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BroncoWave
09-04-2009, 03:55 PM
I'm posting this in smack so I can rag on Rick Riley.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4439324


By Rick Reilly
ESPN The Magazine

As you know, operators are standing by here to solve all your sports questions, up to and including whether Joe Paterno voted for Lincoln.

Here's today's:

Dear Rick,
I was hoping you could settle a moral dilemma I am having. I have been a Broncos fan since the early '90s. I still think Mike Shanahan is a genius, and have always disliked anything stemming from the Belichick tree. I was also a big Jay Cutler fan. At what point does it become OK to disown a team when you feel they are no longer headed in the right direction? Can you be considered a fair-weather fan if you root for the Bears? -- Amery Curtis, San Diego

Dear Amery,

No, you would not be a fair-weather fan.

You wouldn't be any kind of fan. You'd be the kind of hairball that hairballs cough up. You would be lower than the crawl space under a flounder's basement.

You can't just bolt your team because you think it's going to suck. (Which the Broncos are. There is no debating that. They are going to lose more than France. Just because you worked under Bill Belichick and you wear your sweatshirt like Bill Belichick does not mean you are Bill Belichick.)

Your team is like your dog. You cannot just leave it because it's getting a limp and stares at the tennis ball you just threw.

You cannot just disown your team because it's going to start getting beaten like Denny's eggs.

Or because it signed somebody you hate or traded somebody you love.

Nor can you just up and bounce because you married Matthew Stafford's sister.

Or because you got transferred to another city.

Or because your team went 0–16 or couldn't beat a group of Lutheran ministers or has an owner who wears bad bow ties and wouldn't know a coffin corner from a coffee can.

Nor can you leave because your boys got caught cheating. In fact, you should feel shame. Their insecurity in trying to hang on to your fickle fandom caused them to cheat in the first place.

Your team is not a girlfriend. You are with it through thick and thin. Or, in the case of the Pittsburgh Pirates, through thin and thin. You must buck up and take the Ortons with the Cutlers. In sum: Grow a pair.

In fact, there are only 10 Officially Sanctioned Reasons You Can Abandon Your Lifelong Team for Another. There are these and only these. Everybody else needs to just drink their beer and shut up:

1. You actually play for that new team. In this case, you must still wear the cup of your old team during games.

2. You purchased that new team. However, you must have had a damn good reason for purchasing a rival. Michael Jordan can buy a piece of the Charlotte Bobcats because the Charlotte Bobcats can't win if locked in a gym with three pygmies. But if Jordan bought the Detroit Pistons? Bonfires of Air Jordans everywhere.

3. Your team hired male cheerleaders.

4. Your town's law enforcement permanently banned you from coming within 500 feet of your team's players, staff or stadium. Sure, sure, we know it was all a big misunderstanding. You were parked outside Peyton Manning's house with a telescope and three months of detailed charts because you are his personal astrologist.

5. Your spouse cheated on you with somebody from your team. With a starter, not some backup, coach or crappy PR intern. And you had to find out by some stomach-turning means, such as skywriting.

6. Your team is approaching its 50th year of one-family ownership and still hasn't won diddly. This is known as The Darwin Rule and allows you to escape, free of charge. Good example: The Fords of Detroit. No wonder 10 of the 22 declared NFL fan free agents at Fan-Free-Agency.com are ex-Lions fans.

Rule 6b. Your owner still wears Members Only jackets. His initials are Al Davis.

7. Your team's home games are no longer televised. You are free to go, Jags fans.

8. Your team folded or left town. In this case, you are automatically an unrestricted fan free agent and can immediately put yourself up for bid. A writer named Scott Soshnick did this recently with every big-four franchise. Only nine wrote back. But one -- the Golden State Warriors -- had 28 employees send him we-want-you e-mails, mailed him a jersey with his name on it, sent a DVD with rookies wearing that jersey, signed him to a $1 lifetime contract and wrote a mock press release announcing a new fan acquisition.

