Why I can't quit the Raiders

[haji81872]

This is the end of a great article written during the Covid era while a man was trying to replace sports with e-sports. I think his explanation of watching sport is on point and explains a lot. The collective memories through my life and experiences shared with all of you make it impossible to stop watching.

That, I think, is what sport is all about. If you follow a sport it becomes a thread which runs through your life and provides memories and narrative and meaning and context. Sport becomes a kind of companion, part of the richness and texture of lived experience. At the same time, you could argue that sport is the only thing on television that is real. The things you are watching happen are actually happening right now, as you watch. So much modern reality is mediated, packaged, predigested. This is obviously true for all forms of drama, but it is more subtly true of news and current affairs, where the effects can be more pernicious, because we’re seeing an image of the world which makes claim to be the real world. Sport isn’t like that. It is clearly artificial: it happens within a determined frame and a clear set of rules and in that sense is as mediated as human experience can be. But within that frame, when you’re watching live sport, you are watching reality as it really happens. It is perhaps the only completely, inarguably true thing you can see on TV. These events, which define the lives of the athletes taking part, are taking place while you watch.

You can have intense moments of feeling watching sport, just as you can have through reading or through drama or through art. The meanings it gives are both individual, because nobody else has seen exactly the things you’ve seen, and collective, because anyone with an interest in the sport has similar experiences, similar memories, and is connected to them, and to you, as a result. Esports give me none of that, which is the reason they can mean so much to people who play them, but nothing at all to me. And so although thinking about esports hasn’t made me get into esports – to be honest, if anything it has put me off – at least it’s made me realise where those thousands of hours have gone, and why. So thank you, esports. But also, respectfully, no thanks. I’m dancing with the one what brung me.

[SuperRaider]

My youngest son born in 96 is a Raider fan because of me. He of course never saw the great Raiders of the 70's and early 80's and was too young to see them lose to Tampa. All he's seen is the terrible team that I keep telling him every off season is that we should be improving. I'm not saying a word anymore....

Man your son has definitely got it tough; I am surprised he has not quit on the team

[Rabidraider]

Man your son has definitely got it tough; I am surprised he has not quit on the team

He's still on board, but rolls his eyes when I get optimistic.

[Tatum]

What year did Al Davis say: "The Greatness of the Raiders is in its future".

George Orwell anyone?

[Reno Hightower]

What year did Al Davis say: "The Greatness of the Raiders is in its future".

George Orwell anyone?

I think he underestimated his son's limitations.

[Xramfan]

The Turd (Carr) years drained me completely. Watching him quit after being benched was cute and all but nothing has changed.

I`m indifferent having more fun in here and chat than watching the actual games.

[raider_kin]

I`m indifferent having more fun in here and chat than watching the actual games.

Same here

[pfish57]

No doubt the Raiders are the laughing stock of the NFL & the whipping post of the sports pundits, and it's well deserved...it's comical at this point we are a Joke of a franchise in every way shape & form!!

[raider_kin]

No doubt the Raiders are the laughing stock of the NFL & the whipping post of the sports pundits, and it's well deserved...it's comical at this point we are a Joke of a franchise in every way shape & form!!

And after being the class of the league, and pro sports, for so long

[Raidersman321]

I won't quit being a fan. Been invested for way too long. Sat through some atrocious teams. Stayed up late to watch us get blitzed and wore Raideds gear the following week. I still have a Raiders logo in my office. I'll always be a fan.

All that said, I doubt I spend another minute watching this low life f[raiders_icon]cking team this year. And honestly, I doubt I'll invest any energy to watch much in the future. Call me a fairweather fan or whatever. Been through enough of this franchises bull shit to not earn that title. But enough is enough. Until some serious changes get made, I just don't care to watch anymore. No reason to sit around and watch an awful product. I see franchises like the Colts and Jags turn it around in a short period, yet we apparently take decades to turn it around. It screams incompetence at the top level.

[Reno Hightower]

I won't quit being a fan. Been invested for way too long. Sat through some atrocious teams. Stayed up late to watch us get blitzed and wore Raideds gear the following week. I still have a Raiders logo in my office. I'll always be a fan.

