Posts by John Richardson5

rustyangler122 said:It makes sense. Honestly, that’s exactly what we all need right now, regardless of where we stand.👍

Honestly, it’s all pretty straightforward.🤣

P.S. I have to say, I agree with everything Jerry Gray5 just wrote, from start to finish.

John Perez13 said:Look, feel free to share your thoughts, but before you start throwing around labels like "we aren't a group anymore, we're just a bunch of party animals," you probably need at least ten years of experience in the stands. You have to actually know this group from its early days back in the 80s to make an objective call like that. Otherwise, you end up looking silly. You say you "heard" the 06/07 season was "insane"... you can't make definitive claims based on hearsay. If you did, someone just a few years older than you who actually lived through 2005 or 2006 might tell you that in '07—your "insane" year—we actually suffered our toughest loss against Bielefeld since the group started, or how we used to travel in single vans out of Miami, or how we were never even heard at Yankee Stadium. And as for that Yankee Stadium mention, honestly, it's been completely ruined. If I showed you a photo of a different section from that same game, you’d see exactly what your "party animal" crowd looks like. 😉

The Ultras are currently right up there with the top clubs in Europe , but only if we stay SOLID and Unite as one !! The Red Army is only as strong as all our subgroups and the main core combined !!! Even the world's strongest army is useless if it's fractured ! ☕

I respect the passion, but this is total nonsense to me. Whether you're angry or not, talking about "dead rivals"—what does the Ultras have right now that others don't? What specific strength do we have that puts us at the top of Europe? If you're going to claim it, give me some actual arguments. Right now, we lack exactly what Due Leggi recently pointed out; until we fix that, we shouldn't be comparing ourselves to the best!

There aren't many people here who actually get the big picture. I guess it's almost pointless to debate this stuff on here; we could go on for days and get nowhere.

Jesse Garcia86 said:Some people go all out, others don't. I used to be way more intense about it, but now I've dialed it back, which feels pretty normal to me. Honestly, I’ve never really cared if someone wasn't as hardcore as I was. I did my thing because it's what I wanted to do. 😉

If it were actually "less" or "more," they wouldn't be lighting ten flares for 3,500 people—it would be at least 50.☕

Jesse Garcia86 said:Getting the entire North Side to cheer as one unit, pulling off a flawless choreo, and showing up in massive numbers for away games... it’s a tall order. And honestly, not every group can pull off lighting up every single match like that. Maybe it takes something more.If there’s one thing you can critique about the Raiders, it’s that one specific street everyone keeps bringing up—but honestly, fixing that is easy. You just have to grow some balls and get it done. Has anyone actually banned people from heading into town on game day to put on a show? Of course not, and they never will. I still remember my heart racing when we tucked away that second goal in Milan. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Then, two months later, someone comes along acting like everything we did was a failure. Let’s be real here; don't be foolish. Nothing is ever perfect, but if you look at where we were back in the 90s, we’ve gotten pretty close lately. I’m not against the younger generation—I never will be. They're the future, and this stuff is just part of the landscape. But if someone tries to tell me that everything has been handled perfectly, they're simply wrong.
P.S. Hey, don't go deleting anything. Unless you honestly think this whole thing is just one big lie, then sure, wipe it all. I guess we don't really have anything to hide or be afraid of anyway.If we want the Kansas City Chiefs to actually be legal and transparent, I guess it would be pretty hypocritical if we didn't hold ourselves to those same standards within The Group.

Look, I’m telling you straight up: most of this is just individuals acting on their own, not The Group. Aside from traveling to away games—which, let's be honest, only a tiny handful of people actually do—it's really just individual stuff. You know what I mean.😉😉

John Perez13 said:Why would anyone get angry? If we're just debating and talking, there’s no reason to be mad. You respect the person you're talking to, listen to what they have to say, and if you think they're right, you accept it—otherwise, you counter them. Right now, the Raiders have everything it takes to be more than just a fan group; they're a movement.
1. We actually have the power to drive change.
2. We have respect from other groups and different parts of society (unless we fail to respect ourselves).
3. We've got a damn good mainstream following behind us.
4. We have numbers—massive turnout both away and at home (three full sections standing).
5. Our energy in the stands is better than it has ever been.
6. We have a crew that knows how to hold their own on the street (when we're united).
7. We have solid marketing.
8. We have younger people ready to take the group even further.
9. We have kids in the stands (bless them), and we have the Kansas City Chiefs; we have OUR KANSAS CITY CHIEFS who were brought to this level by the group's fight. In the last decade, we've ousted three different front offices, while others can't even be bothered to lift a finger, let alone take action. We have a foundation for the future; we just need to unify the group properly. If these younger guys pull it off, we'll be in a whole different league.

