Perspective for the Older Fans from a Younger Fan

[jah]

Well. To me, it’s not about having a bigger d1ck or anything else, it’s just that realistically he was playing another year or two at most anyway. And the overall football fan in me thinks it will be interesting to see what he can do somewhere else to be honest. If it was five or 10 years ago, then yeah, absolutely it would be a real ****ty day. As it is it was coming soon anyway, and it’s been 20 years of good times, so I’m not trying to be a tough guy when I say I don’t feel sad about it.

I feel sad to an extent, but I also feel everything you just described. The end was coming one way or another and this at least makes things interesting while we suck.

 

[aluminum seats]

I feel sad to an extent, but I also feel everything you just described. The end was coming one way or another and this at least makes things interesting while we suck.

I don't see why everyone is convinced this team will suck. The defense should be strong, and they're obviously going to invest heavily in the offensive line. They're not going to be looking for the QB to sling it all over the place, so if whoever's back there (who will be well-coached, we know that) doesn't throw up all over himself, the team should be OK. (Or they'll suck, who knows).

 

[jah]

I don't see why everyone is convinced this team will suck. The defense should be strong, and they're obviously going to invest heavily in the offensive line. They're not going to be looking for the QB to sling it all over the place, so if whoever's back there (who will be well-coached, we know that) doesn't throw up all over himself, the team should be OK. (Or they'll suck, who knows).

I'm not convinced they'll suck, was just trying to be concise while playing the odds. I see a slightly worse version of last year's roster and no QB.

 

[oldrover]

If the older fans have less perspective than the 20-somethings, then maybe we should all hear from the teens and pre-teens. Because it always follows that the younger you are, the more perspective you have.

 

[borg]

Wow OP.......defying group think protocol by not adhering to the Millennial Handbook.

Where’s the obligatory selfie of you struggling to put such fragile emotions to words?

The world is indeed upside down

 

[Dagg]

20 years is along time for even me pushing 50 its hard to remember the time before we were an automatic playoff contender every year. I had alot more hair and alot less kids. Anyway at the end of the day I am a Pats fan dating back to Grogan who I loved, then Drew who I loved and thought BB was crazy for not starting him in the SB. This too shall pass...but its a tough day for all of us.

Im just not clear on what our strategy is going forward. There is no more lets go all in for Bradys last years. Our lack of anything in the FA market even a nugget where we tried to get someone was deafening and that sort of pointed at this being the eventual outcome.

 

[PatsWSB47]

The fact that you asked my age indicates that you didn't put in much (if any) effort when reading my post.

I was responding to your 2nd post and didnt notice that it came from the same person.

 

[PatsWSB47]

I think the only person speaking in absolutes in this thread is you.

Well me and the 2 people that agreed with me so far

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I don't see why everyone is convinced this team will suck. The defense should be strong, and they're obviously going to invest heavily in the offensive line. They're not going to be looking for the QB to sling it all over the place, so if whoever's back there (who will be well-coached, we know that) doesn't throw up all over himself, the team should be OK. (Or they'll suck, who knows).

The concern is that they'll be worse than suck. It's that no man's land where you have no chance to win it all but aren't able to get significantly better either. That's where like 30% of modern sports teams are ,and it's hard to break out of.

 

[catent]

If the older fans have less perspective than the 20-somethings, then maybe we should all hear from the teens and pre-teens. Because it always follows that the younger you are, the more perspective you have.

Who asserted that younger fans (or younger people in general) have more perspective than older people?

As I said earlier, different perspective /=/ more perspective. Naturally, someone who is 25 will have a very different perspective than someone who is 65.

I wanted to share how unique it is for someone who's in the 20-30 age range, and whose earliest (and likely only) memories of rooting for the Patriots only involve seeing Brady as the QB; that's an entirely different perspective of fandom than someone who is 50-60 and has seen many QBs come and go prior to Brady.

Neither perspective is any more or less valid than the other, they're just inherently different.

 

[maust]

Wow OP.......defying group think protocol by not adhering to the Millennial Handbook.

Where’s the obligatory selfie of you struggling to put such fragile emotions to words?

The world is indeed upside down

Look at you branching out to the equivalent of internet 'child' abuse, a man can't live by trolling boomers on death notices alone. It's good to see you expanding your horizons, taking time out of your busy schedule to be all multi-generationally edgy and whatnot here.

 

[Joker]

well, I can't quite figure out where I fit in here....let's see,I'm 33 (born on half a leap year) and I have recurring nightmares of being pursued by the staties after f stomping Tony Eason's pea sized nuts into effin blood pudding. Yeah, you could say I'm rather easy come, easy go when it comes to my Patriots fanhood...