9. Your team changed its uniforms to teal.

10. Your team is the Cubs. Seriously. Go already.



First of all, he pretty much uses this article as a platform to drag on the Broncos (because apparently he hasn't done that enough this offseason) then he pretty much contradicts everything he said in the article in his list at the bottom of the article.

Seriously, how does anyone still take this joker seriously?

Ravage!!!
09-04-2009, 04:15 PM
I don't see the problem with the article??

He said the guy is lower than scum for even suggesting that he jump ship of the broncos, then makes fun of a bunch of other teams and franchises in all different sports to give the ONLY reasons you might be able to leave.

DIdn't seem like it was that big of an attack on Denver. MOST anyone outside of the Denver fandom believes we will be a 3-4 win team this year.

Slick
09-04-2009, 04:21 PM
A guy asked his opinion, he gave it. I don't see the big deal.

Dortoh
09-04-2009, 04:26 PM
I found it rather funny

NightTrainLayne
09-04-2009, 04:28 PM
I haven't been to fond of Rick Reilly lately, but this is actually a good article.

I imagine that he's been accused just a few times this off-season of being a fair-weather fan. And he's letting us know that he is still true to the Orange-n-Blue, even if he's critical of our coach and off-season moves.

He'll come around when we start winning.

Slick
09-04-2009, 04:32 PM
I haven't been to fond of Rick Reilly lately, but this is actually a good article.

I imagine that he's been accused just a few times this off-season of being a fair-weather fan. And he's letting us know that he is still true to the Orange-n-Blue, even if he's critical of our coach and off-season moves.

He'll come around when we start winning.

NTL, a man of wisdom and clarity...able to see through the smoke, cut through the fog, and read between the lines.

Northman
09-04-2009, 05:04 PM
I don't see the problem with the article??

He said the guy is lower than scum for even suggesting that he jump ship of the broncos, then makes fun of a bunch of other teams and franchises in all different sports to give the ONLY reasons you might be able to leave.

DIdn't seem like it was that big of an attack on Denver. MOST anyone outside of the Denver fandom believes we will be a 3-4 win team this year.

Yea, i didnt bother reading the rest because after he laid into the guy in question i figured he was spot on. Your either with the team when it goes bad or you dont. There are plenty here who are pissed but arent jumping ship because of it.

BroncoWave
09-04-2009, 10:45 PM
Yea, i didnt bother reading the rest because after he laid into the guy in question i figured he was spot on. Your either with the team when it goes bad or you dont. There are plenty here who are pissed but arent jumping ship because of it.

But then he says it's ok to jump ship if you're a Raiders, Jags, or Cubs fan. I just think the article reeks of hypocrisy and that his main reason for writing it was to just pile on the Broncos some more since he obviously hasn't taken enough shots at us this offseason.

Ravage!!!
09-05-2009, 12:04 AM
I know I haven't taken enough shots at us this offseason.....

Shutdown
09-08-2009, 09:31 PM
This was posted on another board and I thought you guys would enjoy this read.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you know, operators are standing by here to solve all your sports questions, up to and including whether Joe Paterno voted for Lincoln.

Here's today's:

Dear Rick,
I was hoping you could settle a moral dilemma I am having. I have been a Broncos fan since the early '90s. I still think Mike Shanahan is a genius, and have always disliked anything stemming from the Belichick tree. I was also a big Jay Cutler fan. At what point does it become OK to disown a team when you feel they are no longer headed in the right direction? Can you be considered a fair-weather fan if you root for the Bears? -- Amery Curtis, San Diego

Dear Amery,

No, you would not be a fair-weather fan.

You wouldn't be any kind of fan. You'd be the kind of hairball that hairballs cough up. You would be lower than the crawl space under a flounder's basement.

You can't just bolt your team because you think it's going to suck. (Which the Broncos are. There is no debating that. They are going to lose more than France. Just because you worked under Bill Belichick and you wear your sweatshirt like Bill Belichick does not mean you are Bill Belichick.)

Your team is like your dog. You cannot just leave it because it's getting a limp and stares at the tennis ball you just threw.

You cannot just disown your team because it's going to start getting beaten like Denny's eggs.

Or because it signed somebody you hate or traded somebody you love.