This is what we have CURRENTLY. Whether we still have it in 2018 remains to be seen. The changes happening now won't show real results for maybe two or three seasons. Whether that outcome is positive or negative for the group depends entirely on whoever takes over leadership at the upcoming assembly. I guess I'm just an optimist by nature. I like to believe in the good stuff.

What dueleggie is talking about doesn't really have anything to do with the group specifically; it's about the mentality and the DNA of the people here. This is just how we are. These issues he's describing existed back in '83, '94, 2004, and 2012... they'll likely still be here in 2025 because it's just our default setting. What kind of people are we? Well, just look at the state of our country.

I wrote a slightly longer post; I'll send it to your inbox, it feels weird posting it all here.😁

Fan mentality and that whole die-hard mindset—it’s pretty straightforward. If you get it, you get it. If you don't, you probably never will. That's just how it is.

Morgan Sanchez64, you made some good points, but I think you're overlooking one major issue. The whole point of this San Francisco thread is the Raiders Nation, so everyone has every right to comment on those prominent figures who pour their entire souls into the group and start pushing revolutionary ideas after just a season or two in the stands. People should be able to criticize whoever they want. Honestly, it makes me a little sad; I feel much more at home when there were thirty of us from the Mediterranean Coast traveling to away games compared to how things are today.

If people are being smart about this, they'll see the underlying point. What we have now didn't just appear out of thin air, but the real problem is that people don't realize how many enemies we actually face. In my opinion, we're our own worst enemy!

Stay safe and take care! Liverpool FC above all, Raiders Nation ahead of everyone!

placidfalcon4 said:tbh, I’d actually charge more. Let the derby fans pay their fair share.

If you ask me, they should just set it at 500 bucks. Honestly, if someone claims to be a die-hard Hajduk Split fan but finds it hard to shell out $100 about 22 cents a day for a subscription to help our club through this mess, then they don't really deserve anything else, in my opinion.

We call ourselves fanatics and claim the whole Mediterranean Coast lives for Hajduk Split, yet we can't even pull together 5,000 subscriptions unless FC Barcelona is playing here—it's honestly pretty ridiculous and hypocritical. I guess we'll see how things go with these bonds, but based on what I've seen before, I suspect a lot of people will stick to that old pattern of swearing loyalty to the club while refusing to chip in even a single dollar.😁

John Brown30 said:It’s just because certain things rubbed me the wrong way, 🙂
and honestly, I’ve lived long enough to know how things actually work. 🙂

As far as I'm concerned, we don't have anything to offer the national team. ☕

We’ve got plenty of idiots—just like them, the ones who never go anywhere, but suddenly think they're big shots when they're playing on home turf against Georgia, Sweden, Andorra, or England once they remember they're Americans. That's basically all we have.🤷😉

It wouldn't matter if Providence hadn't been around 20 years ago, honestly:

http://img164.imagevenue.com/img.php...122_1138lo.jpg

I guess the only reason this is worth mentioning at all is because the American flag is in the shot, right?

The real issue is that this isn't just about football; it’s everything. Corruption has seeped into every single corner of American sports. What I find even more pathetic is that the crowds at the stadiums aren't actually there for the game—they're there because of the fan groups. That’s why we have these "instant fans" flooding everything, including internet forums. We basically have the most intense scene in the world where no banner ever gets confiscated fairly, every brawl is a lopsided beatdown, and nobody ever loses or runs away. Everyone thinks they're the toughest guy in the room, and everyone else is just a bunch of pussies. 😁😁

So how are we ever going to find any sense of unity when our fan culture is bottom-of-the-barrel? Germans, Italians, Greeks, Poles—they're all miles ahead of us. They can handle the crackdowns and still push their ideals at the stadium.

Meanwhile, we miserable types can't even stand together to protect the one thing that actually binds us: our love for the club. Unfortunately, things will stay exactly like this as long as clowns hide within the masses—the same ones attacking protesters in Times Square or those guys waiting for us at the station at 6 AM in Sweden. 🤷🤷

John Brown30 said:The fence 🙂

What's wrong with the fence???

Man, these budget airlines and flights are something else. Blessed be Germany, cruising down the Interstate Highway System at a smooth 150—it’s honestly cheaper and more efficient than anything else out there.😍😍😍

Douglas Stewart65 said:Which specific banners are you talking about? 😍

The locals and people from Canada just can't stand Real Madrid.

Since someone finally decided to touch this subject, I’ve got a question of my own.

What’s the point of constantly shoving banners toward the front? If you look at which ones are always hanging off the edges, it's pretty obvious what's happening. Instead of all this "showing off," it would be way smarter if they actually contributed something tangible to the group.