A way to stop the insanity and lessen the pain: A reformed Chiefaholic's advice

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Pam Oliver's Forehead

Pioli and Cassel flipped my switch off. I feel no pain today.

I'm scared it's going to get flipped back next year, because Alex Smith gave me hope yesterday for the first time.

I was a rabid fan for most of my life. I got emotionally invested in the games and yelled and paced and stuff. The first chink in that armor was Greg Robinson's defensive debacles. But even then I cared immensely.

And then there was that horrendous Herm Edwards game against, who else, the Colts. Herm elected to play it conservative and punted to Manning in overtime, with the expected results. That game hardened my heart because I realized that I was rooting for a team that just wasn't very smart. I started to question why I cared. But even then I cared.

This year, it wasn't even about the Chiefs. It was about the league in general and how terrible the product is that they're selling to the public, and how crassly they're using my beloved sport as a mere moneymaking tool. I started feeling really uncomfortable around Week 7 or 8, and in Week 14 I laid out my "Crisis in Faith" thread. I have become determined to bring my level of caring down to a very low level, because it's just dumb to root for different divisions of a nationwide business conglomerate, and that's what we're doing.

It's going to be a hard habit to break, and that's what the NFL is relying on. But they've come out time and time again with messages that their ideal fan is someone who doesn't know much about football and who climbs on bandwagons. If that's what they're gearing their market toward, that's the type of fan we should all become in order to maximize our enjoyment.

If you follow a team through thick and thin, you're a dinosaur. The league is sending that message loud and clear.