Fans at the game today: boo to you

[kjw]

Re: Our fans are "dog-fakers"

The Patriot players are not employees of you, they are employees of Robert Kraft. Robert Kraft is the businessman who sells you the New England Patriots as a product. Kevin Faulk, Tom Brady, Randy Moss, they are highly-skilled athletes competing against other highly-skilled athletes. The fact that they are in the top .01% of talent at what they do should not be held against them as the people who are gaining entertainment from their skill are boo-ing them.

You just made my point precisely but, still can't see the forest for the trees.

"sells you the New England Patriots as a product" Exactly! So,where or when else would you not voice your displeasure after purchasing a defective product?

"people who are gaining entertainment from their skill" People were not "gaining entertainment from their skill", that's why they booed.

And as far as employees, since we the fans pay towards their salaries, in a
sense they are employees of us.
How many times might you have heard a player say something like "We owe it to our owner to play better", as opposed to a player saying "We owe it to our fans to play better"?

These are grown men who totally understand this and said as much in their pressers. Quotes such as "We didn't show up", "We deserved to be booed" and "I'd have booed too", were given by the players yesterday.

We as fans can pay up to a lot of money in supporting our team and all that any fan really wants in return, in my opinion, is 100% effort. And as the players themselves admitted, we didn't get 100% effort. And oh yes, they
do owe us that much! Especially for anyone sitting in sub zero wind chills after paying at least a couple hundred bucks!

Sometimes boos are deserved (such as yesterday) and sometimes they are undeserved. I have seen Colts games where they are playing well and winning
and Manning throws one in-completion....and people actually started booing!
Now that is totally ridiculous!

As for leaving early, that's their right too. I myself usually stay to the end regardless, but I thought that most of the crowd stayed around for quite a while yesterday. I recently watched 3 games to glory (super bowl 39).
In the AFC championship game at Pitt; it was early in the 3rd qtr and the Steelers were by no means out of it, and the fans started leaving en mass.
In a play-off game when your team is still competitive...and they were leaving?
Now that was bad. What's worse is I always hear that the Steelers have just the best fans in football.....really?

Well this certainly became a long rant that was obviously building, so I don't want you to feel that I was just dumping on you (though your post did sort of trigger my response). Mostly just stating my opinions about the subject at hand.

 

[The Hurricane]

Re: Our fans are "dog-fakers"

This is exactly the problem - there are two groups of fans. One group that is probably 60-70% of the fanbase at a game that can't name anyone besides Brady, Welker, Mayo and Moss on the team by number, and then you've got the group that posts here, that knows Kyle Arrington by number on the field when he makes a play and watches every game pre, regular, and post season until the bitter end -- but that only makes up at best 40% of who's actually at the game. Granted I get to go to 3-4 games a year, and was there yesterday because I have the means to do it, but not everyone does. I think at the very least the ticket prices in the 300 level should be knocked down a little bit. You wanna keep the 100s $169 and $122, that's fine...but $50-$60 for the 300 level is much more reasonable. There are real fans that deserve to get to go to games that don't get the opportunity, and that's why Gillette is so quiet.

If you actually think more than half of the people who go to the game are that clueless you are off your rocker. Also, why should a team that consistently sells out it's stadium lower the ticket prices anywhere?

There is way too much penis envy going on here. Why the heck does being able to afford season tickets make one not a "real" fan?

 

[BradyManny]

Re: Our fans are "dog-fakers"

The fans didn't boo because they just lost the game, they booed because the Pats got DESTROYED. The character and fight of this team has been questioned all season and it get's capped off by an absolute meltdown in the first round of the playoffs. If that doesn't deserve booing, I don't know what does.

There are plenty of players on this team that have showed character and fight throughout the season. Booing the team universally is a huge injustice to them.

Besides, how productive is it to boo at halftime? Again, at 24-7 and receiving the ball coming out of the half...that's still a ballgame. The homecrowd bailed on the team. The crowd is supposed to be there to support the team, not provide a hostile environment.

 

[BradyManny]

Re: Our fans are "dog-fakers"

It all depends on what you think booing accomplishes. I see it as the adult equivalent of a baby crying from frustration. I've said it here before, but it certainly doesn't make the players play better or the coaches coach better.

Thank you, it is childish to boo (especially this team and this set of circumstances). You summed it up much more succinctly than I had.

