Has your Patriots football enthusiasm dropped?

[Patjew]

would you care to expand on that answer, PJ?

Yeah.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Pats fans who stop watching the patriots when BB and Brady retire are dead to me. Once a patriots fan, you're a patriots fan for life.

You must have been the captain of your debate team.
The question was about "enthusiasm," not whether one will "stop watching." You turned the question into the one you wanted to answer.

 

[AHoodieWorshipperInParis]

The way the Pats have been consistently winning the easy games and falling short in the rare close situations since SBXLIX (Denver twice, Philly, Jets, Seattle... Giants and Cards beeing the two exceptions). I mean, they've become so predictible. Wait... am I speaking like a jaded wife after 10 years of marriage ?

Come on Pats, let's bring some magic in this No Fun League
#Drive.4.5

 

[tasmlab]

IMO, the games haven't been real exciting this season so far. First half of Miami and the Seattle game were fun to watch as intriguing sporting events, but I can't remember most of the others.

But, no, my enthusiasm is still here. And 'exciting games' usually mean trouble.

 

[BobDigital]

I think your issue is the 2014 run was so good. Frankly nothing will ever top that 2 huge comebacks in the playoffs and really great play all around.

Since then it has been too much deflate-gate and other NFL teams getting a little worse and the 4 game suspension. Not to mention 15 should have been a super bowl year but injuries screwed us.

So yeah it is not that i care less about the Pats but just so much negative crap has been involved with my team and football on the whole recently and comparing that to perhaps where we left off before all that which is arguably the best football game of all time bar none. It is understandable to feel like things have lacked a bit even if you still care the same.

 

[Batman]

No, I still love the pats just as much as ever. For the first time in my life I'm taking in two live games in a season and both being away games. I may even make a weekend trip over for a playoff game if we have a home game.

The window of Brady's career is closing I have had 7 seasons in my life where Brady hasn't been at QB. You don't often get to see guys play at the top for 15 seasons even if he pushes for 20 that's not much. Enjoy the ride and ignore the noise of the NFL

 

[Deus Irae]

Pats fans who stop watching the patriots when BB and Brady retire are dead to me. Once a patriots fan, you're a patriots fan for life.

Being dead to you will fill me with nanoseconds of regret.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Enthusiasm for Patriots is high and hasn't changed.

Enthusiasm and interest in watching other NFL games and keeping up with the league is somewhere between going to the dentist and picking up dog poop in the backyard.

 

[mikejd]

My personal interest in the league outside of the Pats has fallen off of a cliff. I can't be bothered to watch games in which the Pats aren't involved. Used to be a time when I could be invested by watching a team that I hate almost as much as watching the Pats. No longer. Fantasy football is down to one league with total weekly time invested being about 5 minutes.

I still watch the Pats games but during the regular season, it's sometimes felt like I'm just going through the motions. Losing to Seattle the other week was really no big deal in the grand scheme of the season, so my level of disappointment was low. It wasn't like that in the past. Conversely, winning doesn't provide the same high either.

As others have said about themselves, maybe I'm getting older too. Maybe it has something to do with Goodell and the product. Who knows.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Nothing has ever diminished my enthusiasm for the Patriots, and football.

We blew our chance to be in SBI. We were at the bottom of the league in '72. We had a shot at titles over the next two decades, but missed. Meanwhile, franchises that I despise with immeasurable intensity, and plenty of assholes representing them on and off the field, won multiple Super Bowls. And national and local disparagement of the Patriots increased astronomically even when there was no basis for it. We may have ceased to exist (becoming the St. Louis Stallions). We got a new owner who kept us here and built a stadium, but...

Will never forget the other-shoe-dropping moment when less than a second after they annouced the merciful sale of the Celtics to a group that weren't pennypinchers, they said that Ainge was to be appointed Czar of basketball operations (there it is! ker-plunk).

Anyway, Mister Take-Credit-For-Tom-Brady's-Accomplishments bought into NFL and national media's anti-Patriots jihad hook, line and sinker; and while dressing us up like morons didn't bother newborns or people who really weren't passionate about the team before, accepting and going along with historically excessive punishments for things they didn't even do did seem to bother followers of the team, which by then had Brady in place as the starter and therefore had already been winning for years previous.

I'm still here, hanging on every play.

 

[Tuck]

Kind of hard to get excited when you know Park Avenue will do anything to keep your team from winning the big game

 

[Bradyking12]

Kind of hard to get excited when you know Park Avenue will do anything to keep your team from winning the big game

Yea last night has me worried, those calls were so obviously wrong, thats the second time 'park avenue' helped the Raiders win this season, any big game we play cannot be close or they will stir the waters against our favor, any big game we need a comfortable lead in, because if its down to the wire, we could be screwed, seems to always happen when we are playing a tuff game or if its close/ down to the wire, we have to be careful In these upcoming months, war is ahead of us and the enemy will do anything to destroy and stop us, in January, it will be time my fellow Patriot brothers... time for the real war and we must show no mercy to thy enemy and claim victory when its all said and done.

