How is your fandom?

[northernbillfan]

I don't know about anyone else, but mine is on a very thin thread.

This is beyond annoying. This is down right embarrassing.

The only team to not be above .500 in the past five years...
The only team to not make the playoffs in this millennium...
The only team that has more die hard fans than anyone else...

Yet the football gods, or whom ever, feels like they need to **** us a over year in and year out.

My fandom is very close to being severed.

[Cntrygal]

I'm thankful that ski season overlaps football season.

[X-Era]

I don't know about anyone else, but mine is on a very thin thread.

This is beyond annoying. This is down right embarrassing.

The only team to not be above .500 in the past five years...
The only team to not make the playoffs in this millennium...
The only team that has more die hard fans than anyone else...

Yet the football gods, or whom ever, feels like they need to **** us a over year in and year out.

My fandom is very close to being severed.Mines fine. We put something like 10 starters on IR. Seems to happen every year. And it's a major reason why I want much better backups (vets).

I think Fitz + Freddy + Stevie + Wood = a potent offense. Add a guy like Blackmon or Floyd to that and we could be very good on O.

On D we need corners and a stud LB plus a pass rusher.

[OpIv37]

The only reason I still watch the team is because I'm a fan.

It hasn't been fun since around 2004.

[DraftBoy]

Very strong, I knew we would get this crap when we hired Gailey. He'll be gone in a year if not sooner and we can start to really build a team with a good staff.

[bduff54]

i just watch out of routine mostly, the buzz has warn off but i am still a fan

[Novacane]

The lowest it's ever been. I don't see any hope until Ralph is out of the picture one way or another. I'm all for firing the coaching staff but then what? A repeat of none of the top candidates wanting an interview here?

[northernbillfan]

I'm far from ready to cash in my fan card. It's just very frustrating and seems asinine to cheer for futility year in and year out.

[YardRat]

Very strong, I knew we would get this crap when we hired _______________. He'll be gone in a year if not sooner and we can start to really build a team with a good staff.

Fill in the blank....

Williams
Mularkey
Jauron
Gailey...

[Skooby]

Anyone can give up on the town they grew up but nobody doesn't love the town they grew up, I hope all of you that decide the Bills aren't worth trouble choke on stale fish.

I've watched some of the worst football come out during my life & some to the best, there is a dog for every day. I also believe that there is more money that supports the team past Ralph's stranglehold on the team, that'll pop up when the time is right.

[SaviorEdwards]

Not great I expect them to lose and I no longer get that upset when they lose because of how frequently it happens. They just fit the narrative when they play like they did today. The Bills have become like a Purdue or Vanderbilt...every once in a while you'll knock off a Wisconsin or Georgia....but you always expect to suck overall.

[bf1]

Angry

[Don't Panic]

They are the eternal test of one's devotion. I can't quit them... I don't even see it as an option. But I do remember a thread from about this time last year that talked about it getting easier to accept the losses. Unfortunately, I see that happening to me.

I had my 75 year old dad down this weekend. He has followed them since the inaugural season and had season tickets for about 35 of their first 40 years. This guy is still into them... I figure if the interest is still there with him, how can't it be with me, someone who can't remember life when he wasn't a Bills fan?

I console myself by saying it'll be that much sweeter when we finally win one... whenever that may be.

[Scumbag College]

I will never give up on the Bills. I don't really watch any other sports other than NFL football, and other than the Bills I don't pay particular attention to any other team. I'm a bad Sabres fan, in that I only usually watch the playoffs.

The first month and a half of this season was the most fun and exciting time for being a Bills fan since the Super Bowl teams and it was fun to Billieve again. The last two months have been deflating and disappointing being a fan, however it doesn't ruin my Sunday when they lose anymore, like it did in the 90s. Maybe it's just me growing up and priorities changing.

[imbondz]

I teeter back and forth on anger, embarrassment, and whoooo freakin' cares

[Oaf]

we can start to really build a team with a good staff.

Why do you think that'll happen even if he is gone next year?
:thurm2:

[northernbillfan]

I keep telling myself it will get better next play, series, half, week, year, decade etc... and I will hold on hoping that one day it will.

I never mentioned I was going to cash it in, just announcing my overall frustration.

[BertSquirtgum]

I teeter back and forth on anger, embarrassment, and whoooo freakin' cares

Nice avatar.

[PromoTheRobot]

I renewed my 4 season tickets. Does that answer your question?

PTR

[bosshogg21]

I haven't watched one play of the last 4 games and have actually enjoyed those Sunday's.

[Jan Reimers]

I once had a passionate relationship with the Bills. Now it has become more like comfortable.

