Cactus Jack wrote:bwgood77 wrote:bleu wrote:Trophies are kind of a tricky thing. Because yeah, it's the biggest prize in all of football, and most players would give a firstborn child to get one, but are the New York Jets really a better franchise than my Panthers because they have 1 ring (from Super Bowl III) and haven't done squat since? And could a 40 year old Jets fan come out and say "at least my Jets have a trophy in their case"? That's not to say that old trophies are worthless, but let's be real, nobody would trade 40 years of crappy football for a ring.
Honestly I think bragging about old rings or trophies is ridiculous. We are in the here and now and sports are all about entertainment. I've seen people say they would rather see 5 or 10 terrible years from6 their team if they finally got a ring (mostly in basketball because of the nature in the forum). The only team I've seen win it all is the AZ Wildcats winning the basketball championship one year, but I would give that up for being fun and entertaining every year.
I can't wait to see my teams play because it is entertaining and even if they are only competitive and almost make the playoffs or make it and lose in a round, that provides me entertainment every year. The Suns have sucked for 6 years and I didn't even care to watch them some of the time but was rarely excited, except their one year they vastly overachieved, though I knew in the long run that would probably hurt their draft pick and future.
Even if my team was just super competitive every year but never made it to win it all, I would take the great feelings and heartbreak, both of which are part of being a fan over sucking for many years and then winning a ring one year and then not being great after that.
Sports have been tough for me lately. The AZ Wildcats actually also won a baseball world series a couple years ago but I'm not really a baseball fan and didn't really watch it. Their basketball team once they hired Sean Miller has been super fun to watch until they got knocked out by Wisconsin in the elite eight twice.
Even if the Chargers just make the playoffs it's great for me and if they win a game right now when I know they are clearly not one of the better teams, it is fun.
It's also fun to see the Cardinals do well despite not ever winning it all after many years of being awful.
I don't know. I mean I want my teams to win, man. I think it kind of depends on the situation for each team. If your team is really good, then you likely really want the championship. But, If your team doesn't stand out, then you might be more likely to settle for just competing. After winning the Super Bowl, I know I'm definitely not satisfied when they don't win it.
Meanwhile, in soccer I'm okay with Liverpool not winning the title, but they haven't won in a long time & aren't currently on the level of other top clubs. So, again it kind of depends on one's own expectations. Realistic or not?
It really depends on how good your team is. If your team is elite and should or can win the super bowl and is a top seed in their conference, it of course is a disappointment not to win it all.
And Seattle has been pretty good most years over the last 10 years or so, you have a different perspective, Even when they had Hasselback and Alexander they still won the division at 9-7 for quite a few years in a row so you always got to the playoffs, so you yearned to go further, which is understandable. I imagine you are younger than me and haven't experienced many ups and downs and if you had like 7 or 8 awful years you would probably say you'd rather have a run of being competitive for many years for entertainment sake because after all, we want to have fun watching teams, and that is really the primary reasons fans watch sports, whether they realize it or not. Players value rings, but fans don't get rings or trophies. Winning it all is exhilarating when it happens but watching your team suck for years is far worse than the high of winning it all once. At least for me, and I imagine for most.
In the basketball forums people are focused largely on rings, and guys getting a ring. It's important for the players but I don't understand for the life of me why fans (I understand your thoughts on this matter) think Durant made a good choice joining the Warriors. He had a great team, the league and playoffs were great to watch for all fans, and now we will likely even see fewer teams with any chance of winning it all. Why is that fun for the majority of fans of all nba teams? Their team has no chance and 8 months of mostly meaningless games ends up with what everyone expects.
This is why I like the NFL far more. You really have no idea what will happen. Sure people expect some of the same teams to again get to the playoffs, but there are ALWAYS unexpected teams making the playoffs and huge surprises, like a 6th seed making the super bowl...it happened I think a couple years in a row. Also we've seen teams go from worst to first. We saw four years of the NFC south where each team won the division. There was a stretch at one point where all the NFC west teams made the Super Bowl within like 10 years, or probably less. THAT is interesting to me.
I'm in a unique situation. Having lost my team. Also suffering through mediocre basketball in the early to mid 2000's. Anyway...Maybe you should take up Soccer (as a replacement), like I did. 
), can make more money than a team from the "worlds most popular sport" that plays 38 games a year. Just shows the enormity of the NFL.
