FalcFans Forums

Falcon Fans. I just don’t get some of the Falcon fans I read about on some of boards. I wonder why they remain fans at all. Just pure negativity. When the Falcons win they still find attack the minutest flaws.

There are the player haters. The anti-Vick types. The irrational hatred of Brooking. The OLine haters. Some will grudgingly give credit, when they perform brilliantly. These fans seem the most looney to me. They never let facts get in the way of a good rant. They repeat something so often that because it is said so often it must be true in the world. The Brooking haters are the most interesting to me. They actually lament that he is marketed (how dare the Falcons market their product to make money!). Again, facts are not necessary to back up their vitriol. Any failures on his side of the field are his fault and refuse to even consider that other players may have actually missed assignments. The anti-Vick types seem to fall into two camps – those that hope he can perform better, but don’t think he will and those that pin every failure onto him. I think the latter is a backlash against the blind devotion that some have for Vick and blame any of his failure on the coaches, Oline, receiver, refs, etc.

Then you have the roller coaster ride that is the praise/fire the coach. Some coaches have it and some don’t. I think you see pretty quick who can be and who cannot be a HC in the league. The Less Steckles, Marion Campbells, etc are revealed pretty early (except we seemed to keep dipping into the Campbell well). There are those that make average coaches, the Dennis Greens, Steve Mariucchis, Jeff Fishers. You have the good coaches, Cowher, Holmgren, Reeves, that seem to have a good track record over the years. You have the few truly brilliant coaches, Bellichick, Walsh, Parcells. Most fans don’t want to wait to see if you get a flash in the pan or whether the coach has long term staying power. If you are not one of the few super coaches –off with their heads! It is beside the point that an average coach with a talented team can win it all. Fire the Coordinators while you are at it. Fire them now – what utter foolishness. Coaches, with a frighteningly few exceptions, can only deliver the game plan, the players have to execute it. It is one thing if the plan is consistently bad or the team just quits on a coach (take a look at the Raiders team of your choice).

Sometimes you get fans that are all of the above and I even wonder why they are fans of the team at all. It would seem that they would be happier rooting for another team, although they may be just as miserable no matter who they followed.

While I am very critical of the decisions that the coaches make, I think that some players may be over hyped and overpaid, I just don’t get the venom that some spew. One game (unless it is a playoff game) is not a season (good or bad). Is it that simple or am I missing something?

This site is great because there does not seem to be the ultra highs or ultra lows. A bipolar relationship with your football team would seem to make a largely unhappy fan because only one team gets to take home the big silver thingy at the end.

It may be all fans, but Falcons fans seem odder than most

Just my thoughts.

W

Superb post.

Was on another site and a guy wrote the game was fixed.

There is a way to look at this,...from the players perspective.

If they had time to read these posts you refer to,...and sometimes they do,...they just laugh at these people.

I agree,...I often question if many of these people are true Falcons fans.

Helluva post!

Don't get me wrong. I develop situational Tourette's syndrome DURING a game. If my wife were a football fan, she would not watch a game with me unless the birds are winning. If I am not in my happy place as the game progresses, I tend to sound a bit more like Tony Montana than Joe Montana.

W

lol same here,...it is tunnel vision with me too, total concentration to the point of,...yeah that.

May I use your post in another forum?

Ain't that the truth..lol My wife has learned that during football season i am locked in my "cage" and i only come out of the command center for emergencies. The ranting and raving is seen as just a demented soul with issues.

Me too I have to close the windows and send the kids someplace so as not to offend...

It's not just Falcon fans. I've had the pleasure or displeasure of spending the majority of my life around fans of other teams and fans of other sports. These fans as you refer to exist everywhere. Maybe Falcon fans have a greater percentage among them that belong in this camp, I really wouldn't know. I haven't met and discussed Falcon-related issues face-to-face with very many Falcon fans.

One thing I hate is when fellow fans question another's devotion, quality, or loyalty. Saying things like only "true Falcon fans should be here" or "you're not a true Falcon fan" or "you should go root for another team" because it is just plain stupid to me. It's no different than calling another fan stupid because his opinion doesn't agree with yours. You say, "you're not a true Falcon fan because you're too negative or pessimistic or optimistic or naive!" or whatever. It's jus dumb. Fact is we all support the Falcons in different ways in different levels of devotion. Some live and breath the team, some are simple casual observers.

Frankly it doesn't matter to me. I want you all to go around the site and true to find any mention along the lines of "only for true Falcon fans!" That's not what this site is about. The site is devoted to the Atlanta Falcons, but everyone who contributes to the site, forums, blogs, etc. doesn't have to be.

