Posts by Taylor Doyle52

urbanhawk10 said:Why are you being so contradictory?🤷The Theft regarding your cup happened twelve years later, and since Zoran Varvodic was the one who handed us the trophy, that’s where the conversation ends. Honestly, isn't it just easier to whine about a stolen cup than to actually admit how harmoniously you were cheering alongside those guys at that same event, using that classic "turn the other cheek" method to avoid looking bad?

Oh sure, we were all just hugging and kissing each other, weren't we? We've always been brothers because we've basically functioned as their little affiliate branch forever, playing against the Kansas City Chiefs whenever it suited them just to make sure the big powerhouse took the title... yeah, I know the whole drill. Since our roster was full of guys from that region, it's simply impossible for the Kansas City Chiefs to be anything less than perfect, right? Nobody in history has ever seen otherwise. If Seattle had somehow managed to win that game, wouldn't that have been treated as some massive conspiracy against the Chiefs because, well, we're the establishment, we cheer together, and all that? And the fact that Seattle is a smaller club, or that those guys would have cheered for Olympia or Sarajevo if it wasn't Seattle... none of that matters. As if any of that carries weight. Who even looks at the context of that era anymore? Apparently, the only thing that matters is looking at it through today's lens, after the war and everything else. Because, naturally, the Chiefs fans all showed up to that game in Belgrade back in '87 armed with nothing but whatever flags they could find, singing only about specific legends and nothing else. Meanwhile, God forbid we mention the tiny section of the stands where some guys were sitting who had actually shown up to the junior match right before that cup final..

If only someone had actually heard this legendary "joint cheering" or had a recording or anything at all... that would be truly fantastic. Those guys were rooting against you and for us. Yet, people try to spin it as some kind of "brotherhood." Brotherhood with whom? And if you want the tragedy to get even worse, the whole story doesn't even involve the Fleet. Personally, I think the Fleet proved exactly who they are and what they stand for during the war, and even before that, when we were heading out for away games against them.

Jason Brooks5 said:You corrected yourself pretty quickly there, so I guess I’m actually on board with what most people are saying in this thread.
I honestly can't tell if you were just being incredibly vague in that last post or if you were simply typing too fast to think, but man, you really managed to stumble into a total load of nonsense there! 😉

Personally, I could never bring myself to talk trash about my own hometown, because honestly, what is the point of trashing Seattle, Washington, D.C., or Indianapolis if you’re actually living in one of them? If someone can sit there and claim to hate the very city where they spent their formative years, made all their best friends, and maybe even fell in love... well, then that person is just incredibly vain, not to mention a complete freak or a total weirdo. And let me tell you, those guys from The 12th Man who have moved away to live in other cities still hold nothing but deep respect and honor for their new homes, regardless of the fact that they’ve taken their fair share of punches in the stands or constantly find themselves staring down empty wallets every time they travel back home to catch a Boston Red Sox game. 😉 Look, if I've got this wrong, please feel free to jump in and set me straight, guys.
Look, on the other hand, isn't it completely legitimate—and honestly just part of the whole fan culture—to scream your lungs out against the rival teams? I mean, you’re going to yell at the Boston Red Sox, and sure, I’m going to be right there screaming against Seattle, the New York Yankees, or even Indianapolis... we're fans, for crying out loud, not a bunch of delicate little flowers. And what about a club from a city that isn't even much bigger than your old stomping grounds in Seattle? They've got an entire army of die-hard fans and supporters spread across the whole country, which is a completely different ballgame altogether.Because no matter how ridiculous it might sound to some people, the Boston Red Sox were always a massive club, and they damn well still are! 😉

Can I please just have one single conversation around here without feeling like I have to walk on eggshells or sink down to the level of an absolute moron just to get a point across? Is that really too much to ask?

Look, I really don't want this thread about The Faithful to devolve into a massive debate about the Boston Red Sox, but since everyone has already started heading down that road, I might as well weigh in. You can't honestly sit there and claim the Red Sox are just a Miami thing, right? It’s the same logic—you wouldn't say the South is just San Francisco, and you certainly wouldn't act like the Golden State Warriors are only a local phenomenon. There are probably two million Floridians scattered across this country if you don't even count the folks living abroad, so why tie everything "Dalmatian" to one single city? Sure, maybe those Mississippians have their own little clique going on, but that's a whole different conversation. The reality is that the myth of the Red Sox being this massive, untouchable institution isn't just a Miami thing; it's fundamentally a Floridian thing. They are huge on an American scale, and arguably even internationally, but let's be real—wouldn't we all be saying "we need a powerhouse like the Red Sox back" if they were actually dominating the league right now? We all know they've taken a bit of a hit lately. Personally, I don't have anything against them, aside from that trophy they "inherited" back in '87, though I suppose we can't complain too much about that ourselves since we could have easily walked away with a win on penalties if we’d known what was coming.

