What I Don't Understand About Cowboys Fans?

[Hostile]

That wasn't the point of the OP. The OP is asking 'why be a fan if you don't enjoy the thing you're fanatic about?' And as near as I can tell, the answer is that some people just like being miserable.

What I've never understood is why people believe being *miserable* in regards to a pass-time is somehow noble or intellectually realistic. If all that misery changed anything, I might see their point, but all it does is lead to frustration. It's pointless.

Now, on message boards, there's a psychological effect where people like to insulate themselves from disappointment or from putting themselves out there and being wrong because the enjoy the karma-effect of being able to say 'I told you so.' That's always been the case, and it's the reason a fair number of posters here adopt a 'realistic' position.

I've always had a hard time telling the 'realistic' position from a fetal position, myself. It's not like we don't all know the odds are against the Cowboys winning the Superbowl in any given year. We all know that realistically, the odds of success are slim and that a handful of plays makes the difference between a division crown and missing the playoffs. We all know that if you bet the field, you're more likely to win. So what? So probabilities favor betting against the likelihood of a single team winning. Even 16 years in a row. You can do that and be right more often than not. Whoop-de-do.

If you don't like your odds, don't bet. But what's the point of complaining to the odds-maker? Is complaining realistic? It's not. What's it going to change? Is it going to make you more likely to win? The answer is, it's not. Complaining about a situation you cannot change is not realistic at all. It's just annoying.

Now, do other Cowboy fans have the right to be annoying? Sure they do. And that's a good thing, too, because a lot of them indulge in the privilege. Every. Damn. Time. They. Post. Do they have the right to complain about things that don't make any sense? Sure they do. So, they do. It doesn't make them any less of a fan, or at least not enough to really matter.

What it does mean is that they probably enjoy the season less than posters who prefer to place their bets and let their money ride. That might not be true of all of them. There are such things as masochists. But I believe it's true of most of them. What I don't appreciate is that some of them seem to think they've got an obligation to make the season less enjoyable for the rest of us.

And, what is most ironic is that the self-described realists on this board--if you were to ever meet them in the real world--are almost certainly less likely to tackle problems head-on than many of the homers and sunshine-pumpers. From my experience, positive people make positive things happen. Negative people complain about why things aren't positive.

Maybe some of you out there have experienced the opposite. I don't know. I'd be interested to hear about it if you have. From what I've seen, practicality and cynicism don't go hand-in-hand all that often. It's optimism that begets resilience and resilience that begets success. Pessimism begets defeat. Maybe it's the case that either are realistic outcomes, depending upon your outlook. If that's the case, than we're all realists here, beneath the surface, and the only difference is that some of us are less miserable about it than others.

This is absolutely outstanding.

I want to point out something that I have pointed out to others before and you touched on. 32 teams in the NFL. 31 of them are not the Dallas Cowboys. It is not impressive at all to tell me you have been right 16 straight years in saying the Dallas Cowboys would not win the Super Bowl. You have a 97% chance of being right.

Winning a Super Bowl is not at all easy. A lot of factors have to fall in place for a team to come out on top.

For over 8 years now I have asked those people telling me they've been right for 16 straight years to wow me. Tell me, before the season starts who is going to win it all. Not once in the over 8 years, from literally hundreds of posters, have I gotten an answer to that question other than "not the Cowboys."

Tell me what there is to respect about that answer. It has a 97% chance of being right. It is delivered with a pompous air and usually insults. And most of all it DOES NOT answer the question. Prove to me for the last 16 years that you were right. Saying the Cowboys won't win it is NOT being right. Okay, it is 3% right. If you want to hang your hat on 3% forgive me for not being impressed.

Furthermore I want everyone on this forum to pay attention to this interesting little additional bit of information. The self proclaimed realists are so worried about being proven wrong that they literally will put nothing out there on the line. For years now we have had posters who create pick em leagues and invite the forum members to play.