I don't understand why people expect people to be homogenized and think and act alike. Pardon my french, but we're all f**** human beings. People aren't the same, so why would you expect Falcon fans to all be alike? People deal with their issues and problems differently.

These forums attract all kinds of people that agree on one thing, they want to discuss the Falcons. That should be enough. Deal with it or don't. I'm sure there have been plenty of times in the past where I haven't heed my own advice, but I'm going to make an effort to do so from now on.

Certainly

Amen. The fun of being a fan is the give and take, the debate of one philosophy or another. I just don't understand the jihadest mentality of some that want a player/owner/ coach's head on a pike one week and then lavish them with praise or even just tolerate them the next week. The vitriolic hatred that some have is just a bit nutty to me.

The other thing that I think is silly is that one has to be a Season ticket holder or actually at a game to be a real fan. Well I am a season ticket holder but live on the other side of the continent - does that make me less of a fan? Hardly. Going to the game is sometimes the WORST way to see how an individual player is doing unless you just watch that player. That would seem to be silly to me to do, because when I go, it is to get caught up in the group feel of the game.

I don't expect fans to act alike. Good gravy, an echo chamber is even more annoying than irrationality. I just think that the one trick ponies be they everything is always crappy or always sunny is just a bit, well, odd.

I may be accused of being a silver lining kind of guy, but after following the birds for the last 33 years, I have seen enough clouds.

W

I'm aware of 1 other Falcon fan here in the Couve. Actually there are a few others but most of those other folks are either too young to watch a game with or they are a Falcon fan because of and only because of Mike Vick.

Beyond that I'm my families #1 source of entertainment on Sundays when the Falcons are playing. I probably get more exercise jumping up and down and yelling at my TV than I do going to the gym. One of the rare times I can get away with sounding worse than a sailor . I don't have children yet and the fiance is more than happy sitting on the couch laughing at me while she works on whatever her project of the week is.

Mike is what most folks here know about the birdz...I've noticed the number of choice for the kids playing QB in the youth league my son plays in is 7 and not 8 as youd expect in Seahawk land. Madden may have something to do with that.

I have the opposite problem, my wife was also a Falcon's fan before we married. That night she started complaining right after the blocked punt and I said cool it there is plenty more game to overcome this one problem. She would not have it and we ended up in different rooms watching the game.

I get just as mad as anyone else when they lose, but, i try, TRY to wait before I post in order to make a more reasoned argument. But, there have been times <cough>Duckett, recievers<cough> when I can't hold it in.

I still am seeing Crump drop that TD in my sleep...i just couldn't believe it.I really believe that if he catches that TD it is a much different outcome.

Deffinately changes the momentum if Crump holds that pass. After a Falcons or Dawgs loss I get quiet and the family knows to leave me be for a while.

I was as disappointed as anybody over that loss, but I am not going to get crazy about it. It was one game, and we get them at our house next time. If we take care of business, we still can and will win the division. I am sick of everybody trying to make excuses, the team was not what it should have been Monday. I think the main difference was the emotion and the Saints fans are to be commended for making it such an atmosphere. I will still take our coaches and players over any others. Bring on the Cardinals.

My beef with the game was how flat we were. Sure there were mistakes made, but after watching some of these comebacks executed by the Giants late in the games, I want to get another point on the board, even if its another FG for posterity's sake. Looking back on most of the losses last year where the momentum was clearly on the opponents side early, we saw that swing back towards the Falcons later in the game (notably Seattle, TB, and GB).

I'm usually livid in the few hours after the losses, but by Tuesday or Wednesday, I'm calm. I reallize that the team won't win 16 games, but I hate watching 4 quarters of dead football on my team's part.

Some losses stick with me for weeks upon weeks well after the results are over. Last year, it was the Seahawks loss until the Packers loss trumped that one. I don't think this one is going to be like that, because I handle losing to divisional rivals much better than a 1-6 team.

But I do think that everyone deals with the Falcons losing and winning differently, and people shouldn't be criticized just because their way of dealing with it is disliked or different than yours. If you can deal with the Falcons getting smoked 23-3 or 27-0, then I'm sure you can deal with a small minority of posters making a ruckuss for a few days on a message board.

My daughter does the best imitation (Jesus Christ! Throw the ball!...from the Chandlerr years as I watched him getting crunched for the millionth time in the "pocket") of me watching a game on TV. No one in my house really cares too much about football and they just know its best to just leave Daddy in his little cave. I'm not too much of aplayer or coach disser although, like anyone else. I have my moments. I think people make too much of what someone says on a MB. It's just venting and people don't really mean (or even think much) about what they say.

