It's pretty easy to look at the sub-labels and come away with a pretty accurate picture:
- Bandwagon fan - One who is a fan only because the team is popular. They go to be part of the in crowd. There are not fans of the team, but of the event. This is the only subgroup that is not comprised of "true/real" fans.
- Fair weather fan - One who is a fan of the team, but who's interest and energy wanes considerably when the team is not winning.
- Regular, generic fan - One who is a fan of the team, sticks by through an amount of struggle, but doesn't stick around if things don't eventually turn around
- Die hard fan - One who sticks by the team through most of the bad times, but has a limit beyond which it's time to check out.
- Hardcore fan a/k/a Sucker - One who thinks that the measure of a fan is to stick with the team under all circumstances, not realizing that such a position actually makes one an emotional slave rather than a free-thinking fan. These are the ones who put up with any manner of malfeasance by teams, and come back no matter how much of a garbage product is put out, and, by doing so, empower the teams to continue with the malfeasance or poor product.
6. Fake fan - One whose father got season tickets for the fledgling franchise, and who attended games with his brothers. But instead of rooting for the team and appreciating its many heroes on the field, is consumed with hatred and resentment at ownership along with disgust for its cheapness and incompetence. This precludes any emotional attachment to the team, along with any kinship, awareness or empathy for real fans of the team. Then, when his effective maneuvering puts him on the precipice of purchasing the team, he only suddenly "falls in love" with a mediocre edition closing out a losing season with a meaningless referee-aided victory in the last game at home to eliminate a division opponent from the postseason. He then promptly overpays for the team, and embraces the insulting makeover perpetrated by his predecessor who is not from nor knows or cares anything about Boston or New England, and also is all in with decades of denigration of the team by local and national media. Thus, the new owner christens a new cult of bandwagon/fair weather fans, none of whom knew or cared anything about the team in its first 33 years, except the endless propaganda diatribe that the team was a "laughingstock" since the Beatles broke up. This cult, along with the owner himself, thus endorses and encourages this ongoing unwarranted disparagement, cultivating and preserving it, so that it is fresh to dump upon any subsequent success or accomplishments the team may achieve going forward.
Ironically, without moving the team, he exacted the kind of alienation upon the team's long standing, loyal fan base that he experienced as a youth, when the Braves moved to Milwaukee.
Robert Kraft earned the credit for keeping the Patriots in New England and Massachusetts, for building CMGI Field/Gillette Stadium and winning six world championships so far.
He's better than Jeremy Jacobs. But then, anyone is. He's also a nice man.
But here are three statements from him to illustrate his beliefs, which are never open to evolution or reconsideration:
"I prefer the old logo. Replacing it was financially necessary. The Flying Elvis is now, like Drew Bledsoe, the face of the franchise." "Drew Bledsoe is in the same class as Bill Russell, Bobby Orr and Ted Williams."
"Roger Goodell is not to blame for [CryGate] and [DefameGate]. He was compelled to do what he did due to pressure from the other owners."
"I wanted and prayed for him to stay, but Tom Brady did not want to keep playing here."