Nor can you just up and bounce because you married Matthew Stafford's sister.

Or because you got transferred to another city.

Or because your team went 0–16 or couldn't beat a group of Lutheran ministers or has an owner who wears bad bow ties and wouldn't know a coffin corner from a coffee can.

Nor can you leave because your boys got caught cheating. In fact, you should feel shame. Their insecurity in trying to hang on to your fickle fandom caused them to cheat in the first place.

Your team is not a girlfriend. You are with it through thick and thin. Or, in the case of the Pittsburgh Pirates, through thin and thin. You must buck up and take the Ortons with the Cutlers. In sum: Grow a pair.

In fact, there are only 10 Officially Sanctioned Reasons You Can Abandon Your Lifelong Team for Another. There are these and only these. Everybody else needs to just drink their beer and shut up:

1. You actually play for that new team. In this case, you must still wear the cup of your old team during games.

2. You purchased that new team. However, you must have had a damn good reason for purchasing a rival. Michael Jordan can buy a piece of the Charlotte Bobcats because the Charlotte Bobcats can't win if locked in a gym with three pygmies. But if Jordan bought the Detroit Pistons? Bonfires of Air Jordans everywhere.

3. Your team hired male cheerleaders.

4. Your town's law enforcement permanently banned you from coming within 500 feet of your team's players, staff or stadium. Sure, sure, we know it was all a big misunderstanding. You were parked outside Peyton Manning's house with a telescope and three months of detailed charts because you are his personal astrologist.

5. Your spouse cheated on you with somebody from your team. With a starter, not some backup, coach or crappy PR intern. And you had to find out by some stomach-turning means, such as skywriting.

6. Your team is approaching its 50th year of one-family ownership and still hasn't won diddly. This is known as The Darwin Rule and allows you to escape, free of charge. Good example: The Fords of Detroit. No wonder 10 of the 22 declared NFL fan free agents at Fan-Free-Agency.com are ex-Lions fans.

Rule 6b. Your owner still wears Members Only jackets. His initials are Al Davis.

7. Your team's home games are no longer televised. You are free to go, Jags fans.

8. Your team folded or left town. In this case, you are automatically an unrestricted fan free agent and can immediately put yourself up for bid. A writer named Scott Soshnick did this recently with every big-four franchise. Only nine wrote back. But one -- the Golden State Warriors -- had 28 employees send him we-want-you e-mails, mailed him a jersey with his name on it, sent a DVD with rookies wearing that jersey, signed him to a $1 lifetime contract and wrote a mock press release announcing a new fan acquisition.

9. Your team changed its uniforms to teal.

10. Your team is the Cubs. Seriously. Go already.


This is probably the best thing I have ever read.

MOtorboat
09-08-2009, 09:35 PM
The search function does work.

dogfish
09-08-2009, 09:38 PM
The search function does work.

oh, come on MO-- the fan police code from rick reilly himself is such a work of pure brilliance, it deserved another thread. . . .

i wouldn't be suprised to see this one get a nobel peace prize. . .

dogfish
09-08-2009, 09:39 PM
dang, mods got that one wit da quickness. . . .



:applauds:

MOtorboat
09-08-2009, 09:40 PM
oh, come on MO-- the fan police code from rick reilly himself is such a work of pure brilliance, it deserved another thread. . . .

i wouldn't be suprised to see this one get a nobel peace prize. . .

Yeah, well, I've been known to be the fan police...so fear the law, bitch.

frauschieze
09-08-2009, 09:41 PM
:bows:

CrazyHorse
09-08-2009, 09:48 PM
Being pissed at bad decisions being made is part of being a fan.
I'm not abandoning my team just yet though.
I will however support my home team now that they have their rival's biggest star. See below.

CrazyHorse
09-08-2009, 09:50 PM
Yeah, well, I've been known to be the fan police...so fear the law, bitch.

If you are the Fan Police can I be the "Dream Police"!?!

girler
09-08-2009, 09:56 PM
But then he says it's ok to jump ship if you're a Raiders, Jags, or Cubs fan. I just think the article reeks of hypocrisy and that his main reason for writing it was to just pile on the Broncos some more since he obviously hasn't taken enough shots at us this offseason.

