It's pretty cool to have a community to share this renaissance.
I'll just share my response. My loyalty never wavers. When it comes to the NFL ... I'm with the Rams. No team can begin to tempt me away.
I have also felt privileged to maintain connections with a community of Ram fans over almost 3 decades. The boards have varied, and I have come to lurk more than post, but I always remain connected to the Ram fan e-community.
However, as the years have gone by I simply do not have the mental energy to waste (that's how it has come to feel) closely following a losing team. In the words of Eric Idle,
'Tain't werf it. So, year after year during the long horrible slog, I would pretty much tune out as the seasons died, generally in October.
I am capable of tuning out because, to be honest, I have less emotion invested than I used to. I used to live and die with games, especially season-ending games. When the Rams lost, I used to simply plan on sleeping very little that night. I couldn't turn my mind off.
Speaking frankly, I don't have that much invested any more. Last week, I watched the Rams lose pretty badly to Minnesota. Now, old hands know that I live in Minny and have done so since '72. I lived in the Land of the Purple during those horribly frustrating years of the late '60s and '70s, watching the Rams lose games they "shoulda" won and listening to the people around me crow. I HATED the Vikings for decades. Ram-Viking games filled me with dread and messed my head over for days afterward. So last week, we lose to the Vikes and ...
I slept with no problem. It just does not kill me the way it used to. I don't have the same level of emotion invested that I used to have.
It's not just the Rams. I'm 63 years old and have watched many hundreds of football and basketball games. I am forever loyal to the Rams and the Celtics (sorry, Lakers fans) but I have re-arranged my emotional economy pretty drastically. Few things bring me more pleasure than watching my teams thrive. But when they collapse ... well, I just don't have the emotional capital riding any more. I can simply turn away and do other things.
As for the games apart from my teams ... well, I am a fan of those 2 teams, not of the leagues. I very rarely watch any game not involving my two teams, and I really don't care a lot what happens otherwise. I watch far, far less sports than I used to. I have skipped most recent Super Bowls and virtually never watch playoff games. I am a fan of the Rams and of the C's, not of whatever is happening in the leagues. Hell, I can now sit in a restaurant with Meg and almost never look up at the TV screen with some game on. Meg is very happy with the drastic reduction in sports in our lives.
For me, it feels like a matter of growing up. Maybe of growing old. Part of it is simply a matter of tedium. I look up and see a pair of teams facing a circumstance I have seen 100s of times. "Oh. Yeah. I get it. It will go this way or that. I've seen it all so many times." It all just has so much less impact on me than it used to. If I don't have something invested in the game, it just doesn't move me. Watching the Rams clinch a .500 or better season yesterday meant something to me. But some game with other teams ... my emotional account just doesn't have enough funds any more to cover it.
So what does that make me? A Ram die hard or a fair-weather fan who chooses his moments to care? I dunno. A lot of you guys seem to have a lot of passion still boiling and maybe this sort of measured response will strike you folks as questionable. Maybe some of you who have watched your share of seasons roll by can relate to the idea of creeping indifference. Maybe I'm just a loony.
I do know that I still love the horns, I will never care about another team, and it's damn sweet to see this franchise struggle up off the canvas. And I really enjoy the Ram community. I may not always post, but always know that I am there in the background smiling at your Rams passion!
