That's just sentimentality talking Henry. In a year like this year, there are guys most of you want to run out of town on a rail. Grossman, Beck, Hall, Trent Williams, Gano. This idealization of 'fandom' is silly - on an average Redskins Sunday this year, it's not 'cheering' I've seen and heard (and I'm here every game), it's bitching, moaning, blaming, and anger I've mostly seen. I haven't heard a lot of you supporting 'our QB' this season even though he wears the Burgundy and Gold and 'real fans' root for their QB, right?
If course it's sentimentality talking. That's the point.
This is football, not particle physics. A plus B doesn't have to equal C. Winning a few games doesn't automatically equal a crappy offseason. I can, as a fan, root for both wins and a successful offseason, because there's no reason that both can't happen. It's happened a gabillion times before in this league and it can (and will) happen again. And best part of all, it costs me nothing to root for both.
You (I use 'you' in the general sense) can root for losses to get a draft pick if you want, but if that draft pick is a bust (as is likely to happen as not) you rooted for the Cowboys to win ... for nothing. You were actually a Cowboy fan for a day, for nothing.
Yes I wring my hands and pull out my hair in the offseason. Yes I turn off the TV in disgust and shout obscenities when we, predictably, continue to lose. But I think I can safely say I've never hoped this team sucked. I don't think I've ever done that. Expecting crappy play and actively rooting for it are two entirely different things.
I think our QBs are terrible. That doesn't mean I WANT them to be terrible. That's what we're talking about here.
Don't get me wrong - I have no problem with that. Fans are passionate. They shouldn't be happy with what we've had to watch for a long, long time. Some of them (in fact, I'd argue most) have been driven to ambivalence about the current season, and from there, it's just a stone's throw to not caring excessively about a loss in an already lost season, if it gets this team to a better place. That hardly brings anyone's 'fandom' into question.
I'm not talking about not caring about a loss. I'm talking about actively rooting for losses. Look at DieselPwr44's post to me. I think what we are seeing is that when people are dying of thirst in the desert, some will try and drink the sand. I think that's what's happening. This miracle saviour of a draft pick is only a mirage. Either the team is going to be built right or it isn't. The pick is only a very small piece of that equation, but we are so desperate for something, anything to hang our hats on that some latch onto that piece and mistake it for the whole thing.
I understand that. But it doesn't make it less annoying when I'm actually rooting for my team to win games. When I come onto a board, which is supposed to be a refuge for Redskin fans, knowing there will be threads of 'yay the Redskins lost!' or 'the idiot Redskins won!' It's like the board has been overrun for Cowboy and Eagle fans. Sorry if that offends some people, but it doesn't feel any different from this end.
Honestly - we almost had a fight break out in the chatroom Sunday because guys were challenging other guys fandom. There's no place for that here. That's not directed at you. I'm just saying I don't think anyone here knows anyone well enough to make that case.
Fine. I won't declare anyone a fan or not. I don't know their soul. What I do know is that when I'm rooting for my team to win and someone else starts cheering against them, it ticks me off. It's why I don't watch games with rival fans. I really would rather not start thinking of fellow Redskin fans the same way.
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