Nattering nabobs of negativism

[oldmanfan]

I struggle to understand this fan base sometimes.  Many seem to actively search for ways to downplay the team’s fortunes and/or denigrate specific players, management and such.  Examples include:

 

1.  Ragging on for years on Edmunds, then as soon as he leaves in free agency ragging on Beane for not resigning or replacing him.

 

2.  Ragging on Beane for not having a veteran guy behind Brown at RT,  then ragging on him because the guy he got retired (as if Beane should be Nostradamus) then ragging on getting Ifedi as if we were going to get an All Pro.

 

There are many such examples.  But the last 24 hours or so have taken the cake, because who are we negative on now?  Josh Allen.  And why?  Mainly because of two articles from the gasbag known as Jason Whitlock, the first of which he said was a lie, then the second of which he claims Josh doesn’t work hard enough and it’s supposedly well known.  Throw in an interview with MacAfee where Josh specifically states he watches a lot of film but qualifies what he takes from it, and all of a sudden it’s Josh that is why the Bills haven’t won a Lombardi.  It’s Josh who drinks too much (one incident with Kyle Allen), Josh who doesn’t work out, Josh who doesn’t spend enough time on football in the off-season (put your TV on and measure in minutes how long till you see Mahomes in a commercial).  Or Josh impregnating waitresses, which no reputable news source has validated.

 

All this leads me to ask:  what the hell is wrong with some people around here?  I am not saying Josh can’t improve.  He needs to continue learning to take the short routes, get the ball out quicker, etc.  but to claim he is now somehow the problem, that it’s his work ethic, that as one person said here that they don’t like Josh personally  as if he actually has ever met the guy?  Come on.

 

I have thought for quite a long time there are folks on this board that really want the Bills to lose so they can somehow crow on a message board that they were right.  I think some of the stuff we’re seeing is some bizarre defense mechanism people throw up as a guard should the Bills not win it all.  
 

Me?  I’ve been a fan since 1960 when I was 5 years old.  I will do as I’ve always done, enter the season with optimism and then see how things go.  Offer praise when merited as well as criticism when merited.  But to actively seek out reasons for negativism, even to the point of believing nonsensical crap to do so?  I don’t get it.

 

 

[Buffalo Boy]

Look

Josh clearly sucks!!!!

He is Beaner’s biggest miss.

Get over it.

[The Wiz]

Some people can't have nice things.

[Low Positive]

The entire line of discussion on this board right now is because we all want something so badly over which we have zero control. This is especially true of the "Josh doesn't watch enough film" threads. We start to worry that we want it more than the actual players. One thing that nobody actually talks about anymore is "what would have happened if McDermott had kept the pick and drafted Mahomes," but I have to think that this is the elephant in the room in all discussions about Josh. 

 

FWIW, I don't worry about any of this but I do find the psychology of this group of fans to be fascinating. I also see evidence of almost all of the cognitive biases that plague human cognition due to evolutionary psychology but that is best left undiscussed. 

Edited September 2, 2023 by FrenchConnection

[Johnny Hammersticks]

Not enough strip joints in B-Lo.  Clearly…

[Dan in Owego]

Come on Bill's mafia maybe tailgates should go to the full Monty 🤔

[Straight Hucklebuck]

It's not insane to conclude that Josh isn't as dedicated to his fitness when sequences on Kyle Brandt's basement go like this, and I'm paraphrasing here:

 

Kyle Brandt: What's up man, are you working out?

 

Josh Allen: Yeah (smiles) ... all the time

 

Kyle Brandt: Really? 

 

Josh Allen: All the time

 

Or later in the interview where he says that he has leaned on natural talent more in his past. 

 

Or when he talks about how Joe Burrow is "all-ball" when working with Palmer and Josh is cracking jokes. 

 

 

Then you see pictures of him and he's carrying a belly. 

 

Josh Allen HIMSELF came back to Buffalo and said he can do more and lead this team better. 

 

 

 

So it's not anti-Bills, it's not anti-Josh, it's not you really want the Bills to fail. 

 

It's this team hasn't won a Super Bowl. We're 0-4 in 60+ years of existence. 

 

And of course, in Buffalo luck, we get good just when the AFC is exploding with QB talent. 

 

And because the cap is strained, Beane has kept the 2020-2021-2022 team together as much as he possibly could (to his credit), one of the few levers this team has to get better before age catches up with them (Diggs, Von, Milano, Hyde, Poyer, White) is for Allen to take his game to another level. Since he's in Year 6 now and Sal C is running around saying he doesn't need a veteran QB anymore, he is the veteran, then his physical fitness is one avenue to possibly extract more performance. 