Jason Brooks5 said:Does the city of Seattle hand out more welfare checks than any other city in America, making its residents obligated by default to support the local team out of pure pity and respect, or is there some other ridiculous logic at play here? Look, nobody hands me my bread on a silver platter; I earn it with my own two hands, working my tail off, paying my taxes, and fulfilling my duties to the state, which means I can cheer for whoever I damn well please—and that’s none of your business! Once you finally realize that all your life's frustrations aren't actually the fault of Georgians, Californians, Floridians, Midwesterners, or Plainsmen... trust me, life will be a whole lot easier, so why don't you just mind your own business and stop talking such nonsense? 😉

Stop bullshitting me; I never said people shouldn't root for other teams, because that would be insane, but I was specifically talking about this deep-seated hatred toward the city and the club in Seattle. I have plenty of friends who support all sorts of different teams, and it doesn't bother me one bit that they happen to come from somewhere else, because a person isn't responsible for their heritage, whether they're American, or whatever else. But when someone lives in a city they actively despise, surely you'll allow me to look down on them? Whether they are in Washington, D.C. or Warsaw, it's the same thing. I have nothing but respect for decent people, but harboring hatred for your own surroundings and refusing to embrace the culture where you've settled is something truly contemptible, and I'm always going to call that out. On top of that, when someone parades around town wearing the colors of another place, essentially exploiting the city's tolerance just to prove how brainless they are... well, I think we're looking at a "No pasaran" situation right there. As far as I'm concerned, those types should just head back to the hole they crawled out of, and I can guarantee nobody is going to miss them.

FoF Asks:
God, it’s hilarious how much those little blogs and all that other mindless trash really go to our heads, isn't it? Just look at us, absolutely inflating our own egos based on nothing but internet noise. 😍 At least our local hacks haven't spent years running around like absolute clowns, have they? 🤣 And don't even get me started on them dragging us for traveling to visit their crowd out in Chicago—as if they haven't been nowhere near our territory for two whole years! They’ve spent the last year dealing with all those internal shakeups and power struggles within their own group, yet somehow, they managed to scrape together two people to show up here this year. 😂

Man, I really miss those days back in the late 90s when we actually got along with that whole crew and the guys from the White Stones. It’s such a shame how someone decided to take that old "us against the world" mentality and twist it into this bitter "nobody is our friend" attitude, isn't it? Because honestly, that slogan was originally meant to represent us standing tall against those two rival clubs—clubs we should have been sharing a sense of mutual pride with. We had our group, they had their crew, and there was a certain respect there... you know? It feels like we’re seriously lacking that bit of positive spirit these days.

Honestly, I’m starting to think that all this radicalism—whether you want to call it nationalism, communism, or whatever label is trending this week—is just a massive outlet for deep-seated, latent hate politics, isn't it? It’s all just an excuse to go on a crusade to tear someone else down, isn't it? And just like that, they went ahead and completely nuked the entire fan culture. How do you even manage to kill off a whole scene like that?It’s the same story here at home as it is everywhere else in the world.

I mean, take that old local derby back in '96—man, what absolute chaos that was on the streets! You had flares everywhere, smoke bombs, flags flying, just this incredible, electric atmosphere... and all for a game that wasn't even that high-level, let's be honest. It was impossible to tell who actually had the upper hand on the pitch, us or them. But if you tried to stage that same matchup today? You wouldn't even pull 1,500 people through the gates. The chanting nowadays is just pathetic; a few extra flares would probably be more about pure spite than actually building an atmosphere. Honestly, you’d probably just end up with a hundred angry assholes showing up—including all those local sellouts—and it would be nothing but a total tragedy.

Honestly, I can’t help but feel that the leadership of the supporters' group bears a significant chunk of the blame for why that old-school fan spirit seems to have vanished from our city lately. It just feels like the current brass hasn't quite figured out how to manage things, and you can really sense this massive decline in energy, right? Maybe I'm off base here, though—I'm certainly not trying to point fingers at anyone specifically. I was actually part of the very first supporters' club back in the day before I eventually stopped paying my dues. Nowadays, I just show up and buy my gear, so I guess I'm essentially in the same boat. I’ve traveled all over the States following the team, even if I haven't been as consistent over the last four or five years... but man, those old trips were something else. I remember being in Miami for that '94 cup semifinal where there were maybe only a hundred of us, versus those big finals in Chicago where we had something like ten buses rolling in.

Look, as someone who’s been following this team for a long time now, I can honestly say we commanded way more respect back in the day than we do today. It didn't matter that our numbers were smaller then—in fact, we had a fraction of the crowd we have now—but both as a group and as a club, people actually took us seriously. I remember back when I was serving in the military in '92, if I mentioned I was rooting for our local side, people would give me this incredibly weird look, like I was speaking a foreign language? But fast forward to today, and the whole dynamic has flipped on its head. To be honest, it actually embarrasses me to see these local parasites living off this city every single day, taking their bread from our pockets, only to turn around and spit on everything we stand for by cheering for teams from the other side of the country just because of some misguided sense of tribalism or "heritage." But hey, that’s a whole different conversation, isn't it?

Honestly, I’ve gotta give props to all the guys heading out to the games today, though it would definitely look a hell of a lot better if they swapped out those Fred Perry polos for some actual club jerseys, wouldn't it? But hey, I guess fashion trends change just like everything else in this life. I still make it out to a match every now and then myself, but between the wife and the kids, my schedule isn't exactly my own anymore.

Is there anyone actually left out there for the team?