Oh i think we ALL see the
logic that the team
may benefit in the long term from losing in the short term. But then you should follow it to its logical conclusion and root
against them as hard as you rooted
for them in the NFC Championship game and at the Super Bowl. Passion for sports doesn't have anything to do with logic for me. After all, what difference does it make in my life whether the Cardinals win or lose? Why should i even be a Cardinals fan, having grown up in Pennsylvania? I don't know, but i know that when i was 7 years old i ran a mile to the drug store every Thursday when Pro Football Weekly came out, to loiter and read about how the Cardinals lost again each week, and convince myself that next week for sure they'd win!
If you can turn off your joy at seeing Fitz catch the game winning TD, then you should be able to heartily make noise and cheer for a fumble, penalty, or sack on every play when the Cardinals are on offense. I can't do that. I LOVED
the McCown to Poole TD in 2003. How could you not love that?!?
Might the Cardinals have got Eli Manning or Rivers had they lost? Maybe. Would either one of those guys have played for the Cardinals? Who knows? Would the Cardinals have won a Super Bowl since then with Rivers instead of Fitz? Who knows! But i enjoyed being a fan of a team that went all-out to win on every play, DAMN THE CONSEQUENCES.
I would never be able to enjoy rooting for the Cardinals to lose, or rooting for a coach who could coach to lose, or players who could play to lose. I think you do long-term damage to the franchise and medium-term damage to the locker room if you don't play to win. Nobody wants to play for a loser. How are you going to tell the players to bust their asses all week to prepare, then not go all-out to win? Players at the end of their careers have nothing to play for but to know that they left it all on the field, every play. Players earlier in their career want to put the best possible play on film.
If you don't feel that way, then you're just a different kind of fan than i am, and that's fine! The only common ground we may have is that once the playoffs are out of reach, i think the GM needs to instruct the coach to put in younger players to help evaluate them and get them experience for next year. They may not give the team the best chance of winning each game, but at least the guys on the field will still be going all-out to win.
As Herm Edwards said, you play to win the game. YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME! If you play to lose, you take all the joy out of it for me as a fan. No thanks. Play to win, and at the end of the season, let the chips fall how they may as regards the draft and the future.
...dave