I believed from day 1, hence my angst with all the people who were, and are, still hyper negative throughout the blog and in the game threads, especially.
You go to a bar to watch a game, you are surrounded by people wearing your team's colors, and you don't hear them screaming obscenities at the team they support. What you hear is cheers and talk of other games and how good a player is doing. As ND general chit chat
What I don't hear are comments denigrating the team calling them stupid, dumb, idiots, wussies, lazy, mentally weak......blah, blah, blah. Or attacking the coach, as so happens here.
Roy might think some here are fans but are just negative and it comes from a place of love. I don't. I think the place is full of generally negative trollish people who as an aside, like the Celtics.
Things and people I cherish and love, I do not treat poorly, denigrate them, insult them regularly or show no open, true love for. Treating the Celtics negatively, like a large contingent in this community does, and saying "well they deserve it." hits a little to hard and close to me being the former husband of a domestic violence advocate who heard everyday those same words from men/women that beat their significant others. "Oh I love her but she deserved it because..."