What really makes me mad are fans of other teams that accuse me of being a bandwagon fan. I have been a Dallas fan since no later than Dec 30th, 1973.
I enjoy rivalry, but here in Washington their dislike of Dallas borders on pathological.
I started out being a Redskins fan back in my other life around 1972 when I moved back to the states after five years and saw my first pro football game.
I know all about fan hate. I used to be a Redskins fan in the military, and there was no shortage of trash talkers in the group of Dallas fans, some of whom I grew to “hate”. I am not a trash talker by nature, and am more that sympathetic and conciliatory when the team I follow beats another team. Consequently, when Dallas used to beat the Skins, I would be subjected to a barrage of teasing and trash talkng the following day. I always vowed to return the favor, but when the opportunity came...I could never follow through on it.
With time, I realize those people were just doing what they enjoyed doing...trash talking was just part of it all, the way breathing is for humans, and lying is for liberals.
The bottom line is...I needed to distance myself from caring about the result so much that it would eat at me. Not healthy. So I stopped watching football for serveral years completely, after about twenty years straight of fanatical watching. I started again in the mid-late nineties, and found I could watch the Patriots and enjoy football, not being heart and soul eaten up with it. Now I can enjoy it for what it is...a game. I am much more objective, and can appreciate the efforts of the other team and the shortcomings of my own without making it personal.
If the Pats win or lose in the Superbowl, the sun is still going to rise and set, and the world will still spin.