Quote:
Originally Posted by MJM
To me, that's not it at all. No one had a problem with Rider fans until about 5 years ago. It's not Rider Fans people have a problem with (there's a lot of intelligent Rider fans out there that care a whole lot about the CFL and the state of the interior league in general), it's the new breed of Rider Fan people (including most older Rider Fans) have come to loath.
This new breed of Rider fan is someone in the 20-27 demographic who has determined that the "cool" thing to do if you are from Saskatchewan is to get absolutely F'n bombed before, during, and after a CFL game and shout as abnoxiously as possible that you are from Saskatchewan the greatest place on earth (even though ironically they can't live there and sustain your line of work). They are straight out of the U of S, got their first 50K a year entry level job in the corporate sector of Calgary , and think their really important because of it. These aren't CFL fans, these are a bunch of drunken morons that would rather create a scene than enjoy a good football game. Older Riders fans are awesome, they've been through it all, been as low as you can get, seen their team on the brink of extinction, and stuck through it to the end. These new dults look at you like your lying when you ask them if they remember when Taylor Field was half empty and the Riders were on league life support. They are an embarassment to their team, the CFL, themselves, and more importantly the Province they seem to think in some twisted way they are supporting.
I know for a fact that in the midst of any Edmonton/Calgary rivalry it never got like this on either side. When a man I work with, a die hard Rider fan, refuses to bring his child to any game featuring the Riders you know something is wrong. Concidently enough, he has no problem bringing them to any other game of the year fully-decked out in their Rider gear. TSN can play up this "Great fan" BS for one of their key demographics all they want, but ask most fans in Edmonton, Calgary, and BC have had enough and their reputation is fast-spreading and it has nothing to do with the players on the field or their record either.
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Quoted for accuracy.
I have cousins that are Rider fans, around my age. They had no problem with the loveable losers role, and took everything in good nature.
Heck, one of them was as hardcore as they got driving 2h to every home game, painted up and shirtless for every game and for the 97 Grey Cup, and long time president of the Dan Farthing Fan Club (probably the only one, although he held that post long after Farthing retired). Talked to him a few months ago, found out he gave up his tickets a few years back, as Taylor Field was unbearable with all the dolts that have arrived on the scene in the past 4 or 5 years. Its who can be the drunkest and who can come up with the most creatively obnxious/degrading personal attack on an opponent player and repeat it at the top of their lungs.
This is in the home stadium that the inmates have overrun the asylum, let alone the ones that pile into the F150 and drive 2-4 hours west to go 5 to a hotel room in Motel Village, drink until they puke, and figure its a good idea to go grab at a cop's gun. Pretty sad to hear the stories my cousin was telling me, but having been to a few Riders games here in the last few years, its clear that the Rider fans that enjoy the actual football aspect of football games, are in the severe minority, at home and on the road.
Doesn't help that TSN and others sensationalize this behavior as "passion", as that just validates the behavior and the acts they do under the guise of "passion" in these dolts mind.
Just all be safe on the roads today and this evening, especially up in the NW and downtown. In my 8 minute walk downtown at lunch yesterday, saw 2 Sask license plate cars turn left onto 7th Ave, another 2 go through red lights cluelessly. This is before the booze started flowing (maybe not), and the Sask drunk driving slogan of "you're good as long as you keep it between the ditches", is often carried over to the big city.