 

[IllegalContact]

I've lost my enthusiasm for threads like this

 

[denverpatsfan]

I do miss a game every season now. Back in the day I would drive an hour to listen to the Pats radio broadcast on AM. I lived in Philly and could get the feed from north of the city.

I also don't spend 12 hours at the sports bar watching football all day on Sunday. Those days are over. My liver and wallet thanked me.

 

[BradytoMosstoGronk]

I have the opportunity to watch Tom Brady suit up every weekend for 5 months, nothing will possibly steal my joy and enthusiasm.. but the league interest? That enthusiasm is gone, mostly due to the dipshit paid to run the show. They tried , and successfully stole 4 games from the best football player I've ever had the pleasure of watching. For them, it's gone. For Brady and the pats, it's not going anywhere - I'm a faithful and they need my support.

On the other hand...

I hate to admit it, but yes, the magic is fading.

Probably has to do with the inevitable decline of Brady as he approaches 40.

Think I may soon have to join a Bruins board with the name DevilFan79.

When was there ever enthusiasm or magic being a jets fan? Tom Brady at 39, and I'll even go as far as to say up to his mid 40s tom, is/will be far and away better than anything ever put on the field in Jersey. But hey, enjoy the TFB/Dynasty magic while you can!

As you know, after that's all gone.... you're back to watching the Jolly Green Jets

 

[PatsBoy12]

Yeah, Neo about sums it up for me too.

My enthusiasm for "sky is falling" threads after a loss has though.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

Agreed, after a loss I hardly peek in here for the next week.

If the Pats go on a losing streak, or come back to the NFL* induced parity, I will probably be gone for good.

youre admitting youre a bandwagoner/front runner?

 

[Wordsmyth]

My personal interest in the league outside of the Pats has fallen off of a cliff. I can't be bothered to watch games in which the Pats aren't involved. Used to be a time when I could be invested by watching a team that I hate almost as much as watching the Pats. No longer. Fantasy football is down to one league with total weekly time invested being about 5 minutes.

I still watch the Pats games but during the regular season, it's sometimes felt like I'm just going through the motions. Losing to Seattle the other week was really no big deal in the grand scheme of the season, so my level of disappointment was low. It wasn't like that in the past. Conversely, winning doesn't provide the same high either.

As others have said about themselves, maybe I'm getting older too. Maybe it has something to do with Goodell and the product. Who knows.

I hear ya. I astounded myself by not getting extremely butthurt about the Seattle loss, handling it with a shrug and a "whoopitydo!"

I'm just not emotionally invested in this game anymore. You can thank Der Kommissar* for that.

 

[Bella*chick]

Without a doubt my interest has waned. I watched the Seattle game and was over the loss in about five minutes. Not only that but watching the game is more like it's on in the background and I check in every few minutes to see if something exciting happened.
It's just not the same anymore. Oh well, what goes up must come down. No reason for the NFL to be the exception to this.

 

[PatsFan92]

Football as a whole has gone to non existent for me, I used to play fantasy football and know who the good teams/players were and who sucked. I would watch NFL network for a couple hours every day. Now? Could care less and haven't turned on a sec of it in over a year. To the OP's question about the pats they are the only game I watch and I am on here on and off most of the day so I am still hooked on the team for the most part. The only down side where my fandom is not as devote as it used to be is working every Sun is not soul crushing to me like it would have been a couple years ago. If I missed a game I was depressed for the rest of the week. Now? Eh if it's a night game I get to see it live and that's cool but I get enough updates, views, and opinions on here that if I don't see it no big deal. Some of that is getting a little older I am sure but more of it is my total and complete disgust with the 32 and their hired puppet.

Football has also changed and not in a good way in the past decade. You watch old highlight reels and it's not as fast with wide open spaces with offences going up and down the field at will. You could actually play defense and a great punt was an exciting play. I get that I am likely in the minority who if I wanted non stop scoring I would watch the NBA. I miss the old NFL where scoring 20 was an accomplishment and more games ended 16-10. This is still football which is a sport I am obsessed with, as well as wanting BB and TFB to shove as large a foot up the 32's *** as possible, so I watch when I can but yeah my enthusiasm has definitely changed....sadly even for the patriots.

I agree with you. The game has definitely lost its balance between offence and defence and is now far too favoured for the offence. Playing defence is like playing arena football now because if you even breath on a receiver, the officials will no doubt throw a flag, it is a joke. Great players that I have played for us in the past like Rodney Harrison would not be able to play in this league nowadays.

The owners changed the rules because they want more offence which would then lead too more points being scored. The owners could not care less for the safety and well being of the players as they have already proven numerous times. They are ruining a once great game because I think this current version of the NFL is watered down. They have also screwed the officials, all you have to do is look at the rule book and see how many rules there are and they keep adding and changing every single year which is not helping anybody.