The self proclaimed realists never play. It's a game. An innocent game at that. I laugh when I see how absent they are from real predictions. You know, ones that are actually hard. Picking winners in an actual contest or picking the Super Bowl winner before the season ever plays are risky. They are afraid of risk.

Most of the time these same posters do not participate in stuff like the player grade threads we did the last two years. One poster (it was actually a lot more than one) however loved to make comments in those threads. He wouldn't vote, or give a grade, but felt obligated to discuss anyone else's grade given. Tell you anything about the character of that man? It should. He has none, and that is the main reason why he is no longer here. Who it is does not matter. The acts do because they speak volumes about the mindset. Avoid putting myself out there, and criticize everyone else who does.

Several of us have said it seems these posters enjoy their misery, and they want everyone else to be miserable. I literally have no other way of describing it. It is as foreign to me as a third world country. I don't get it and I honestly have no desire to understand that type of thinking.

The biggest lie on this forum is "I hope I am wrong." I'm sorry, but I do not buy that. I envy those who can use the Ignore feature. If I could I would. I would silence as many of these guys as I could. I wish that as a forum a bunch of you would do that. Why should you care about their opinions? I mean honestly, they don't care about yours, or your feelings, or anything about you. In fact, it is quite likely that if you are positive about this team you get mocked on other forums they frequent where optimism is not allowed. Not just you, but your family, your lives, everything.

Click on their username and when their profile comes up in the middle of the blue banner at the top is the Ignore feature. Ostracize them now so you can enjoy this season. If we win they are going to want to celebrate every bit as much as you and feel like they deserve it. I don't. Not at all.

I am sure I just offended quite a few of them. Oh well. Isn't the first time, and it won't be the last. Trust me, they hang on my every word and repost most of them where they can mock behind private forums like the brave men they are. A few come here daily and search for my comments first and follow me from thread to thread making snide remarks. Why? Mostly because I represent what they hate the most. A happy Dallas Cowboys fan.

C'est la vie.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

As Dad used to say to me and my sibling when we would blame each other for starting the quarrel, "It takes two to argue",,,,

there is a contrary dynamic alive on losing team's message boards where typical problem solvers make an assessment of what went wrong (the first step in problem solving, as opposed to denial) and their assessment is rebutted and scoffed at, intelligence and fandom credentials are questioned, resentments are created. So when it turns out that the offensive line was demonstrably not "above average"and Terence Newman is finally given the heave ho because his best days really are looong gone the contrarians are sought out and attempts are made to force feed them reality and extract a mea culpa, which of course will never ever happen. It's unproductive and unpleasant but the dynamic exists and both parties are to blame for it (even though one party is usually "correct" in their assessment : )

 

[Cowboy_Shawn]

One reason why I can't understand why Robert Kraft gets so much love.

Really??? You can't understand why the owner of a team that's won 3 Super Bowls and played in two others in the past decade gets so much love?

I'll try to explain it.

Well for one thing he doesn't insert himself into team operations and make football decisions that he's not qualified to make.

He hires people to do the job then gets the hell out of their way. I like that.

Also, Jerry resigning his star players is not always a good thing. He can be loyal to a fault. It's one of his many weaknesses. Jerry Jones has very little foresight and he doesn't have an eye for talent.

It's why we didn't have an adequate replacements for guys like Aikman and Emmitt.

It's why we prematurely gave contract extensions to Marion Barber and Terence Newman mere weeks after we'd just used 1st round picks on Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins. Scandrick was also drafted in that draft. At that point in time there was no need to sign those guys to contract extensions.

It was a bad GM decision.

And of course Barber and Newman promptly rewarded Jerry's loyalty with sub par performances. Barber averaged under 4 ypc and Newman missed a ton of games. But hey we kept our "stars".

My point is sometimes loyalty needs to be thrown out the window. ESPECIALLY in the NFL. We need people in charge that have foresight. I want a GM that can identify talent and reward players for what they can do for the team going forward. Jerry pays players based on what they've done in the past and that's a big problem.