 

Nobody is saying they hate him or the Bills. 

 

That's classic embellishment. 

[BADOLBILZ]

 

Someone should start a thread to complain about the "blither idiots of fan negativism" who start threads like this one.

 

I enjoyed the contrived argument that the same people who complained about Edmunds are also the one's blaming Beane for not re-signing him............that was a really out-of-the-box take. 

 

 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

21 minutes ago, Buffalo Boy said:

Look

Josh clearly sucks!!!!

He is Beaner’s biggest miss.

Get over it.

"And one was made by Beane!  Jessica and I could have won the OBD Mixed Doubles tournament!"

[SCBills]

16 minutes ago, FrenchConnection said:

The entire line of discussion on this board right now is because we all want something so badly over which we have zero control. This is especially true of the "Josh doesn't watch enough film" threads. We start to worry that we want it more than the actual players. One thing that nobody actually talks about anymore is "what would have happened if McDermott had kept the pick and drafted Mahomes," but I have to think that this is the elephant in the room in all discussions about Josh. 

 

FWIW, I don't worry about any of this but I do find the psychology of this group of fans to be fascinating. I also see evidence of almost all of the cognitive biases that plague human cognition due to evolutionary psychology but that is best left undiscussed. 

I may be in the minority, but have zero care to think about “what if” we drafted Mahomes..

 

McDermott isn’t Reid. 
 

Beane hasn’t built the OL Mahomes has had for most of his career. 
 

We haven’t had a Kelce.  
 

Doesn’t mean McDermott/Beane are bad.. I’m not trying to bring negativity to an anti-negativity thread, but they aren’t the gold standard.. which so far, has been Reid/Veach.   And they’ve done things for Mahomes that we have not for Allen. 
 

Therefore, I have zero reason to think the Mahomes we see in KC is the one we’d see here.   
 

QB development/success has quite a bit to do with the situation they land in.   To give our staff credit, Allen being arguably the most physically talented QB to enter this league, may never have been unlocked if he didn’t end up with McDermott/Daboll for his first few years. 

[oldmanfan]

1 minute ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

It's not insane to conclude that Josh isn't as dedicated to his fitness when sequences on Kyle Brandt's basement go like this, and I'm paraphrasing here:

 

Kyle Brandt: What's up man, are you working out?

 

Josh Allen: Yeah (smiles) ... all the time

 

Kyle Brandt: Really? 

 

Josh Allen: All the time

 

Or later in the interview where he says that he has leaned on natural talent more in his past. 

 

Or when he talks about how Joe Burrow is "all-ball" when working with Palmer and Josh is cracking jokes. 

 

 

Then you see pictures of him and he's carrying a belly. 

 

Josh Allen HIMSELF came back to Buffalo and said he can do more and lead this team better. 

 

 

 

So it's not anti-Bills, it's not anti-Josh, it's not you really want the Bills to fail. 

 

It's this team hasn't won a Super Bowl. We're 0-4 in 60+ years of existence. 

 

And of course, in Buffalo luck, we get good just when the AFC is exploding with QB talent. 

 

And because the cap is strained, Beane has kept the 2020-2021-2022 team together as much as he possibly could (to his credit), one of the few levers this team has to get better before age catches up with them (Diggs, Von, Milano, Hyde, Poyer, White) is for Allen to take his game to another level. Since he's in Year 6 now and Sal C is running around saying he doesn't need a veteran QB anymore, he is the veteran, then his physical fitness is one avenue to possibly extract more performance. 

 

Nobody is saying they hate him or the Bills. 

 

That's classic embellishment. 

Someone posted a picture of Josh just to show you how fit he is, and you ignore it.  Why?  What possible reason do you have to do that?

2 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

Someone should start a thread to complain about the "blither idiots of fan negativism" who start threads like this one.

 

I enjoyed the contrived argument that the same people who complained about Edmunds are also the one's blaming Beane for not re-signing him............that was a really out-of-the-box take. 

 

 

Really?  Because the stuff about Edmunds has gone in all off-season.  Where have you been?

[Straight Hucklebuck]

1 minute ago, oldmanfan said:

Someone posted a picture of Josh just to show you how fit he is, and you ignore it.  Why?  What possible reason do you have to do that?

The one from the beginning of last year with Gabe?  Yeah I've seen it. He's standing there, arms crossed, with larger arms? 

 

[Augie]

I think 90% of the negativity comes from a vocal minority of a half dozen to a dozen posters. And we all know who they are. Many of you have at least some of them on “Ignore”, and I can’t blame you for that. 

