The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Have you ever done it?  Would you? Why?

I pointed out in another thread that a Dolphins win tonight benifits the Patriots. To whit this was the first response....


With said user name it is obvious that individual was also rooting against the fins in an earlier season to improve the draft pick slot.

I know of Jets fans who were open rooting for the Fins to beat the Jets week 17, to frustrate the Patriots playoff hopes.

While he would deny it now, I know a Patriots fan who was rooting for the Bills in 2002, because he was convinced Belichick traded the wrong QB.

Fans on this board have too, been accused of rooting against their purported favorite team to justify their predictions/complaints. 

I have seen "fans" root against the Dolphins in order to support their debate point that someone sucks or needs to get fired.  It happens all the time, most recently in the Henne/Sparano days ("suck for Luck").  I suspect it is going to happen again soon.  These "fans" are not really fans.  They are casual article-readers who just like to complain.  True fans have football IQ, know something more about teams than what they read in papers, and support their team in good times and bad.  True fans NEVER root against their own team.

I wanted us to lose in the Luck sweepstakes.  I still wish we had.  I don't think that makes me a bad fan, but we've been over this.

Now, Luck is going to be a superstar, but we won a meaningless game 3 years ago.  Yay!

My personal inegrity does not allow me to root against my team. While other have a valid argument against it, I personally feel it is not any better than an athlete/organization purposely throwing away games.

Dave may think it is a meaningless win but as a competitor, no wins are meaningless to me.

I got your back on this one as I feel exactly the same way.

I have a quandary this year. Although we have other needs there is a certain defensive end coming out that is a beast and a game changer. If we keep going down this road I might be rooting to drop for him.

I can't root against my teams, however there are situations where I'm not disappointed if they lose.

I think this is a pretty short-sighted way to interpret things.  With the exception of "trying to prove a point" (e.g. tepop rooting against Ronnie Brown), you can root for a loss today that is in the long-term best interest.  Do you think a WSH fan that just wanted to pull RG3 in the playoffs last year and pack it in was "not a true fan"?  It's not a crime to look further ahead than the next game.

That being said, I would not bother to watch a game that I wanted the Dolphins to lose.

Here is the rub, you are just hoping it is in the long term best interest. During this "era of futility" we have been mired in, the Dolphins have had season that landed them the #1 and #2 picks and seen little to no improvement (they have now also traded up and taken a #3 pick during these lean years). How many more seasons of #1 & #2 picks does it take?

I think you and I have debated this enough in the past, but losing today does not equate to success tomorrow. Therefore I say win all you can.

I agree with that.

Lets say it is your personal opinion that Tannehill is the worst QB the Dolphins have had since George Mira.  And are therefore rooting for him to do poorly so that the Dolphins get a new QB.

Wouldn't it be better to be rooting for him to have an huge transformation instead?  (Peyton Manning sucked his first season)

My opinion, you are a shitty fan if you want your team to lose for any reason.

Really?  Am I a shitty fan?

I watch every game even when we are terrible, I buy Dolphins gear worth probably tens of thousands of dollars over my lifetime, I have had season tickets multiple times, I create and run a website that I visit daily to pour my love into the team.  I cried when we got our one win in the 1-15 season.  ...but I'm a shitty fan because I see our path to success coming from a different direction than you do?

That just comes off as ridiculous to me.

I honestly was hoping for Luck.  I really felt he was the best QB prospect coming out of college that I have ever seen.  By that, I mean he was the one I felt was the most certain to be a great QB.

I think I was right.  I wish we would have lost and gotten him.  He could have been a player to truly build a winner around.  With Tannehill, I worry too much about what is going to happen when you take him out of this offensive system.  And it isn't like he is all that impressive in the system (which is the only one he has ever known).  With Luck, he is good enough to make any offensive system work.

So I suppose I was rooting against them a bit for a while there.  Although I must admit, I would cheer when they made a good play (couldn't help it).  Once we started winning, I gave up on Luck and started rooting for the team to win again.

My main take away was this...  You can root one way or another with your head but the heart isn't so easilly swayed.

In the finale against the colts in 2006 I rooted for the Colts to win so they'd get homefield if they met the Patriots in the playoffs

This about sums it up for me....I never wish for my teams to lose and I watch and hope for the win.....if they lose in certain scenarios I'm not completely pissed like I am at other times.

Here's the thing:
1) You might think your team sucks, but if they pull off a few nice late wins, you might get a playoff berth.  Of course it depends, but this year, nothing is for certain.  The #6 spot is wide open. 
2) Once you get into the playoffs, all bets are off.  Anyone can make it.
3) There's no guarantee that the Dolphins, with the #1 pick would pick Andrew Luck
4) There's no guarantee that, if the Dolphins pick Andrew Luck, he pans out to be great.
5) There's no guarantee that, if the Dolphins pick Andrew Luck, he doesn't get injured and end his career early.

Thus, I'm not a fan of giving up this early in the season, with the playoff situation so wide open, to MAYBE get a CHANCE at POSSIBLY getting a POTENTIALLY good player.  To me, unless it is a guarantee that we win the Super Bowl, its not worth giving up for.

I'd rather see them not even show up for the game and forfeit every week, than show up and lose on purpose.

Where does this notion that Manning sucked his rookie year keep coming from? He threw a ton of interceptions, but he also set 4 NFL rookie records:
Most touchdown passes: 26
Most consecutive games with a touchdown pass: 13
Most games with at least one touchdown pass: 15
Most games with 300+ yards passing: 4

Manning didn't have some huge transformation. He was setting records in his first year and a Pro Bowl-er in year two. People get all caught up on the INTs, but he was light years ahead of anybody Miami has had in the past decade. I could totally see how you'd pull for Miami to win the Luck sweepstakes. At the rate they're going, though, they will be able to try again in a few years. -EK

^^^^ Curious that you decided to respond to a tangent than the thread question given your history. 

