In response to waterfield's rather black & white (ie. positive vs. negative types) view of "message boards"......I take this view regarding Los Angeles Rams Message Boards//Talk Forums:
Pro football is a form of entertainment.....just like movies.
People make choices about where to spend their Entertainment Money.....movies, football, baseball, basketball, live theatre, etc etc....
To my way of thinking, if you shell out money to take the wife to a movie and it sucks (think ISHTAR with Warren Beatty & Dustin Hoffman!).....then we, as money-paying customers, can complain and kvetch that the movie stunk. IMHO, that does not make me a "negative person" who will live out a miserable life and probably die young from all the bitterness. No, no.....I am just saying to Universal Studios:
"Yo, Hollywood big shots....I have been to many a movie. I am no film-going neophyte. This is not my first reel rodeo! And based on my experience, I am here to tell you that your movie ISHTAR pooped the bed!!!"
Similarly in Pro Football. Football, like the movies, is entertainment. If the product on the field sucks, like ISHTAR sucked as a movie....then as money-paying, time-spending Pro Football fans, we too can complain and kvetch about the lousy product on the field, the same way movie-goers can complain about ISHTAR!!! (Think our Monday Night opener clusterfook in SF!!!!)
I complained loud, hard and often about Scotty Flounder Linehan, and again about Steve VaporLock Spagnuolo and Billy SleevelessPulloverMannequin Devaney FOR THE SHYTE PRODUCT THEY TROTTED OUT ONTO THE FIELD SUNDAY AFTER SUNDAY!!! I am unapologetic for those complaints.....I do not feel that it made me a negative or embittered person.......and moreover I felt vindicated when Linehack, Spags, and Devaney were given their pink slips.
To sum up.....life is not black and white. Guys can kvetch and complain one week.....and beam with pride the next. That's NFL football.
Some guys here come across like Jeff Fisher's mom in their defense of the existing regime.....other guys have wanted Fisher fired since he blew the Allen Robinson pick.
I say this....
VIVE LES DIFFERENCES!!!
IT'S GOOD WE HAVE A WHOLE SPECTRUM OF VIEWS......think of how boring (and RIDICULOUS) it would've been if we were all a bunch of Stepford Wives marching in unison, praising Jeff Fisher's NFL Coaching acumen following that 28-0 shellacking the hapless 49ers hung on us in our Monday Night opening nachtmare, eh!!
IT'S GOOD TO HAVE DIFFERING OPINIONS. IT'S GOOD TO HAVE LIVELY DISCUSSIONS.
This negative-positive stuff is just some dull Dr. Phil stuff to me.....
BUT....
if you want to really talk about a guy who knew human nature, I give you the brilliant American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, who said:
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them."
I refuse to give Jeff Fisher a free pass. Fisher is just as accountable to put a good successful product on the field for us fans to enjoy, as Steven Spielberg is to make a good movie. If they are unsuccessful over a period of time, they get replaced.....both Spielberg and Fisher.
Now, that's life!