 

[BradyManny]

Re: Our fans are "dog-fakers"

We as fans can pay up to a lot of money in supporting our team and all that any fan really wants in return, in my opinion, is 100% effort. And as the players themselves admitted, we didn't get 100% effort. And oh yes, they
do owe us that much! Especially for anyone sitting in sub zero wind chills after paying at least a couple hundred bucks!

I agree with the majority of what you write except this - I don't see any player on that roster saying they didn't give 100% effort yesterday, and I don't think any player did give less than 100%. There is a difference between underperforming and not trying. Did Meriweather mean to miss the tackle on Rice? Did Mayo intend to get manhandled all game? Did Brady want to throw the ball to Carr? Did Watson want the ball to slip through his hands? Etc. No, of course not. The fact of the matter was the Ravens were a much better team on that day and completely manhandled the Patriots, regardless of effort or heart.

The Patriots had a bad day. Heck, they really just had a bad quarter. And they had a chance to get back in that game. Yet, at half-time, our stadium was boo-ing them - that's right, for probably their worst 15 minutes of football in a decade of dominance. Again, what sense does that make.

 

[BlitzFritz]

i have season tix.
i stay til the end of the games.

the pats played like S**t in the first quarter, miserable, terrible, incompetent. we all saw it. less than zero execution in a PLAYOFF GAME. as fans, we got there at 9am, got fired up, did our thing. and then the team DOESNT SHOW UP???

sure we boo'd. what a frickin waste of an opportunity.
i would have rather sat thru the miami wildcat game again, it was closer for longer.

the team didnt show up and got boo'd.

as for leaving early, i agree, the game wasnt really over until 5 mins left. i still laugh at all the ppl who left early during the buffalo game in week 1 !

 

[SeymourTrophies]

Re: Our fans are "dog-fakers"

If you actually think more than half of the people who go to the game are that clueless you are off your rocker. Also, why should a team that consistently sells out it's stadium lower the ticket prices anywhere?

There is way too much penis envy going on here. Why the heck does being able to afford season tickets make one not a "real" fan?

Yeah, 60% of the people is an exaggeration, but I heard someone say, "Who's that Mayo guy?" at the jets game last year. I don't know if that was a rarity or not, but the fact that a guy who was at the game did not know who our first round pick was made me sad.

What Joker said sums it up though. Our fans are the wine and cheese crowd now. Thousands of fans spend the earlier games walking the bridge, etc. instead of going to their seat and supporting the team.

They don't even make noise until third down. Ridic.

 

[kjw]

Re: Our fans are "dog-fakers"

I agree with the majority of what you write except this - I don't see any player on that roster saying they didn't give 100% effort yesterday, and I don't think any player did give less than 100%. There is a difference between underperforming and not trying. Did Meriweather mean to miss the tackle on Rice? Did Mayo intend to get manhandled all game? Did Brady want to throw the ball to Carr? Did Watson want the ball to slip through his hands? Etc. No, of course not. The fact of the matter was the Ravens were a much better team on that day and completely manhandled the Patriots, regardless of effort or heart.

The Patriots had a bad day. Heck, they really just had a bad quarter. And they had a chance to get back in that game. Yet, at half-time, our stadium was boo-ing them - that's right, for probably their worst 15 minutes of football in a decade of dominance. Again, what sense does that make.

Well, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you here again.
Of course I don't believe that anyone set out to play poorly, but they did play poorly...why? Are the Ravens just that much better than the Pats? I don't buy it. Give them credit, they were better on Sunday but why were
they able to man handle the Pats so easily this time than the last time they met?
If they had given all out effort, we would've seen more Keven Faulks out there. If they all played with the fire that he and Jules played with, then I don't think we're even having this conversation (win or lose).
There had to be some reason that Faulk felt he had to yell at the team
on the sidelines to get them to play better. Sadly though, it didn't seem to have any effect.

Anyway here's a quote from Wilfork: "We didn't come to play. Point blank".
That to me, speaks to effort.

As far as a decade of dominance, I don't think that there's anyone here who doesn't totally appreciate what this team has accomplished but the game today and the boos have no connection to the past.
I think it's just as simple as this: The fans at the stadium come to cheer on their favorite team, it's freezing....YEAY!!! Then they see a horrible performance...BOO!! Next year, first game of the year, they're all back in the stands...YEAY!!

Here's a quote from AT: "A loss is a loss. The fans would boo us and then cheer and then boo us again so it was really up and down. We would make good plays and then make bad plays. We just played a bad game today."

So, nobody hates the team. They still cheered after they booed.

Anyway, I hope this post can move off the front page now.