Why is that curious? It's consistent with my "history" insofar as people love to point to Tannehill's poor development and say, "well Manning stunk his rookie year, too," when, in fact, he had one of the better rookie seasons for a QB in recent memory. -EK

Wanting your team to lose is, in essence, giving up on your team.  Wanting them to win or lose is not going to affect the outcome, so why not root for them to win, and let things play out?  I find it ridiculous that you or anyone would want to root against your own team.  My opinion may not be very popular, but that's what I believe.

If Ryan Tannehill doesn't get it together next year, it may be wise to "Lose A Ton for Winston"

^^^^

I hate those slogans

yeah none of them are funny. Suck for Luck was cute and clever.... ever since they are all lame

 
You may be right but the more I see Famous Jameis play, the more I want to have him in aqua and orange in two years.

It's only weird if it doesn't work. ;)

I wouldn't want to lose on purpose for a player.  ...and I wouldn't even want us to lose at any other time.  But I think Luck is a once in a generation talent that would've made us immediately relevant.  Of course, I could be wrong about him and we could turn out fine without him. 

But it's not giving up.  I am still rooting for big picture success.  I just think that you needed to take a step back to take two steps forward.

I won't root against my own team.....but I would say that in order these are the least valid reason to root against your own team:

1) Losing will hurt a rival.  (E.g. rooting for the Bengals last night because a Dolphin's win helps NE's hopes for a bye)  This is doubly bad if you have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the post-season. 

2) Losing will prove you right.  (E.g. a Patriots fan rooting for the Bills because he thought BB traded the wrong QB in the 2002 off season)

3) You want a player/coach you don't like fired. (E.g. Rooting against the Dolphins b/c you hate Ireland or Tannihill.)

4) Improve your draft position.  (Suck for Luck)

5) You like the post season match up that a loss would create.  (See NE 2005 vs Fins) a loss resulted in them hosting Jax instead of Steelers.    (I was still rooting for NE to win, but I am not sure if BB was)

Dolphins fans need to read #3 and realize what they are doing.  Good list.

I think there is a fair amount of #2 going on as well. 

Agreed, but its slightly different if, let's say, the Dolphins played the Lions and you are rooting for Reggie Bush to run for 300+ yards and 5 TD's...  The spirit is the same, though, if you are rooting for Tannehill to throw picks.

It really comes down to your motivation......

If you were rooting for him in 2012 and have only now concluded he sucks it is #3

However, if you started  rooting against him back in 2012 b/c you didn't like the draft pick it is #2, not #3.   

I think that, in very limited cases, #3 is legitimate.  I feel that Jet fans should've rooted against Tebow.  His success meant that they were going to be in toilet for a long time.  The faster he sucked and got canned, the better off they were going to be.

Of course, I made this point in the pre-season, but the idea is much the same.

Similarly, at what point should a Chargers fan be "allowed" to root for Norv Turner to get fired?

I don't buy that.  The best case scenario for the Jets was not Tebow being cut, but developing into a great passer.

^ Right, of course.  But if you're like me, and you recognized early that Tebow was never going to be a good passer, you're better to cut bait.

Never.  Chargers fans should be rooting for Norv to be hoisting a Lombardi on February 2, 2014.  

Let me ask you a question:

Would a NEP fan been justified in rooting for the quick demise of Bill Belichick after his 5-13 start, having previously being fired from Cleveland with a 36-44 record going into a game against the Colts with a 6th-round-pick backup QB, figuring having him go 0-16 would mean a new coach rather than have him eek a meager enough recovery to keep his job for another year?

I'm missing something...

Why would Chargers fans want Norv Turner holding up the Lombardi trophy?  He's the O coordinator for the Browns ( or something ) nowadays.

This is the definition of many Dolphins' fans. No Super Bowl in the first 2 seasons means you get fired and the team starts all over.

I think we are talking about 2 different things here. It's one thing to root for a guy/team to do well and it's another to completely ignore the situation.  I always WANT the Dolphins to win, but if it's week 17 and there's absolutely NOTHING to be gained from a win whereas a loss may help your draft position or some other circumstance I think it's acceptable to accept a loss as a positive outcome.

 
Fixed that for you, but I knew what you meant.

After one year as the coach in NE?  I'd say no.

Now let me ask you this:

Should a MIN fan have been rooting for their team to lose in week 16 of 2011, knowing that a #1 or #2 draft pick would have either resulted in a highly-touted QB or an incredible windfall of draft picks?

Nope, a team isn't made up of one rookie.

I would rather have 53 MEN that still have enough pride to put on a winning effort even after being eliminated from the playoffs and are showing improvement than a better draft position. 

But STL didn't get "one rookie" from the RG3 trade.  DAL also got more than "one rookie" in the Herschel Walker trade and it seemed to be significant.

I already asked this question: should fans have wanted Shanahan to keep RG3 in the playoff game last year?  When Jake Long was first injured in 2010, a lot of fans thought Sparano should hold him out and make sure their prized LT makes a full recovery, even if it means a loss.  Are these people also not "true fans"?

How far does this "win today, screw tomorrow" mentality extend?

Entirely different issue.  Rooting for your team to lose vs. protecting an injured player.

Both are cases of "I want the team to win the game today, no matter how it impacts the future."

If that's the definition of a True Fan, then count me out.

They are too totally different things. 

Interesting question.  The only time I ever even considered rooting against my favorite team was during the "suck for Luck" days.  But when push came to shove, on game day I just couldn't bring myself to want the Fins to lose.