Are you a Cubs fan? :shocked:

BroncoWave
09-08-2009, 10:03 PM
Are you a Cubs fan? :shocked:

Nope, not at all. I casually follow the Red Sox but I'm not a big baseball fan.

BroncoAV06
09-08-2009, 10:14 PM
What I love is how every media member gets thrown under the bus if someone does not agree with what they say. Whats the point of being a writer, host, if you don't stir things up? People have opinions that others don't.

MOtorboat
09-08-2009, 10:17 PM
What I love is how every media member gets thrown under the bus if someone does not agree with what they say. Whats the point of being a writer, host, if you don't stir things up? People have opinions that others don't.

There are a lot of things that people just don't get...

BroncoWave
09-08-2009, 10:28 PM
What I love is how every media member gets thrown under the bus if someone does not agree with what they say. Whats the point of being a writer, host, if you don't stir things up? People have opinions that others don't.

It's not about disagreeing with what he says, it's about him contradicting himself in his own article. And I have every bit a right to call him out for it as he has to write it.

MOtorboat
09-08-2009, 10:30 PM
It's not about disagreeing with what he says, it's about him contradicting himself in his own article. And I have every bit a right to call him out for it as he has to write it.

And I have every bit of right to call you out for posting what you post, as you have posting what you post.

Irony at its best.

BroncoWave
09-08-2009, 10:38 PM
And I have every bit of right to call you out for posting what you post, as you have posting what you post.

Irony at its best.

I never said you didn't? :confused:

You're the one who started this ridiculous line of reasoning instead of, god forbid, sticking to the topic at hand.

But as for the topic, I just think it was another downright shitty article from the high horse of Rick Reilly.

MOtorboat
09-08-2009, 10:39 PM
I never said you didn't? :confused:

You're the one who started this ridiculous line of reasoning instead of, god forbid, sticking to the topic at hand.

But as for the topic, I just think it was another downright shitty article from the high horse of Rick Reilly.

Was it? Why?

Because you didn't like it...

Oh...wait...back to the question at hand...

BroncoAV06
09-08-2009, 11:05 PM
It's not about disagreeing with what he says, it's about him contradicting himself in his own article. And I have every bit a right to call him out for it as he has to write it.

You do. I was also making a general assumption as well. Alot of writers that have been down on the Broncos have been labled hacks and worthless as of late. But thats what articals are all about, disscussion.

Lonestar
09-08-2009, 11:21 PM
OK folks how about we get back to topic and not make this personal..

aberdien
09-08-2009, 11:29 PM
But then he says it's ok to jump ship if you're a Raiders, Jags, or Cubs fan. I just think the article reeks of hypocrisy and that his main reason for writing it was to just pile on the Broncos some more since he obviously hasn't taken enough shots at us this offseason.

I think most of it is a joke actually.

It is a positive message: If your team is rebuilding/gonna suck for a couple years then it's not a good enough reason to stop being a fan.

It's just stating the facts, we're rebuilding, of course we aren't going to have much of a chance at anything this year. Doesn't mean you switch favorites.

Lonestar
09-08-2009, 11:35 PM
I think most of it is a joke actually.

It is a positive message: If your team is rebuilding/gonna suck for a couple years then it's not a good enough reason to stop being a fan.

It's just stating the facts, we're rebuilding, of course we aren't going to have much of a chance at anything this year. Doesn't mean you switch favorites.



well some will be because the reason for being a fan is gone.. whether that be a RB favorite a HC or in alot of folks cases QB..

some folks came here to be fans of the Superbowl champs some came for John, some TD, Rod and Eddie Mac..

but for the most part they became fans of the franchise..

some have not and frankly I'd rather see them bail and move on than constantly rag on someone because they are not John, jay, TD or mike.. let them move on to somewhere that makes them happy..

life is to short to be unhappy.. JMHO

weazel
09-08-2009, 11:45 PM
I'm posting this in smack so I can rag on Rick Riley.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4439324



First of all, he pretty much uses this article as a platform to drag on the Broncos (because apparently he hasn't done that enough this offseason) then he pretty much contradicts everything he said in the article in his list at the bottom of the article.

