It might need another "rebuild". I don't know. I don't know what we have or what we are anymore. I thought I really had a great grasp on it and last season proved I didn't, at all.

But, deep down inside, I am who I am. I can't help it. I haven't given up hope. I think everyday that maybe, just maybe, we're going to come out this season and show that we're still that team that was on the meteoric rise into the upper echelon of NFL franchises. This preseason has made it difficult to hold on to that hope, but I'm still hanging on by my tippy tips.

One thing is for sure, though, like Goaldeje I've changed my stance towards those on the more pessimistic side. I still don't like it when they post obsessively and try to ruin people's joy because that joy just may be derived from nothing but hope or faith. I don't really believe in the idea that one must always shove "reality" down a fans' throat, especially when things can change so quickly. A Right Tackle who is stinking it up can suddenly start playing better. A Dline not getting pressure on the QB can get on a roll and start racking up the sacks. We've seen it a hundred times. And vice versa of course.

In the end, I guess that's the eternal contradiction being a fan of a sports team presents. We all want to win so badly, but there's no guarantee we will. So are we a fan of winning, or a fan of the team? I think most of us will say the latter, and that's when the realization must kick in that winning shouldn't mean so much as to make us lose hope when it doesn't occur. That may be over-simplifying things, but it's where I'm at and have pretty much always been. But now with a little more understanding of those who can't separate the desire to win and the hurt it causes inside of them from simply being a fan with hope. I get it, because last season got me there for the first time ever.
 
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What a great take - so 'great', it got promoted to a Home Page article.

You're not alone my brother.We all have trepidation. 'Homerism' isn't really the issue. Show me an NFL team fan who isn't a 'homer'?

Last year. 'Last year'. Is there really any more confidence-sucking intro to an NFL conversation, unless you won your conference or the Super Bowl?

True - there are no guarantees, but the 'truth' is that anything can happen in any NFL season, and that 'conventional wisdom' in any given year may be inspirational or embarassingly wrong.

This year, I am fearless. The Redskins are expected to bring up the rear in their division. They won't. RG3 is expected to be as bad as he was in 2013. He won't be. Jim Haslett's defense will be expected to be a laughing stock. It will surprise and earn top 10 honors.

The Redskins are on the rise. Get on board, or prepare to have it shoved down your throat.

thesubmittedone said it first.

And I'll take it one step further.

The Redskins will win the NFC East. And it won't be close.
 
I remember a couple of years ago, Boone said he was having trouble getting into the season as the eve approached. I had a hard time identifying with that, but I get it now. :) This off season has been a difficult one, and as such, I've been having a hard time getting up for things. When I get excited, my optimism is boundless. I'm waiting for that excitement still this year, should come any day, right?

I'm right there with ya. Don't know why either, but I'm normally bouncing off the walls right about now. I could use something... kool aid, pickle juice infused with hot pepper, and blessed by miss Cleo.... something :kick_can:
 
I know this is the wrong site to say this, but being a life-long Cowboy fan, my kool-aid glass got a permanent hole the year Jerry Jones fired Jimmy Johnson. How can anyone drink the Kool-Aid over there they way they operate!!

For the Redskins,:untroubled: I am excited about this year. I think it is going to be a lot better than a lot of you negative ninnies (sp?) think it will be.

Hey - so appreciate you being a member here. You have to keep Redskins fan's comments in context. We've been 'wandering in the desert' for so long, it's hard to be objective. Most of us 100% believe in Griff. He IS the answer we've waited for at QB for so long. For what that's worth. We value your membership here.
 
15-1 baby!

We have a stud receiving corp. We have a stud middle linebacker. We have a stud OLB. We have a stud running back. And, we have a stud TE.

We only need RG3 to manage the games...(and get out of the way of whoever is on Polumbus.)

What's your prediction?
 
I'm right there with ya. Don't know why either, but I'm normally bouncing off the wall right about now. I could use something... cool aid, pickle juice infused with hot pepper, and blessed by miss Cleo.... something :kick_can:

Desean Jackson. Andre Roberts. Ryan Grant. Hatcher, Breeland and Ryan Clark. Moses and Long. Trent Murphy. Silas Redd.

The talent level alone should have you fired up.

Throw in a coach who's gone 28-3 in his career as a player and coach, and we've done a complete 180.

This team is about to kick some serious ass.
 
For my first post I have to say that reading posts from people I haven't seen in years is kind of nostalgic. I wondered where some of you disappeared, and it was nice of Tarhog to post the link to this site in the ES thread.

As for this thread, I am actually a bit more optimistic than usual. Looks like we are going to have a good defense this year, running game should be at least as good as the last two years and we have increased the overall level of talent on the team.

That said, still will come down to the play of our QB just like with most teams. RG is clearly going to be better than what he showed in the preseason. I just hope he has progressed to a level that will win more than just some games this season.

Will try and check this place out some more when I have more time.
 

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