I expect them to lose, and far more than 50% of the time, they don't disappoint me. Living up (or down) to your partners' expectations is good for any relationship.

Because my ardor has cooled - and because they have never really cared about me at all - I no longer live in fear of their moving. If they should leave in a couple of years, I will be a little hurt, but I will quickly put our long but futile years together behind me.

[The King]

I feel like our fandom has more heart than the players that are wearing the uniforms and that's what's frustrating. I can handle the loses.

I can't handle half assed effort that makes us look like schmucks for rooting for them.

[NorthCarBills]

I dropped Sunday Ticket for the first time in 12 years last year, and have not regretted since doing so. I catch the replays or the major network games if available. I also didnt go up for a game for the first time in as many years this year.

I still pull for the Bills, but quite simply there is no fun in watching them anymore.

The biggest thing is this...I no longer try to figure out what player(s) or coaches will make this team better. It's new ownership and management that will only make a difference.

[northernbillfan]

I feel like our fandom has more heart than the players that are wearing the uniforms and that's what's frustrating. I can handle the loses.

I can't handle half assed effort that makes us look like schmucks for rooting for them.That's whats so trying for me too. Put 100% on the field so we don't feel cheated for rooting for them in the first place.

[Night Train]

When I gave up my seasons 3 years back ( after attending over 90 % of the games since the mid-1960's as a kid ), I basically gave my answer to Wilson that I thought he was taking the fans for a ride.

I'll always be a fan but never like it was. Maybe if we get a new owner with commitment, I can rekindle some of that past enthusiam... but not now.

I actually watch tons more college ball. Sundays just aren't the same anymore.

[stuckincincy]

When I gave up my seasons 3 years back ( after attending over 90 % of the games since the mid-1960's as a kid ), I basically gave my answer to Wilson that I thought he was taking the fans for a ride.

I'll always be a fan but never like it was. Maybe if we get a new owner with commitment, I can rekindle some of that past enthusiam... but not now.

I actually watch tons more college ball. Sundays just aren't the same anymore.

I've cooled on the entire NFL for several reasons.

And with the advent of DVRs, I almost never sit down and watch an entire game.

[Jan Reimers]

I just have a feeling of hopelessness. We're still losing after 12 years of supposed rebuilding, and there is no end in sight.

We're losing not because we're young and inexperienced, or because we have a new coaching staff, or because we're changing systems.

Instead, we're losing because of a complete lack of talent, a GM who is not really dynamic to begin with and is also shackled by the owner, and a Head Coach who is average at best.

I see more of the same mediocrity until huge changes are made.

[Thurmal]

I've become so negative about the team that I can't even enjoy games we're winning, because I'm figuring out which way we will blow it. I even can't really get into a winning season. This is what I wrote on this site after the Skins game when we were 5-2:

"I'm ashamed to admit it but, as a Bills fan, I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This season has been great so far, and the team has been one of the funnest Bills teams to watch in my life (27 y/o), but they are way too snakebitten of a franchise. I hate to admit it, but they would have to be like 8-2 or 8-3 before I really started to think playoffs."

http://billszone.com/fanzone/showpost.php?p=3556819&postcount=8

[BillsFever21]

The offseason seems to go by quicker and quicker every year since I know we're going to suck once the season starts.

When the season does start though I'm pumped up and excited. Early in the year when we lose I'm pissed off to the point where I can't watch anymore football the rest of the day and I'm still angered the following day or two. After around halfway through the season though after either giving away games we should have won or getting blown out each one becomes easier to handle. After we get to the point where our season and team is another complete joke the losses doesn't even bother me anymore though and a lot of the games just get to the point where all you can do is laugh it's that bad.

Even this season when we were 3-0 I predicted we would finish with 7 or 8 wins and then when we were 5-2 I knew we were not for real and were probably going to crumble after showing that the first few weeks were a combination of some lucky and fluke wins and stood by my 7 or 8 win prediction. Going into the season I predicted 6 wins.

I even made a post before that 3 game road trip that I could see us getting swept and that we needed to win two of the games to show we were for real and had a legitimate chance for a playoff run or at least one game to stay in the hunt. Then if we lost all three games we were done for and it would go downhill from there.

Even I didn't think it would get so bad that four games after getting swept on the road trip we would still be without another win. Most likely we will finish the season with a 9 game losing streak. We definitely won't beat the Patriots and it's doubtful we're going to beat Denver.

I hope we do lose the next two games since it doesn't make a difference now. The only thing it would do now is give us a lower draft pick. Also ending the season on a 9 game losing streak might wake Ralph up a little bit but I doubt it. Our merry band of idiots running the show in the front office and on the sidelines will still be back for at least another season. He is already paying Jauron and there is no way he will pay out the contract for another HC along with more assistant coaches and a GM on top of it.