[oldmanfan]

2 minutes ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

The one from the beginning of last year with Gabe?  Yeah I've seen it. He's standing there, arms crossed, with larger arms? 

 

If you can look at that picture and say he’s not working out then you have absolutely no objectivity.

[Buffalo Boy]

6 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

"And one was made by Beane!  Jessica and I could have won the OBD Mixed Doubles tournament!"

   In 2018, a Panther’s fan at work would send me the Kyle Allen and Josh Allen power rankings every week and tell me “ Not only did you pick the wrong Josh but the wrong Allen Also”

   How the tides turned😈

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

[Straight Hucklebuck]

Just now, oldmanfan said:

If you can look at that picture and say he’s not working out then you have absolutely no objectivity.

And if you can't listen to Allen describe his lack of working out, especially when it comes from his own mouth, then you have no objectivity either. 

[oldmanfan]

4 minutes ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

And if you can't listen to Allen describe his lack of working out, especially when it comes from his own mouth, then you have no objectivity either. 

Do you have any concept of sarcasm?  Kidding in an interview?  Just look at the guy.  
 

And if you look at guys like Brady or Manning, was it them being workout warriors that made them great?

 

You are looking for reasons to be negative and critical.  And I don’t understand why.

Edited September 2, 2023 by oldmanfan

[BuffaloBillyG]

I believe that for a lot of the consistently negative poster it comes down to a couple things.

 

1. I think it's fair to say more times then not roster moves tend to gravitate to either not working out well or being a minor improvement NFL wide. That goes for draft picks and FA signings. Statistically if you pan every move you will be right more times and can thus crow about how smart they are. And there is absolutely zero accountability for when they are wrong. Let's say someone like Harty goes off this year and has a monster season. All they have to do is say "Boy, fellas I've never been happier to be wrong." and then go on to the next move to pan.

 

2. I think a lot of people that are ultra negative also do so to protect their own feelings/emotions/outlooks. Lower expectations so they are mentally prepared for the worst when and if it happens. I see that with a lot of people that appear to lean way too much of their own personal happiness into team success.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

35 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

I struggle to understand this fan base sometimes.  Many seem to actively search for ways to downplay the team’s fortunes and/or denigrate specific players, management and such.  Examples include:

 

1.  Ragging on for years on Edmunds, then as soon as he leaves in free agency ragging on Beane for not resigning or replacing him.

 

2.  Ragging on Beane for not having a veteran guy behind Brown at RT,  then ragging on him because the guy he got retired (as if Beane should be Nostradamus) then ragging on getting Ifedi as if we were going to get an All Pro.

 

There are many such examples.  But the last 24 hours or so have taken the cake, because who are we negative on now?  Josh Allen.  And why?  Mainly because of two articles from the gasbag known as Jason Whitlock, the first of which he said was a lie, then the second of which he claims Josh doesn’t work hard enough and it’s supposedly well known.  Throw in an interview with MacAfee where Josh specifically states he watches a lot of film but qualifies what he takes from it, and all of a sudden it’s Josh that is why the Bills haven’t won a Lombardi.  It’s Josh who drinks too much (one incident with Kyle Allen), Josh who doesn’t work out, Josh who doesn’t spend enough time on football in the off-season (put your TV on and measure in minutes how long till you see Mahomes in a commercial).  Or Josh impregnating waitresses, which no reputable news source has validated.

 

All this leads me to ask:  what the hell is wrong with some people around here?  I am not saying Josh can’t improve.  He needs to continue learning to take the short routes, get the ball out quicker, etc.  but to claim he is now somehow the problem, that it’s his work ethic, that as one person said here that they don’t like Josh personally  as if he actually has ever met the guy?  Come on.

 

I have thought for quite a long time there are folks on this board that really want the Bills to lose so they can somehow crow on a message board that they were right.  I think some of the stuff we’re seeing is some bizarre defense mechanism people throw up as a guard should the Bills not win it all.  
 

Me?  I’ve been a fan since 1960 when I was 5 years old.  I will do as I’ve always done, enter the season with optimism and then see how things go.  Offer praise when merited as well as criticism when merited.  But to actively seek out reasons for negativism, even to the point of believing nonsensical crap to do so?  I don’t get it.

 

 

what gives you the right to judge how people want to be fans?
 

Some folks are inherently negative and clearly it harms you, some folks consider perpetual optimism in the face of insufficient results equally annoying. Some are critical.  Some times those critiques are antithetical. 
 

it’s all part of being a fan base. Take it or leave it, you aren’t changing it. Nor should it change.