Great post.
People get riled when the old timers (or others) play some version of the “not a real fan” card, and I do get that in some cases. Fans with reasonable and specific critical takes, based in reasonable expectations, are right to feel offended by such accusations.
It’s the ones for whom anything less than a conference championship appearance (or win, or Super Bowl appearance/win) is a failure that need to reassess and check themselves.
These men, coaches and players, even the ones who “fail” in the eyes of those outside the arena, are elite in the world at what they do. The years of work and sacrifice that they expend to be where they are today is something that 99.9% of posters here can’t comprehend, much less personally emulate. Yet these keyboard warriors easily dismiss their efforts in September without waiting to see the full body of work. Those posters are NOT true fans in my opinion, but rather typical “what have you done FOR ME lately” front runners .
It literally makes me sick to my stomach to lose to the Falcons, but I share that feeling WITH the team, not as blaming them for it. We have a team that plays hard, has high character, and is very beat up at critical positions. I ride with them, not in premature nitpicking of them.
Does DA’s horrible record in one score games bother me? Of course it does. But every year gives us a new team, and the jury is still out on this one; a team no longer carrying the anchor of Pete Carmichael (much as the 2009 team was free of Gibbs). Barring a total collapse and loss of the locker room, December is the time for “should he stay or should he go”, not before.