Even when the time comes that they are fired or resign Wilson will just hire some more cheap crappy replacements unless he happened to get lucky and find a good GM and coach by blind luck. He has proved that he doesn't have any ability in spotting out and hiring the right talent for the GM and HC positions. Then there is no chance he will pay a lot for coordinators and assistant coaches either. He refuses to pay much more then the minimum for them. It's basically hire whoever you think is the best candidate for the minimum price range.

[Jeff1220]

I've been mostly apathetic since 2008, with a moment or two of unwarranted optimism.

[OpIv37]

I console myself by saying it'll be that much sweeter when we finally win one... whenever that may be.

But this is exactly why it's so hard to remain a fan of this team.

No team wins it every year, but fans put up with the bad years with the knowledge, or at least the hope, that at some point their team will win it all. And even if they don't win it all, they'll at least have some big upsets and playoff glory along the way.

With the Bills, it's getting harder and harder to believe we're ever going to win it all, or even get those big wins. In the last 10 years, the only big win we've had was the win over the Patriots this year (and arguably the win over the Patriots in the 2003 opener). Forget about playoffs- it's been 7 years since we've even had a winning SEASON, and it was the only one so far this millennium.

Ralph constantly goes cheap on players, coaches and FO personnel, and seems more concerned with making sure his family goes from rich to uber-rich upon his death than with building a winner. At this point, it's more likely that this team will move than that they will win a SB. And it will remain that way until the team has new ownership.

That's why it's become so hard to root for this franchise. It just gets harder and harder to believe that the championship will ever come.

[YardRat]

Ralph constantly goes cheap on players,

Not true.


coaches

Seems to be a trend lately for head coaches, but not historically and/or not for the lack of trying. I do, however, admit that I wonder if the lack of a financial commitment is behind our terrible situation with the current coordinators.


and FO personnel,

At times it appears that way, but others not true. Ralph's hired some guys that supposedly have talent but haven't come through for us.


and seems more concerned with making sure his family goes from rich to uber-rich upon his death than with building a winner.

If that were true, he would've taken the money and moved the team already.

I still maintain that Ralph gets screwed by the under-performance of people he hires and lets run the show. If Ralph were truly cheap there are several personnel additions over the last 10-20 years that contradict that viewpoint. How they performed after getting the job is an entirely different matter unrelated to 'cheap'.

[OpIv37]

I still maintain that Ralph gets screwed by the under-performance of people he hires and lets run the show. If Ralph were truly cheap there are several personnel additions over the last 10-20 years that contradict that viewpoint. How they performed after getting the job is an entirely different matter unrelated to 'cheap'.

I think it's the opposite. I think Ralph meddles and he underpays, so he can't get top talent to work here. In the rare cases where he does get competent people, he interferes to the point where they can't get anything done, and on occasion even runs them out of town (Polian, anyone?).

And anyway, even if you are right, it still speaks to a larger problem: Ralph can't pick talent. And he's the one making the decisions, so there is no reason to expect it to change as long as he's the owner.

And, as far as the reason why he hasn't moved the team yet: there is a small piece of him that cares about his legacy. So he won't move the team while he is alive. However, once he's dead, I really don't think he cares if his family or some new owner moves the team out of town, as long as his family cashes in. At the very least, he hasn't done anything publicly to prove or even suggest that he cares.

I suspect that when Ralph is dead and we lose our team, we will all realize that he turned his back on the city and fans that made him a very, very wealthy man.

[Don't Panic]

But this is exactly why it's so hard to remain a fan of this team.

No team wins it every year, but fans put up with the bad years with the knowledge, or at least the hope, that at some point their team will win it all. And even if they don't win it all, they'll at least have some big upsets and playoff glory along the way.

With the Bills, it's getting harder and harder to believe we're ever going to win it all, or even get those big wins. In the last 10 years, the only big win we've had was the win over the Patriots this year (and arguably the win over the Patriots in the 2003 opener). Forget about playoffs- it's been 7 years since we've even had a winning SEASON, and it was the only one so far this millennium.

I get it Op... I really do. It is hard. Like I said though... I don't feel like I have much of a choice in the matter.

We need solid ownership, plain and simple. Until we get that, we as fans are going to resemble abuse victims - taking the beating and coming back for more. Either that or we walk away.

My whole thing is, a ton of people talk about this team so negatively (and so consistently negatively). That I don't get... if you hate the experience of being a fan so much, stop being a fan... and definitely stop coming to a Bills message board all the time. Venting is one thing... non-stop hate is something else altogether.