Wait... you were at Michigan during the Fab Five era?! Whoa. Did not know this. Were you a massive Juwan Howard fan when he was in POR? Do you love Jalen and CWebb?
Boo-hoo. You're tellin that to a fan of a team that hasn't been to the finals in 23 years, and hasn't won one in 38.
This doesn't sound so much like a "therapeutic rant". More like a surrender. When there are 128 NCAA D1 FBS football programs, being one of the final two teams standing is a pretty amazing achievement. The Ducks have done that twice in recent years. IIRC, there's no team that's won more games than them in that time period. If you have to win it all in order to enjoy supporting your teams, you're in for nothing but bitterness and disappointment likely every year of your life. Sure, it would have been great for the Ducks to win and, yes, it burned so badly for them to lose the way they did that I didn't get much sleep last night. But it was also pretty easy to see that they gave everything they had and that they achieved the success they did despite the loss of a huge number of important players to injury. Marcus Mariota has been the classiest and most amazing athlete I've ever had the pure pleasure of watching wear and Oregon uniform. Things didn't go their way last night. A couple of easy passes that were dropped, a few inches more on a touchdown drive, a couple of plays that could have been made to avoid having to settle for field goals, an inch longer jump by a defender that could have broken up a long pass, and this game could have gone differently. Didn't happen and that's sports.
The Cubs were close the Steve Bartman year (2003, right)? Baseball and basketball, without a doubt, are the two sports I follow hard. I like NFL and college football, but if I'm busy, I forget about it and don't pay it any attention. With the Giants winning 3 World Series in 5 years, I feel pretty good. Now, if the Blazers could just win a title....
what kind of fair weather fan bullshit is this? I cheered for blazers when joel przybilla was closest thing we had to all star. i bleed red baby. do i want to win? of course. but my fandom doesnt change whether we do or not. ill admit i was never a ducks fan until a few years ago, mainly because i didnt enjoy college football, but as i became a fan of the game i adopted the local team. Im not going to go jump on alabama's dick because they win more often. oregon is my home state and ill always love their teams. the only exception is the 9ers cause oregon doesnt have a pro football team.
I think, perhaps, you mis-read the OP. Nobody said or even hinted at changing allegiances. This is just the lament of the oft-disappointed fan.
This all happened because many Oregonians have sold their souls and bandwagoned their rival sports town football team, it's divine retribution!
I hear you loud and clear Chris. And to those people challenging his fandom, you couldn't be more off base. Chris is obviously frustrated and honestly he has a right to be. I'm not a Ducks fan, at all. In fact, I hate the Ducks. But I'm a Husky, Seahawk and a Blazer. Until this last NFL season I was convinced none of my teams would ever win. I'm 39 y/o and have been following these three teams as a die hard for as long as I can remember. And that Super Bowl win was fucking orgasmic. I was WEEPING when it finally happened. Years and years of frustration swept away in 3 hours of glorious domination. In other words, it was worth the wait. And it re-ignited my belief that the Blazers can do the same thing. Chris, it will be worth the wait. Hang tough.
You guys say that every year. This is the one year you could say it before the season and people might actually believe it. Even though I quoted the comment I quoted, I was more referring to the "They've not been contenders since though." I think you actually meant it in reference to the Bulls, but I initially thought you were referring to the Cubs.
Yeah, I can relate. I tried to tell myself I hated the Blazers and I tried so hard to detach after blowing Game 7 to the Lakers in 2000. Who wants to be so attached to their team that, when they choke, it actually hurts, makes you sleepless, makes you sad and angry, distracts you........ As much as I tried to tell myself I didn't care about the Blazers after that choke job, I did, and once I got through the pain, I re-engaged (only to suffer through more disappointment). When you're a fanatic, it's very much like a relationship. You eventually get through it. The SF Giants winning in 2010 (and 2012 and 2014) reignited my belief that the Blazers could win someday.
I was talking about the Bulls. They won a championship and the GM (Jerry Krause) decided the team shouldn't get old like the Celtics so he chased away Pippen, Jordan, and Phil Jackson and hired Tim Floyd to coach a bunch of dregs. We've not really sniffed championship since. The Celtics won one since
Well, I haven't personally witnessed any of my teams win a title. It fucking hurts as well. I am a (cough, cough) Raiders fan and a HUGE Blazer homer. I had the terrible game 7 of 2000, only to watch Brady and that fucked up hand tuck rule ruin our chances at the Super Bowl the year after. Then I watched as our starting center went awol to Mexico, while we had the first Super Bowl I ever watched as a Raider fan. Of course we know what happened that super bowl. And years after years of jail blazers.... Then Roy and Aldridge came to town and revamped my fandom! It looked even greater when the all powerful draft lotto.... This brought tears to my eyes. Even watching it now sends shivers up my spine! We know the outcome after that.... But this memory gave me some love... Now, the Blazers look great and my fandom is revamped again! This Lillard shot washed all the doubt away.... I am a fan, and I still hope that my Blazers will win a title at some point in my lifetime....
Yea. I was in the same class as the Fab Five. In fact, ESPN was at my graduation because Juwan Howard was the first player to go to the NBA early but still graduate with his class. He did schoolwork while a rookie in the NBA. I do love Jalen. He was hilarious then. He's hilarious now. None of the guys turned out to be as good as I thought they would. I thought Webber was gonna be a cross between Jordan and Barkley and I thought Jalen was the next Magic. It was also disappointing when Webber joined Howard on the Bullets and they didn't do so well. Also, I hated the Penny/Webber trade. I wanted Webber to play with Shaq. I thought they were going to be unstoppable. As for Juwan when he was a Blazer, yeah, that was pretty cool. He really played great for us with all the injuries we had.