 

[BourbonBalz]

I mentioned something earlier that I think sort of goes along with your last statement: I think there are some fans that would truly be angry to see Jerry hoist the Lombardi over his head, just because they're such Jerry haters, even though they're fans of the team.

I'm sure some of those people do exist. I refer to them as idiots.

 

[BourbonBalz]

That's a common dream the apologists like to use. Guess what? It's never going to happen. Jerry hasn't shown the ability to do so.

I love it when you guys say, "I can't wait to shove it in your face when Jerry hoists that Super Bowl trophy."

You can wait forever because it's never going to happen.

Newsflash!!!!! It's already happened three times. Yea, I know, I know. That was all because of Jimmy. Bull****!!!!! Sure Jimmy was a huge part of it, but Jerry Jones was the owner and GM then and he still is. Will you eat your words when we win another Super Bowl, because I guarantee you it will happen at some point.

 

[jnday]

Proximo, maybe I missed it, but when did you start being a fan? And why did you choose the Cowboys back then?

Anyway, some of my thoughts. Others have already said many of the same things.

1. I was and am a fan because the Cowboys were the local team of my favorite sport long before Jerry came along.

2. I don't even comprehend the idea of "If you think they aren't going to win, why even root for them". So how often are we to jump around to teams with the best odds of winning? Every year? Every three years? Every month? The question doesn't even make sense. Like many others, I rooted for the Rangers and Mavericks for years when they were awful teams.

3. This is a discussion board. Some of the people on this board take threads here way too seriously. Just because you don't agree with the way Jerry does things, or certain things the team does, doesn't make you a raging pessimist who hates life. Really, that's just a disguised ad hominem. This team has a losing record the last two seasons and set a franchise record for fourth quarter collapses last year. So obviously there have been some negatives to this team -- why are you necessarily some miserable human being just because you discuss them? That's the entire point of the board.

4. If you really want to bring logic into this, forget rooting for a mediocre team. Why are we all wasting time, energy, and money to root for any sports team comprised of a bunch of strangers who don't care anything about us?

5. Don't act for one second like this only applies to one side of the aisle.

Very good post. I feel the same way.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Had you pegged as a super fan, my bad.

You're a bandwagon fan

For a "fan" that resents other "fans" for labeling "fans", you sure seem to love doing it yourself.

 

[Cowboy_Shawn]

Newsflash!!!!! It's already happened three times. Yea, I know, I know. That was all because of Jimmy. Bull****!!!!! Sure Jimmy was a huge part of it, but Jerry Jones was the owner and GM then and he still is. Will you eat your words when we win another Super Bowl, because I guarantee you it will happen at some point.

I'll gladly eat that crow if it ever happens again. But I seriously doubt it does again as long as we still have a part-time, fraud GM making the final decisions.

 

[BourbonBalz]

No ... kind of like a loved one with an illness. You get it treated, remove the illness, and recover.

I can make as many stupid analogies as you can.

Of this I have absolutely no doubt.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Everyone says that the only reason Jerry has 3 trophies is because of Jimmy, but does anyone apply that same standard to Kraft and say that he only has 3 trophies because of Belichick? Or that Rooney only has 2 trophies because of Cowher and Tomlin?

I've always thought the same thing. The Jerry haters will never give him any credit. Period. I think he's made many mistakes, but I also give him credit for those three Lombardis. Those that do not simply prove a point about themselves. They use Jimmy to prove their ridiculous arguments about Jerry. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Sadly, several on here are too stupid to realize how pathetic their arguments really are.

 

[Hook'em#11]

Been a fan for over 20 years. Back in the Landry days....

Jerry took the team over. Did some good things, but, also gave the fans players like Q. Carter. Troy Hambrick and Drew Henson..


So. yeah. the GM Jones sucks. The owner is the best in the business.

 

[BourbonBalz]

The op is a Lurker. He claims he did not want to incite people. Six pages later it is still going on.