 

[archstanton543]

I wanted to share my perspective on this Brady thing, because I hear a lot of fans who presumably are older (35-40+) who don't fully understand the impact this is having on younger people.

I was born in '95, making me 25 right now. My first memory of watching the Patriots was the 2001/2002 divisional game against Oakland, the "tuck rule" game - I was about to turn 7 at the time. My dad was happily rooting for both teams, as he is a Michigan alum and watched Brady and Woodson play in Ann Arbor. He always had a soft spot for Brady and thought highly of him at Michigan. Following the Patriots victory, he began to follow the team more closely given the Brady/Michigan connection, and gained a soft spot for Belichick and the way he ran the team. Note that we lived in (and still live in) central Virginia at the time; my dad couldn't root for the Ravens, because he grew up a Baltimore Colts fan, and he couldn't get any traction rooting for the Redskins and their awful management.

As I transitioned out of early childhood and into middle school, naturally I gained a greater interest in the Patriots, the team my dad watched as I grew up (albeit casually), and taking autonomy over my fandom, basically. It was the 2007 season that sparked my interest, as my 12 year old brain was infatuated with the Randy Moss acquisition. Beginning that season, I became a diehard Patriots fan. I watched in 2008, when Brady was out with injury. I cried after losses and rejoiced after wins. I was fully and completely invested, but as I described above, my path to becoming a fan was a bit unusual.

Fast-forward to today, and needless to say this is a challenging thing to navigate mentally. While I always identified as a Patriots fan, and loved Belichick and all the players who contributed to the team's success, naturally my identity as a Patriots fan is intrinsically tied to Brady, given my age, perspective, and the context in which I watched the team. I quite literally have ZERO memories (save for Cassell and Garappolo) of any other QB playing for this team. 20 years. From age 5 - 25, my entire childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, all was Brady.

So when certain people (most of them younger) cannot reconcile/comprehend their allegiance and identity as a Patriots fan, this is why. There are certain fans who quite literally do not have memories of a time pre-Brady, and their identity as a Patriots fan is intrinsically tied to Brady being the Patriots' quarterback.

Will I continue to root for the Patriots? Absolutely, there's too much history and attachment not to. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Belichick and the way he runs his team, and I'm excited to see how the offense evolves with a different type of quarterback. But will I also continue to root for Brady? Of course. Who do I root for if they play head-to-head? Quite frankly, I don't know, but I think I'll find myself trying to be a captivated observer, leaning towards the Patriots.

At any rate, I wanted to try to share my perspective in the hopes it helps others understand why this is inevitably causing such cognitive dissonance for certain people, given their age, perspective, and context.

I jumped on the Patriots band wagon back when they signed Bill Parcells and drafted Bledsoe (way back in 1993). I've only known two franchise QB's and three head coaches in my almost 30 years of being a fan. This is almost uncharted territory for me too, as funny as that sounds.

All good things come to an end. That said, I'm a Patriots fan so I'm not going anywhere. This team is going to get really interesting (for good or ill) and I'm interested to see if BB can rebuild and find another franchise QB in short order. Exciting times!

 

[IllegalContact]

Brady will always be the face of the Patriots just like Jordan is the face of the Bulls. Rooting for Brady is nothing to be ashamed of; he likely just has a few years left.

There are a heck of a lot of idiots who think they have a bigger d1ck because they have no sentimental attachment and really want to prove they’re “real fans”and that this news doesn’t bother them. They’re also called idiots. They’ll be the first ones to bail when they realize what they’ve lost because they’re too dumb to grasp that right now, whereas others will be better prepared for what’s coming.

this news doesn't bother me and it has nothing to do with **** size........the pats will play another football game sooner or later and it doesn't matter where brady is.

winning is more fun, but I have always loved watching the pats......it was no more exhilarating to watch the pats the last 20 years than it was in the 70's or 80's when they were playing well.....I thought Grogan was simply more fun to watch even though he made an order of magnitude more mistakes.

brady left because not because the pats changed but because he changed.......and to that I say 'buh-bye'

 

[IllegalContact]

I don't see why everyone is convinced this team will suck. The defense should be strong, and they're obviously going to invest heavily in the offensive line. They're not going to be looking for the QB to sling it all over the place, so if whoever's back there (who will be well-coached, we know that) doesn't throw up all over himself, the team should be OK. (Or they'll suck, who knows).

still.......I'll watch them through 2-14 or 1-15.......I've done it before

 

[everlong]

I was born in '95, making me 25 right now. My first memory of watching the Patriots was the 2001/2002 divisional game against Oakland, the "tuck rule" game - I was about to turn 7 at the time.

