Last week, Bleacher Report senior writer Sean Crowe penned a piece stating he was disowning the Boston Bruins, which brought about a huge discussion.
This brings me to the question: Is it okay for a fan to disown a team during its struggles? Or should he or she stick with it through thick and thin?
Personally, the Boston Red Sox were my team during my childhood. Alas, because of the so-called Curse of the Bambino there would be annual talk that each year was a rebuilding year for Boston.
I'd root for Tom Brunansky, Jeff Reardon, Joe Hesketh, and Greg Harris despite the fact they were at the tail ends of their careers or simply weren't that good. Seeing Reardon break the all-time saves record and being carried off the field at Fenway was one of the greatest Red Sox moments in the early 1990s.
It was devastating when the Red Sox didn't want to re-sign Wade Boggs, allowing him to go to the Yankees. (Boggs had hit .259 and Boston thought he was washed up.)
Instead, the Bosox decided to bring in a bunch of over-the-hill former league MVPs and playoff MVPs (Andre Dawson, Kevin Mitchell, Steve Avery, Dennis Eckersley, and Bret Saberhagen to name a few) who just didn't do much in Beantown.
Expansion teams like division rival Toronto had already won two championships. The Mets, who broke the Red Sox's hearts in 1986, had two. Even the Florida Marlins had a pair.
But 2004 changed all that. For good measure, the Red Sox went out and did it again last season.
Sure, going through all the lean years, the meltdowns, and the bonehead acquisitions just make the victories that much more sweeter.
But what about the Jeremy Jacobs-owned Bruins, the team Crowe was bashing?
I also cheered for the Bruins in the 1990s, and that team was just good enough to make the playoffs every year—but never great enough to win.
As a young fan, I wouldn't realize that ownership was happy just to put together a playoff-caliber team so that fans would keep showing up at Boston Garden. (It wasn't difficult to make the playoffs during an era in which 16 of 21-odd teams would make it. Just ask the 1980s Maple Leafs, who would have one of the NHL's worst records but still make the postseason.)
Spending money to actually go out and win the Stanley Cup? Not on the Bruins brass' agenda.
Still, the B's came close in 1990. They did again in 1991 and 1992, but the absence of a big-time goal scorer killed them.
Had the team gone out and added another big gun to complement Ray Bourque, Craig Janney (later Adam Oates), and Andy Moog, the B's might well have won at least one Cup.
Instead, the B's got rid of Moog, and the revolving door in goal never stopped. Jon Casey, Blaine Lacher, Bill Ranford, Jim Carey, Byron Dafoe, Andrew Raycroft, and so on. With Moog, the Bruins beat the Canadiens consistently and went to three straight conference finals and a Stanley Cup Finals.
Since Moog was traded, the Bruins have won just two playoff series. Two
6 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Derek Harmsworth 11 months ago
No I don't think a fan should. I understand Sean's frustration, but I really don't think Boston is worth giving up on.
They have proven they are now willing to spend money (see the signings of Chara and Savard)
I think if you take those two, add in Phil Kessel, and a healthy Patrice Bergeron. Combine that with Krejci, Lucic, Sturm, Kobasew, and a goalie crop that will consist of a healthy Manny Fernandez, and either Tim Thomas or Tuukka Rask, I think Boston is in pretty good shape.
They also apparently offered Marion Hossa a huge deal, but he didn't take it.
They're on the right path, they want to win, they're just trying to get the formula right.
On a side note, it's tough for the Bruins. The Red Sox's and the Pats take a lot of the spotlight. and the Bruins fans have stopped coming out to games. It's tough to play your heart out every night when no one shows up or cheers you on.
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Chris Hoeler 11 months ago
Its okay to start paying attention to other teams and rooting for them but to completely disown your team is something that a fan shouldn't do.
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john b 11 months ago
Such a great topic! A true fan sticks with his/her team through the good times AND the bad, otherwise you're just taking a trip on ye-ol' bandwagon.
