What's the definition of not being a true fan?

Outstanding post that captures the true nature of fans who are realists. I count myself among the realists. Being critical of bad play or coaching DOES NOT make you a hater. We are not a good team, and have not been consistently good since the end of Gibbs 1.0. That's not hating, that's looking at matters honestly.

Now what defines not being a true fan? I say that would be the fan who only crawls out of the woodwork when his team is winning. I see plenty of fans like that. There are two types of those bandwagon fans. The first type only shows up when their team is a winner. The second type jumps from bandwagon to bandwagon, Say a Denver fan in the late 90's that calls himself a Patriots fan today. I don't think we have any bandwagon fans on this board.

I've grown weary of all the repetitive arguments. Fandom, Gibbs 1 vs. Gibbs 2, homers, haters and so on. Most of the time I find the responses I start typing are sprinkled with not very lady-like words. So I end up hitting the back button a lot.

The older I get, the less energy I have to engage in heated debates. Anyway, SGG and SS almost always say exactly what I'm thinking, so I just let them do the dirty work for me. :)

This is my first post...I never thought it could happen, but in the past several years I have grown to love football, look forward to Sundays and have become a true, albeit recent, Redskins fan. (Let’s say it has a lot to do with marrying a Redskins-fan-for-life who is on this board all the time.) I especially loved #21 and I began coming to this board over the past week for information as well as solace.

Losing today sucked and it was painful and emotionally trying, so I came to the board to cheer myself up. Why so much negativity from “fans”? This is a time when the team needs us more than ever to support them. Being a fan is not just cheering a team on when they win, it’s supporting them through losses as well, and it’s not just a game they’ve lost this week. They lost a great player AND a best friend and yet there are still millions of people counting on them to play hard and “in the memory of their teammate”…that’s a hell of a lot of pressure on an already emotionally drained team.

I know since I’m a newbie not only to this board but to Redskins fandom and football in general there are many aspects of the game that I don’t understand, but one thing I do get is loyalty. I feel honored to be a Redskins fan and I’m not ashamed of the way they played at all, I am proud of them. I’d still defend them and cheer them on if we were 0-12. Call me naïve…or call me a “true fan”? I don’t think being critical of your team takes away from being a “true fan” but there were so many people on the game thread who said they were ashamed, weren’t going to watch anymore games and they had given up on our team. I know it’s disappointing to see us lose games we should have won, but being a fan is not always easy. It takes more dedication than just cheering on winning games.

Outstanding post that captures the true nature of fans who are realists. I count myself among the realists. Being critical of bad play or coaching DOES NOT make you a hater. We are not a good team, and have not been consistently good since the end of Gibbs 1.0. That's not hating, that's looking at matters honestly.

It's not hating to acknowledge that we were not good in 2000-2004, and 2006. It's not hating to be of the opinion that a coaching change may be necessary. It's not hating to say that a few players need to be benched, or we have needs at certain positions. It's not hating to criticize front office moves, game plans, certain play calling, or clock management. It's not hating to be upset with your team when they lose.

That all being said, I do start to question someone's "fandom" when they do NOTHING but recite the negative, ignore any positive signs, paint things in black and white terms and say things like "we sucked the mostest," and are constantly doing nothing but hating.

The best posters on this site, IMO, are those who are "fair and balanced." Those are the guys/ladies whose posts I look forward to reading. The best posters and most realistic fans are those that recognize the good, bad, all things in between and do not associate with one extreme or the other.

I'd say 95% of the people on this site are fans. As for the other 5%......

This is my first post...I never thought it could happen, but in the past several years I have grown to love football, look forward to Sundays and have become a true, albeit recent, Redskins fan. (Let’s say it has a lot to do with marrying a Redskins-fan-for-life who is on this board all the time.) I especially loved #21 and I began coming to this board over the past week for information as well as solace.

Losing today sucked and it was painful and emotionally trying, so I came to the board to cheer myself up. Why so much negativity from “fans”? This is a time when the team needs us more than ever to support them. Being a fan is not just cheering a team on when they win, it’s supporting them through losses as well, and it’s not just a game they’ve lost this week. They lost a great player AND a best friend and yet there are still millions of people counting on them to play hard and “in the memory of their teammate”…that’s a hell of a lot of pressure on an already emotionally drained team.

I know since I’m a newbie not only to this board but to Redskins fandom and football in general there are many aspects of the game that I don’t understand, but one thing I do get is loyalty. I feel honored to be a Redskins fan and I’m not ashamed of the way they played at all, I am proud of them. I’d still defend them and cheer them on if we were 0-12. Call me naïve…or call me a “true fan”? I don’t think being critical of your team takes away from being a “true fan” but there were so many people on the game thread who said they were ashamed, weren’t going to watch anymore games and they had given up on our team. I know it’s disappointing to see us lose games we should have won, but being a fan is not always easy. It takes more dedication than just cheering on winning games.

Welcome to the board. Nice post.

It's not hating to acknowledge that we were not good in 2000-2004, and 2006. It's not hating to be of the opinion that a coaching change may be necessary. It's not hating to say that a few players need to be benched, or we have needs at certain positions. It's not hating to criticize front office moves, game plans, certain play calling, or clock management. It's not hating to be upset with your team when they lose.

That all being said, I do start to question someone's "fandom" when they do NOTHING but recite the negative, ignore any positive signs, paint things in black and white terms and say things like "we sucked the mostest," and are constantly doing nothing but hating.

The best posters on this site, IMO, are those who are "fair and balanced." Those are the guys/ladies whose posts I look forward to reading. The best posters and most realistic fans are those that recognize the good, bad, all things in between and do not associate with one extreme or the other.

I'd say 95% of the people on this site are fans. As for the other 5%......I totally agree. You can be critical of a play or a game but still point out the positive developments, be it for a player or a front office trend like extending Cooley, Betts, and Sellers.

My kids piss me off,I'm still a dad.
The Skins piss me off,I'm still a fan. Period.

you loser you have time on a monday to write this crap

you loser you have time on a monday to write this crap

Who's the "loser" that had time to respond to it? First warning.

A Skins fan does not sell their ST stuff on ebay.