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The stages of being a fan who won't tolerate shitty performance from teams for which they root, Stanford Football fan living on the East Coast when game is after 10:30 ET style:
Excited and invested (2009 - 2017)
- Spend all day watching other games to see how Stanford stacks up to others
- Sleep is overrated and don't even feel tired at 10:30 because your enthusiasm keeps you awake
- Go on Cardboard after the game, watch post game interviews, because it's tough to just sleep after game, even it is 2am
- Pore through Box Scores and stats in morning, see how Stanford is doing compared to competition
- More Cardboard engagement about the game in morning, eagerly awaiting new polls
Still emotionally invested, but not excited anymore (2018 - 2020)
- Spend all day watching other games, wondering why Stanford can't be playing like other teams that look more impressive
- You feel tired and DVR the game to watch in morning, and do everything possible to avoid seeing score result until you've watched
- Watch the game and don't fast forward through more than commercial breaks, you still want the live TV experience
- Pore through Box Scores and stats
- Go on Cardboard on Sunday morning to engage in board discussion about it
Interested, but barely invested emotionally (2021)
- Spend all day watching games because you are a college football fan and Stanford's struggles can't take that from you!
- DVR the game, but don't want to waste another morning watching bad football, so you check the score before committing time to watch game. If it is a loss, you just delete recording. If it is a win, you watch, but fast forward through most of it.
- Pore through the Box Scores and stats
- Go on Cardboard after the game and do nothing but complain, because even a win isn't fun to watch
Interested because you always have been, but no longer emotionally invested at all (2022)
- You never imagined Stanford (and Cal) Football ineptitude could kill your passion for the sport, but here you are
- Watch other teams play, but can't stay for a whole game live, and use remote 10x less than you used to on Saturday
- Check the ESPN app just to see scores because you are really just curious what is happening, based on habit more than passion
- Find yourself DVRing Alabama-Tennessee just to make sure you see a great college game
- Don't watch or DVR the Stanford game at 10:30, and don't even think about it when going to bed
- See the score in the morning, but don't bother with Box Scores, don't care enough to read comments about the game or talk about the program on Cardboard anymore
I guess the fifth stage is caring about Stanford as much as I do Rice. Hopefully it wont't get to that point, but am not ruling it out. It's pretty much all up to Stanford's leaders to determine whether it does or not.