You're lucky. My first memory was at the same age against Oakland in the roughing the passer game. Bitter pill to swallow. Fast forward to this game and I went out to shovel the next morning and my next door neighbor a Raiders fan yelled at me "I never want to hear about Ben F'ing Dreith again!" Revenge took 25 years and was best served cold.

 

[Soliel]

I’m not saying it’s not depressing, it certainly is. I wanted the guy back as much as anyone regardless of age. This did not happen. I understand all the points of view but here’s one more. All things end so would you rather it be this way or he stays and eventually takes a career busting hit? That can happen in Tampa Bay also but what if we signed him, broke our cap then he takes that bad hit. We would be screwed. That and it wouldn’t be a good way to end things here

 

[Lavictoire]

I wanted to share my perspective on this Brady thing, because I hear a lot of fans who presumably are older (35-40+) who don't fully understand the impact this is having on younger people.

I was born in '95, making me 25 right now. My first memory of watching the Patriots was the 2001/2002 divisional game against Oakland, the "tuck rule" game - I was about to turn 7 at the time. My dad was happily rooting for both teams, as he is a Michigan alum and watched Brady and Woodson play in Ann Arbor. He always had a soft spot for Brady and thought highly of him at Michigan. Following the Patriots victory, he began to follow the team more closely given the Brady/Michigan connection, and gained a soft spot for Belichick and the way he ran the team. Note that we lived in (and still live in) central Virginia at the time; my dad couldn't root for the Ravens, because he grew up a Baltimore Colts fan, and he couldn't get any traction rooting for the Redskins and their awful management.

As I transitioned out of early childhood and into middle school, naturally I gained a greater interest in the Patriots, the team my dad watched as I grew up (albeit casually), and taking autonomy over my fandom, basically. It was the 2007 season that sparked my interest, as my 12 year old brain was infatuated with the Randy Moss acquisition. Beginning that season, I became a diehard Patriots fan. I watched in 2008, when Brady was out with injury. I cried after losses and rejoiced after wins. I was fully and completely invested, but as I described above, my path to becoming a fan was a bit unusual.

Fast-forward to today, and needless to say this is a challenging thing to navigate mentally. While I always identified as a Patriots fan, and loved Belichick and all the players who contributed to the team's success, naturally my identity as a Patriots fan is intrinsically tied to Brady, given my age, perspective, and the context in which I watched the team. I quite literally have ZERO memories (save for Cassell and Garappolo) of any other QB playing for this team. 20 years. From age 5 - 25, my entire childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, all was Brady.

So when certain people (most of them younger) cannot reconcile/comprehend their allegiance and identity as a Patriots fan, this is why. There are certain fans who quite literally do not have memories of a time pre-Brady, and their identity as a Patriots fan is intrinsically tied to Brady being the Patriots' quarterback.

Will I continue to root for the Patriots? Absolutely, there's too much history and attachment not to. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Belichick and the way he runs his team, and I'm excited to see how the offense evolves with a different type of quarterback. But will I also continue to root for Brady? Of course. Who do I root for if they play head-to-head? Quite frankly, I don't know, but I think I'll find myself trying to be a captivated observer, leaning towards the Patriots.

At any rate, I wanted to try to share my perspective in the hopes it helps others understand why this is inevitably causing such cognitive dissonance for certain people, given their age, perspective, and context.

Seeing you probably take winning for granted which is understandable and are wondering how fans follow perennial losers I enjoyed the losing Patriot teams and seasons by rooting for them every week to upset the good teams. The good teams roll into town looking to mail it in and they get flustered by a scrappy team that doesn't know they are supposed to lose. That is a lot of fun too and we may see some of that again.

 

[Nikolai]

I came into my Pats fandom during the Bledsoe-to-Coates years. I honestly really enjoyed those teams. This 20 year run has been something special.

In some ways, this feels a little like a mercy killing. It was kinda killing me to see what would happen and now it's over. Brady's gone. The next era begins.

I also kinda think some of the wonder of watching football went away during all this; where winning was what made watching enjoyable or not. Maybe, some of that 8-8 or 10-6 kind of wasteland will help some of us remember the simple joy of watching the New England Patriots on a crisp fall day.

Or maybe I've had too much contraband bourbon...

 

[PatsDeb]

I'm old and I have less enthusiasm for the Pats right now. I'm mad at Brady, BB and Kraft that they couldn't get it together and sign Brady until he decided to retire. I'm not sure whether I'm watching and who I'm rooting for in the fall. This whole thing is so depressing to me.