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stlramz
15-65.
This is a number hardcore fans know well.
At times I think of this number and shake my head in amazement. Not at the sheer incompetence that it takes to achieve what remains the NFL record for the worst 5 year stretch in NFL History (even if the Browns finish 0-16 they will have only tied our record!) but rather, that most of us here endured that journey together.
15-65.
Can you imagine?
You can pick any time, at any point in NFL history and examine a 5 year stretch of losing and one team stands heads and shoulders above them all for the most losses.
An average of 3 wins per season for 5 years. A HALF OF A DECADE!
And its not like when this streak started, we were something to behold. Our glory days had faded in 2003 and what remained was a team that could not muster a single winning season since 2003.
In 2007, the true darkness commenced and for 5 straight years, we were put through fan hell. Even when we emerged from the abyss, it was only to endure yet another half-decade spell of less than mediocre football. While 7-8-1 felt like a monumental leap up in 2012 , it turned out to be fools gold and the beginning of another period of dismay, frustration and pain.
Why did we stay?
What were we expecting to gain by enduring such misery?
Such pain?
Such unimaginable frustration?
For those who stayed and that is most of the tremendous fans which frequent this board on a daily basis, you feel the answer inside of you now. It is that same unbelievable feeling which was given to us in 1999 following yet another decade stretch of misery between 1990-1998.
It is the feeling which can only be felt by the true devotees.
The feeling that we made it, our sacrifice has not been in vain.
The feeling shared by Max who, on October 1, after the win at Dallas this year proclaimed his love for all the fans on this board.
I knew what he meant.
I knew what he was feeling.
I was feeling it too.
It is a feeling that can only be truly shared by the band of brothers (and sisters) that have walked this journey together. Those who know the feeling of crossing the Gobi desert believing that water was just over the next dune and knowing that regardless, we would keep crossing whatever obstacle was in our way until we found it.
It is a great time to be the kind of fans that we are.
We have been through the fan equivalent of the famous BUD/S seal training (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) where the only the most devoted soldiers can endure the training to emerge as the most elite and hardened fighters in the world.
The faint at heart. The non believers. They checked out long ago.
No one can convince me that for those that stayed, the taste of success is that much richer. That much more savory. That much more cherished and held close.
I know what a TRUE FAN looks like.
It looks like YOU.
Hats off to all of my TRUE rams brother’s and sisters.
We have emerged from the darkness and glory days are here again.
Best,
Laram