Seriously, how does anyone still take this joker seriously?

it was a joke... you see, some writers like to use... ahhh nevermind :tsk:

BroncoWave
09-09-2009, 12:24 AM
Was it? Why?

I've already said why on more than one occasion in this thread. :coffee:

Refer to posts #1 and 8.

NameUsedBefore
09-09-2009, 12:25 AM
I don't see what you're seeing at all, but my blind hatred of Rick Reilly agrees with you.

TXBRONC
09-09-2009, 08:02 AM
It's not about disagreeing with what he says, it's about him contradicting himself in his own article. And I have every bit a right to call him out for it as he has to write it.

I guess you didn't recognize that it was satirical.

Ravage!!!
09-09-2009, 09:38 AM
I thought it was just an article. Most of which was intended to be funny with humorous examples..... NONE of which were supposed to be taken seriously. Some simply don't like a guy because he said something bad about the Broncos in the past, and from that point forward everything they write is crap.

Same with posting on the message boards :lol:

scott.475
09-09-2009, 09:55 AM
Rule 6b. Your owner still wears Members Only jackets. His initials are Al Davis.


That one is my favorite. Who can argue that? :D:lol:

chris_rabz
09-09-2009, 10:21 AM
Being from where I am I don't get much experience of US reporters and journallists and therefore have no frame of reference for whether this Rick Reilly is a good or bad one. But I found the article to be quite funny, but yet speak the truth in a lot of ways. You say he was hypocritical by mentioning the Raiders, Cubs, Jags, etc, but I think it's quite obvious that's ironic humour.

I personally hate bandwaggoners and agree with a post earlier that said they'd prefer to lose the fairweather fans and stick with the loyal franchise-fans. We all know we probably won't be in the top slots this year but how many years have Broncos felt this way in preseason? I've followed them since 1996 and never felt this way once, which ain't bad going.

We need a rebuild but I think we have a lot more in place already than many teams who are in constant rebuild - Raiders, Lions, Rams, Browns for example.

TXBRONC
09-09-2009, 10:21 AM
I thought it was just an article. Most of which was intended to be funny with humorous examples..... NONE of which were supposed to be taken seriously. Some simply don't like a guy because he said something bad about the Broncos in the past, and from that point forward everything they write is crap.
Same with posting on the message boards :lol:

Yeah this played over and over again.

BroncoWave
09-09-2009, 12:12 PM
I thought it was just an article. Most of which was intended to be funny with humorous examples..... NONE of which were supposed to be taken seriously. Some simply don't like a guy because he said something bad about the Broncos in the past, and from that point forward everything they write is crap.

Same with posting on the message boards :lol:

I've never said that either. I've read a couple of his articles this summer that have nothing to do with the Broncos that I've thought were just plain dumb. I just think Reilly is a shitty writer, that's all.

West
09-09-2009, 01:34 PM
Article seems fine to me. Original Poster is over reacting.

smith49
09-09-2009, 03:56 PM
well, im not going to read through everyones reply so if i repeat something allready said,

sorry. anyow, i like rick riley. i also thought that this article was pretty funny. fact is,

the broncos are looked at as a team that is in a big tailspin right now. i hope, as a fan

that the broncos can turn an awful off season into a good regular season, but im not

sure if they can. i also find it funny that the fan that asked the question is from

sandiego. could you get anymore of a fairweather fan city then s.d.? im sure he used to

be a charger fan, i wonder why he has not allready jumped ship back to the bolts since

they have been good for a few years now. anyhow, i thought it was funny, no harm

done if you ask me.

Northman
09-09-2009, 04:09 PM
I personally hate bandwaggoners and agree with a post earlier that said they'd prefer to lose the fairweather fans and stick with the loyal franchise-fans.

Its going to be very nice getting rid of some of the parasites in the fanbase. Its like eating a bran muffin and having a cleansing. And its quite obvious even on this board who will be here and who will be gone. :D