I learned a valuable lesson in 1996 after the Braves choked that WS. It almost physically mad eme sick for two weeks! The lesson was, I felt much worse after losing in 96 than I felt good after winning it in 95.I think it is just human nature. In the end, it is actually the camradarie of shared experiences with people who like what you like that sticks with you. It's like being in a band. After all is said and done you don't remember so much the night when you got paid well and the crowd was going wild as you do sitting in the van shooting s*** with the guys riding to the next gig or working up a new song.

Great post, Pudge. There is no one way to be a fan and that's what makes the whole thing work. I don't know of abigger Falcon fan than BirdBrain and he probably hasn't seen a game live in ten years and is stuck over in europe where the poor saps don't even know what football is!

As I said before, it's the games where the team is flat and playing without energy that really get my goose as they say.

It would be one thing if we were teh Texans or Raiders, are were just an overall bad team. Our inability to do anything offensively and/or defensively would thus come from the fact that we are just inferior.

But this team is not inferior. This team is good. The players are good. The players are capable. The coaches are good. The coaches are capable. It doesn't mean we are going to win every game, because there are going to be teams that are just better than you, and there are going to be games where you may want it a lot, but the other team is going to want it more.

Everything we saw out of the Panthers & Bucs the first 2 weeks was seen in this team this past week. And that just really irks me. If we lose to the Cardinals this week something like 27-13 or something, then I don't think I would be as upset as I was on Monday night and Tuesday morning. If the Cardinals passing attack just proves too much for our fragile defense to handle, then so be it. But I mean with this Saints game, it was like we didn't even show up. I hate that. I don't want to devote 3.5 hours of my time to watch my favorite team do nothing. Its a waste of their time and money, and mine as well. I'll put it this way, "If you're not going to show up, then you might as well actually not show up."

Well said Pudge!

I hate the underachieving in a team game.

It is frustrating that the peers and fellow coaches of the Falcons players vote various honors upon a good number of our players individually, yet the TEAM does not achieve good results.

Yeah, the Oline maybe is the only group that even remotely 'over-achieves' -- and even that is but in only 50% of their overall responsibility. They too are well lacking in a certain 'aspect' I won't bother repeating.

So we've got all kinds of pro bowlers on D, yet we still do not force teams to beat us with GREAT PLAYS. /Instead we let teams go up and down the field with BASIC plays. (i.e. basic pass blocking = 5 or 6 guys block 4 rushers. Receiver go find a soft spot in a zone or do a simple sidline out pattern with the CB playing well off of you.

It is as if we are so afraid to get beaten by the so-called "big play" that we let ourselves "die a death of a thousand cuts" instead. Not only is that less entertaining but history shows that you do not win CHAMPIONSHIPS that way because that strategy depends on a certain level of incompetence by your opponents.

I am a firm believer that this is ENTERTAINMENT, so come on and ENTERTAIN US. Giving up free yardage to the opponents when we've got decent players in the secondary and a few pro bowlers on Dline just IS NOT FUN to watch.

Seeing every team collapse our "pocket" year after year is not entertaining -- it seems like our line are BOYS while every Dline is playing with MEN -- and that is embarrassing.

Like it or not, those are my reasons for discontent.

And finally, let me say there is another type of fan who is more a fan of a particular fan than of the team itself. There are very few fans of that type of fan.

Then don't watch. Switch the channel to "The View", or "Oprah"...I'm sure you won't feel so frustrated. Or just play with your Playstation, where you can contol everything about your team, that should satisfy any ego issues you may have , and leave you with a sense of fulfillment.

Don't you get it. People shouldn't be dictating what others should or should not be doing. Just let people deal with their Falcons issues the best way they know how. If you think you have a better way, then just keep your mouth shut.

Shouldn't that apply to you as well then?? Reading back on some of your reactions to some posters here you seem to be "dictating" your point of view rather often. I wasn't dictating, it was a suggestion.I'm sorry...but is this just another instance of telling someone to do something that they don't do themselves.In fact every site on the planet has posters stating their point of view, and someone countering with theirs..it is unrealistic to think that it could go down any other way. I could spend the time pulling up posts where others are telling me how to go screw myself in regards to my opinion on Vick etc....are they supposed to "shut up as well"??? If you are going to moderate, then do it across the board, not just now and then...and apply the same standards to yourself as well.

No, you were making a most discourteous, unprovoked, and unpleasant response. And perhaps if it were not the umpteenth such occurence from you one might have been able to overlook it as but a 'bad day'. However, history shows there is a pattern of ill-intentioned behavior, caustic mistreatment of others. Only you are responsible for those facts, and it cannot be projected on to anyone else through verbal mis-direction. It feels like deja-vu all over again.

Birdman wrote:

And finally, let me say there is another type of fan who is more a fan of a particular fan than of the team itself. There are very few fans of that type of fan.


Case closed....no more responding to you Birdy. It's over. Deal with it.