Are there exceptions to the rule? Sure. When your team moves to another state you have the option of disassociation, but I think that's about it.
Does sticking with your team in the lean times mean you have to accept the faults? Hell no!
I have been a Los Angeles Kings fan for as long as I can remember. When was the last time they won a cup, playoff series, or even made the playoffs for that matter? (ok, we all know they have never won a cup. Thanks Marty!)
The largest part of being a true fan, a loyal fan, is the ability to give your team hell for their faults.
Take the Leafs for example. They have been in a playoff slump since 2004, with only 4 conference finals dating back to 1980. This by no means that the fan-base has had a significant drop, in-fact I would argue that the struggles have made the Leafs fans stronger. Toronto, unlike LA, is a hockey town. Fans don't put up with the crap. What do you think Cliff Fletcher or Paul Maurice's inbox looked like day after day? (Good luck to Ron Wilson btw, personally, I like that hire)
IMO, be pissed off, send an email, write a nasty letter, wear a bag over your head, watch the games at a bar instead of buying a ticket, but what ever you do, don't give up.
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Sean Crowe 11 months ago
Did the Red Sox ever under-pay their top player, convincing him it was best for the team, and then create a rule that no other player could make more money than him (the Ray Bourque rule)?
Did the Red Sox ever had a GM who wasn't paid to win games, but to turn a profit?
Did the Red Sox ever have a team that was one or two players away for YEARS, but completely refuse to spend the extra money to make a move?
Say what you want about the Red Sox, they were frustrating as hell, but they were trying. From management down, they wanted to win.
The Patriots before Bob Kraft were a better example. But you know what? Patriots fans stopped showing up and watching on TV, and forced the team to be sold (almost allowed them to move, but that's another story). If Bruins fans would do the same damn thing, this wouldn't be an issue. But Bruins fans are, without trying to be insulting, stupid.
The definition of stupid is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. Every time someone buys a ticket to a Bruins game, lining Jacobs pockets and further convincing him to keep his money making enterprise, they're proving to be stupid.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for thirty years, I'm a blithering idiot if I stick around.
My issue with the Bruins isn't recent performance, it's the history of an ownership that doesn't give a damn about the people who spend way too much money to support their team. It's about a Billionaire Bruins owner who's a Buffalo Sabers fan. It's about a team that helped push the NHL into a lockout, then came out of it completely unprepared to compete in the new NHL.
I've put more effort into the Bruins than ownership has in the last twenty years. All I ask is that ownership has the same drive to win that I have.
So until that changes, I'm a Chicago Blackhawks fan.
-Sean
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Real Fan 11 months ago
I've been a Bruins fan since 1971. I can see why someone would have wanted to give up on the Bruins in 2003. But it really makes no sense to give up on them in 2008. The idea that they should have beaten the Habs this season is just plain stupid; nobody who has been paying attention to the Bruins over the last few years would have expected it. This is a team on the rise, not one in limbo. The issue here isn't giving up on a cherished team. Its really about being a fickle fan who only pays attention at playoff time in the first place.
I hear it from ignorant and bitter fans all the time: Jacobs is cheap, he sucks etc. Yet after the lockout, which he had a big part of engineering, he has done everything right. He hired a new GM and there attitude, a new sense of class, new players, and a completely rebuilt team. With the salary cap there can no longer be any truth to his being cheap. So what does he need to do to get credit for any of this? What would it take, I wonder? The answer is obvious: a Stanley Cup would bring back the fickle fans. I say, who cares? The rest of us have been enjoying the reborn Bruins without you and when you all jump back on the bandwagon in the end it won't be nearly as sweet for you as it will be for those of us who have been on board all along since the teams rebirth.
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Mikey Tolvo 11 months ago
Iv'e been a Bruins fan for the whole 13 years of my life. I was frustrated to tears after game seven, but this last series showed us that the players want to win. Maybe the owner doesn't care, but the players and coaches do. This team is on the rise and in the future they are bound to win a cup. Maybe not near future, but its bound to happen.
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