You should be proud of yourself. What a great addition to the discussion.:bang2:

 

[BourbonBalz]

I'll gladly eat that crow if it ever happens again. But I seriously doubt it does again as long as we still have a part-time, fraud GM making the final decisions.

So, you conveniently failed to mention the three he's already won. Typical. I would expect no more.

 

[visionary]

Well, as you can see, I've only registered to this board quite recently, however I did lurk as a guest for a considerable amount of time before joining. I'd like to 1st state that I've been a Cowboys fan since I was old enough to understand the game of football. I currently (and always have) lived in the Eastern part of our country. The area I'm in is specifically saturated with Eagles, Steelers, Commanders, Ravens, and Giants fans. All of my close friends are fans of one of these teams (which makes for an entertaining rivalry during the season) and I literally am rarely surrounded by Cowboys fans.

After reading a large amount of the content on this board, I really have one question I'd like to pose to all of the Jerry naysayers: Why are you a fan of the Dallas Cowboys?

The disdain for Jerry that some of the posters on this board exhibit really makes me wonder why you would even want to be a fan of the team? I mean, he's owned the team for over 20 years, and he is clearly going to continue to conduct himself the way that he has up until this point. With that being said, it's safe to say that he is probably the most recognizable individual connected to the organization. If as a fan, you disagree with his actions in general, and who he is as an owner, why wouldn't you just root for a team that operates in a fashion that you do agree with? To me, being a fan in general is about following and cheering for a team that you believe in, and that you want to see be successful. Some of the perpetually negative posters on here make me wonder- do you even enjoy watching the games? Do you cheer when the 'boys win?

Maybe I'm just weird, but it seems odd to me that some of the "fans" on here don't even appear to enjoy being a fan of the Cowboys. And isn't that the whole point? To enjoy the games? To enjoy the different facets of the organization? If I hated Jerry that much I don't think I'd have much fun as a fan.

Sorry if this was too long and drawn out, but I rarely post on message boards and I became quite perplexed after I started following this board and decided to make a thread about it. Thoughts?

What I want to know is, where are the 5 stars for this thread?
usually these are 5 star threads

 

[Cowboyz88]

To sum up:

Homers to the left, haters to the right.

 

[Cowboy_Shawn]

So, you conveniently failed to mention the three he's already won. Typical. I would expect no more.

Yes I conveniently failed to mention it. Just like you conveniently gloss over his track record from the past 16 years.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Yes I conveniently failed to mention it. Just like you conveniently gloss over his track record from the past 16 years.

Oh ye of little faith. Or reading skills. Whatever. I was initially responsing to a post about the fact that Bob Kraft seems to get credit for winning 3 Super Bowls despite having a great coaching staff, yet Jerry Jones seems to get zero from som of our fans. Get it? Everyone, seemingly including you, focuses on our lack of success the past 16 years (yes, I acknowledge that fact), but conveniently forget the great success Jones has also had during his tenure as owner/GM. All of that success is almost always laid at Jimmy Johnson's feet. While Johnson certainly was a very important part of those three Super Bowl trophies, Jerry Jones was also the owner/GM just as he has been since 1989. That part is almost universally overlooked by Jones haters.

 

[AmericasTeam81]

Tom Landry/Tex Schramm/Gil Brandt gave us Steve Pelluer, Gary Hogeboom, and a slew of poor draft picks in the 80's.

 

[jaybird]

Jerry is a wonderful owner. It's his being a GM that makes a lot of people mad.

Jerry's one of the most passionate owners in sports and I love him for that. As a GM, He's recentely not gotten the job done. Too many Galloway and Williams bone head decisions. Proofs in the puddin. Too much has been said about him on the side lines and him trying to coach the team. All to do about nothing. All honestely, if I was an owner I would do the same thing. SEROIUSELY WOULDNT YOU? Jerry has shift gears and I like the way things are headed.

 

[Salrandin]

Has anyone ever been disappointed or angry at a family member/ Thats what it feels like to me when i am down on them. Doesnt mean i don't love them.