As the older I get , I have become more realistic about my fav teams expectations. Sometimes my friends say I'm too realistic about the upcoming seasons of any sport. Are you realistic , or always believe the team has a chance ? Or in the middle ?
I think every fan views themself as realistic. Generally speaking you'll enjoy the season a lot more if your expectations are low. Action movies/blockbusters are a good example of expecting absolutely nothing and sometimes being satisfied.
What does "realistic" mean? Try explaining that to Rice Fighting Owls fans like myself. Realistic about winning to us has nothing to do with how much fun we have at games. Then think about your High School sports. Who cares if you are a contender to win the title. It's your High School!! That sounds boring to me if your excitement is based on if your team can win it all or not. Sports is an entertainment. Watching the players play the game is what it is all about.
I've become depressingly realistic when it comes to Liverpool FC, but a championship could be very real for the Rockets in the next 3-5 years.
I think not getting into the Oilers and Rockets until junior high in the early '90s and then having to watch two of the greatest forwards of all time rot from the inside out a decade later, watching 35 years of dysfunction crest overnight into a feud with city hall, watching the SWC evaporate in the mid-90s after that horrible 4-way tie, watching fumbled punts at Robertson at the turn of the millennium and then moving to Omaha and hearing people carp about Solich and Callahan the whole time there might have scared me off of sports fandom altogether.
With sports fandom, "realistic" has become a new way of being cynical of your team's chances and being optimistic means you're a "homer" or "delusional".