All that said, I doubt I spend another minute watching this low life fcking team this year. And honestly, I doubt I'll invest any energy to watch much in the future. Call me a fairweather fan or whatever. Been through enough of this franchises bull shit to not earn that title. But enough is enough. Until some serious changes get made, I just don't care to watch anymore. No reason to sit around and watch an awful product. I see franchises like the Colts and Jags turn it around in a short period, yet we apparently take decades to turn it around. It screams incompetence at the top level.

Look at the mess Denver was in following the Russell Wilson trade.
New England was in rough shape and as you said-look at the Colts.

All three teams are leading their divisions.


Decades and counting and this team is still a shit show.

[BoKnows81]

I won't quit being a fan. Been invested for way too long. Sat through some atrocious teams. Stayed up late to watch us get blitzed and wore Raideds gear the following week. I still have a Raiders logo in my office. I'll always be a fan.

All that said, I doubt I spend another minute watching this low life fcking team this year. And honestly, I doubt I'll invest any energy to watch much in the future. Call me a fairweather fan or whatever. Been through enough of this franchises bull shit to not earn that title. But enough is enough. Until some serious changes get made, I just don't care to watch anymore. No reason to sit around and watch an awful product. I see franchises like the Colts and Jags turn it around in a short period, yet we apparently take decades to turn it around. It screams incompetence at the top level.

Perfectly said

[Raidersman321]

Look at the mess Denver was in following the Russell Wilson trade.
New England was in rough shape and as you said-look at the Colts.


Decades and counting and this team is still a shit show.

Worst feeling is the actual hope we all had back in like 2015. Team finished 7-9 but damn we thought we had a future. Beat the Broncos in Denver with Mack having a ridiculous game; Amari Cooper looked like a great pick; Carr was off to a promising start as a younger QB; and swept the Chargers. Everything from that year through the Titans and Jets win in 2017 was promising. Then it all fell a part in Washington on SNF in 2017. I think Kirk Cousins threw a RB screen pass just to pick up a few yards, and our dumbass defense actually was fooled by it and they picked up like 30 yards. That right there is where I knew the franchise wouldn't build on any momentum. Same shit after 2021. You just knew it was such a fluke ass run to the playoffs.

Five steps forwards, 50 steps back. This organization holds the 'professional' moniker in name alone. It is not run like a professional franchise. It is run like some dip shit tweaking out on meth playing Madden with two elbows.

[Reno Hightower]

Image 15.jpeg

Worst feeling is the actual hope we all had back in like 2015. Team finished 7-9 but damn we thought we had a future. Beat the Broncos in Denver with Mack having a ridiculous game; Amari Cooper looked like a great pick; Carr was off to a promising start as a younger QB; and swept the Chargers. Everything from that year through the Titans and Jets win in 2017 was promising. Then it all fell a part in Washington on SNF in 2017. I think Kirk Cousins threw a RB screen pass just to pick up a few yards, and our dumbass defense actually was fooled by it and they picked up like 30 yards. That right there is where I knew the franchise wouldn't build on any momentum. Same shit after 2021. You just knew it was such a fluke ass run to the playoffs.

Five steps forwards, 50 steps back. This organization holds the 'professional' moniker in name alone. It is not run like a professional franchise. It is run like some dip shit tweaking out on meth playing Madden with two elbows.

I was at that game in 2015. It really made me believed that this team has arrived. Carr had an ugly outing but nutted up and threw a TD pass when we needed it. As you said Mack was on another level. It was the type of game that the Raiders would usually lose.

I actually tossed some of my Raiders shit after the Redskins game. It wasn't the loss but the feeling that the OL laid down deliberately. I thought about it and told myself that I wasn't going to let off the field bullshit take something away from me that I enjoyed. Besides, we saw some of the same shit after the 1987 strike.

The most difficult part to understand is how self inflicted this is dating back to the 2002 Super Bowl.

[Willmark]

I'm at the point with this "team" that they could be getting handed the Lombardi after winning the Super Bowl and I would still call them liars and it didn't happen.

That's how little trust I have in them now.

[3rd and Long]

Raiders fans have literally been born and reached legal drinking age while this dogshit franchise is still trying to get their shit straight.

That's beyond pathetic