PATSNUTme

I would consider it to be just the opposite.

There are many of us that do remember the bad times. The times when the Patriots were the laughng stock of the NFL and sports in general. The several times that we were worried that our team would be moved to another part of the country.

So, we are very grateful to this regime and don't take it for granted. And, we do give it the benefit of the doubt.

But , if that's the way you define it, fine.

AzPatsFan

Boston fans have been brainwashed, by the mediots who want to sensationalize because they basically know next to nothing about the Sport, they cover. Alternatively, they are just too lazy to learn, and to work digging for information, like a guy like Mike Reiss does.

They can and do disrupt a Team. Johnny Most, a self-confessed "homer", contributed a minimum of 5-10 victories a year to the Celtics by accentuating the positive, but reserving his occasional criticism to players an people who really deserved it. He would never jump on a limited talent guy who was giving great effort. He merely pointed out the talent wasn't there. Not like the mediots who don't know, and don't care, and would be happy to come in after the fact, shoot the Innocent, reward the Guilty, and promote the Incompetent, who offered them a tasty quote.

They cover this up by saying that they are not "homers" and a merely dispassionate seekers after truth. Bovine Pasture Patties !! It's laziness or malevolence.

Fans pickup on this approach and adopt it, unfortunately. And think it shows how "smart" they are by criticizing, criticizing, criticizing, constantly chewing on some little bone of truth about a weakness, until it becomes very, very old, and overly tiresome, and magnified beyond all recognition or proportion.

The fans adopt the coloration and defense of the mediots too; deflecting all counter vailing opinion as idiotic, or beneath contempt.

Patriotic

When you hit one over the Green Monster.

PATSNUTme

So, those who have been calling poeple 'homers' on this board, are actually calling them baseball players.

The final insult.

the taildragger

right, because the team today bears a striking resemblance to the one that sucked for 30 years. therefore a truly objective individual can clearly tell that by next season, Miami will be, as Jerome Solomon put it, "easily better than the Pats."

nobody dares ask Solomon to back up that cynicism ...for fear of being called a homer....this is a very scary disease and I fear the journalists are winning the war.

the problem with taking a cynical tact on the Pats right now is that it's not a glass half-full/empty proposition...the glass is well over half-full.

in the cyberage of 24x7x365 mass media, you have to scream louder to be heard...so you invent dumb things to say that you actually start believing (i.e. Andy Hart's moronic pre-draft prediction of an 8-8 season).

"homers" are optimistic even when their team obviously sucks. if you have ANY perspective of the league outside of New England (I wonder about some of us), there's no logical way you can't be positive about the Pats this season.

For every potential negative that has guys like Borges and Felger creaming ('ooh, Caldwell dropped the ball I've got my lead story!'), relative to other teams, the Pats have an abundance of positives.

but beat-writers have their own bills to pay.

By definition, pundits are "critics" which is to say they are by nature CRITICAL. When the team they cover is actually good, they continue being critical and therefore become cynical. Don't let them make you believe you are a homer. None of us thought this team was any good under prior regimes...we're the one's being consistent -- not them.

There are ALWAYS reasons to be critical -- the bigger question which we as fans must judge (given a balanced consumption of all available outlets), is whether the overal situation is a net plus. But before a pundit ever admits things are generally good, they'll point out how bad the backup guys are (yes, that's why they are backups) before they admit the starters are pretty good. The headline then becomes "we have no depth" versus, hey our frontline guys are pretty good, and by the way, if you find a team with backups that compare to their starters let us know.

The key is to spin things in a polished way that persuades us to see our impending doom.

too bad...it's pretty damn enjoyable being a fan of this team right now...I say enjoy it...call me a homer...a kool-aid drinker...that's cool with me.

sieglo

Even though I am predicting a 16-0 season, I am not a homer because last year I predicted 12-4.

Well, maybe I am just a little bit of a homer.

PATSNUTme

Well,looks like someone on my ignore list has decided to play little schoolgirl games.

The final play of the game is about to be played though.

Clonamery

At least we ALL can ignore them now.

PATSNUTme

I just added this user name on the same dead to me list as his other user name.

I guess some people are just too big cowards to post things under their own name.

Anyway, I would still like to know from those who use the "homer" word what they mean.

arrellbee

Aw, shucks PatsNutsMeAbout. I just don't think you can claim the mantle of 'homer'. You are just too reasonable - sorry about that.

How about discriminating logical perceptive unbiased eyes-wide-open supporter ? Naaaaah. That's not classy enough.