Boston College Fan Rooting Guide For The NFL Conference Championships

by A.J Black on Jan 22, 2012 2:30 PM EST in Boston College Football

The NFL Is down to four teams, and only two of them have Boston College ties. Your rooting interests shouldn't be too tough to figure out this weekend.

New England Patriots vs Baltimore Ravens, 3:00 on CBS

The Patriots of course have two Boston College Alumni in their ranks with Dan Koppen and Ron Brace. Unfortunately neither of those players are active for today's game. Koppen was knocked out of the Patriots opening game when he fractured his ankle against the Dolphins, and was placed on the Injured Reserve ending his season. Ron Brace on the other hand missed most of the season, played for a few games, and then broke his elbow in the Patriots' season finale against the Bills. The Ravens have no one with BC roots on their team. Lean: The Walking Dead BC Alumni Patriots'

New York Giants vs San Francisco 49ers, 6:30 on Fox

Another no brainer for Eagles' fans. The 49ers have no BC players on their team, while the Giants are basically the pro version of BC Football. They include Mark Herzlich, Mathias Kiwanuka, Chris Snee, Will Blackmon, Tom Coughlin, members of the Mara family and Jack Bicknell Jr.

The big news in this game is that Herzlich will likely suit up for the Big Blue. He has been sidelined for the past month with an ankle injury, but he is listed as probable for the Championship game. Would love to see him make a big play for NY. Lean: Giants, duh.

The biggest news in this game is the ramifications of New England and the GIants winning their matchups. For you see, I am a diehard Patriots' fan (just bought a Rob Gronkowski jersey), and Brian bleeds Blue. As a Pats' fan I have been dying for a rematch to avenge the loss in Super Bowl XLII. Things could get interesting around here if those two meet up again.

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After going 4-for-4 SU last weekend, I’m due for an 0-2 performance. With apologies to New England and New York.

Patriots 27, Ravens 17
Giants 17, 49ers 10

Go Giants!

Editor, BC Interruption

by Brian Favat on Jan 22, 2012 3:17 PM EST via mobile reply actions

I’ve always felt that this site had a definite pro-NY slant. Not that I’m pro Boston/New England but NY has to be one of the least successful pro sports towns considering the population size and number of sports teams (and loathesome bandwagons). If you took the Yankees out of the equation (since many of their championships were before integration and color TV) that statement would defintiely be true.

by grebek on Jan 22, 2012 7:43 PM EST via iPhone app reply actions

That’s because ~1/4 of the undergrad student body is from NJ, NY or southern CT.

If you want to talk about loathsome bandwagons, point me in the direction of a New England Patriots fan pre-2000. Awful fans.

Editor, BC Interruption

by Brian Favat on Jan 22, 2012 10:53 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

If you want to talk about loathsome bandwagons, point me in the direction of a New England Patriots fan pre-2000. Awful fan

Are Giant fans still clamoring for Tom Coughlin’s job? Or will that wait until September this year?

Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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by A.J Black on Jan 23, 2012 8:36 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs

The demand for pink Flying Elvis hats just went through the roof!

Thanks, Billy Cundiff!

Editor, BC Interruption

by Brian Favat on Jan 23, 2012 2:13 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

And the non-local BC people wonder why Bostonians dont like them. Signed, lifelong (pre-2000) New England Patriots fan

by spideyguy0 on Jan 23, 2012 4:09 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

You know it’s true.

Most Patriot fans think the team has only had one logo in team history. The city of Boston invented the bandwagon fan.

Editor, BC Interruption

by Brian Favat on Jan 23, 2012 4:27 PM EST up reply actions

I’d be willing to bet most Pink Hats aren’t even from New England.

by hoyaeagle on Jan 23, 2012 5:33 PM EST up reply actions

Oh stop it.

Every town has their share of fair weathered pink hats, I can’t even tell you how many girls I went to college with wore Yankees gear but couldn’t tell you a player not named Jeter or Rivera.

Winning breeds popularity. Just part of the game.

Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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by A.J Black on Jan 23, 2012 5:33 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Winning breeds popularity.

Isn’t this the definition of fair weather fans? And all four Boston pro sports teams have had recent success, swelling the number of fans that give a s—t about those teams.

Would love to see deltas of number of young Patriots fans pre-2001, Red Sox fans pre-2004, Celtics fans pre-2008 or Boston fans that could tell you the name of the local NHL franchise pre-last year.

Editor, BC Interruption

by Brian Favat on Jan 23, 2012 7:21 PM EST up reply actions

In other words, there’s a reason we’ve only recently been spoon-fed the whole “Boston is a pro sports market” meme from GDF to excuse poor BC sports attendance. That very same excuse was laughable 5-10 years ago.

Editor, BC Interruption

by Brian Favat on Jan 23, 2012 7:23 PM EST up reply actions

So the Yankees didn’t get any bandwagon fans in the late 90s? Think the number of people who “liked” the NY Rangers didn’t jump in 1994?

Every city has people who jumped on the bandwagon. New York no different than Boston.

by hoyaeagle on Jan 23, 2012 8:01 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

The difference is in the timing. No city has a higher number of nouvea rich, bandwagon fans across the four major professional sports than Boston. It’s not even close.

Editor, BC Interruption

by Brian Favat on Jan 23, 2012 8:11 PM EST up reply actions

That’s just not true when talking about Boston though. In fact it’s straight up ignorant. Obviously the % of Boston bandwagon fans in the rest of the country and even in CT on the Boston/NY fan border has gone up a staggering amount in the past decade. But in the city itself and the surrounding areas people were always fans.

Brian, I think I remember that you came to Boston for BC at the beginning of the decade? I was here in the 90s, possibly the worst decade for Boston sports in since the 1940s, and I can tell you that Boston was always a pro sports town. There were Patriots fans in Boston whether you want to admit it or not (there just weren’t any outside of Boston). Nobody gave a damn about BC then either. Nobody gave a damn about UMass when they were in the Final 4. Everyone in this city was a Red Sox fan. It was and always has been a baseball town. Don’t come in and make sweeping generalizations of the culture of a city when you weren’t there to witness it.

Obviously people care more when teams are winning. But I haven’t seen any real change in the culture of Boston, only the culture of the rest of the country towards Boston, both in the positive and the negative. Boston sports have always been the same, but when they started winning, that’s when the rest of the country started to notice. The Red Sox sellout streak goes back to when Jimy Williams was the manager and the team hadn’t been to the playoffs in 3 years.

by spideyguy0 on Jan 24, 2012 10:41 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs

If winning breeds popularity, and all four Boston pro sports have recently won titles, it logically follows that those four franchises have picked up a lot of casual, bandwagon fans in the last decade. This is more than obvious. I’m really not sure how you can dispute this fact.

hoya was throwing out the NY Rangers 1994 title or the Yankees run of World Series in the late 1990s. Any franchise is going to pick up bandwagon fans with winning, but as I said it’s a matter of timing. Those titles were won over 15 years ago.

Also generally accepted: Boston fans have a chip on their shoulders and are insecure based on the fact that they are not New York. See also: Chanting “Yankees suck” in the seventh inning of a game at Fenway when the Sox are blowing out the Orioles, an AL Central team or any other team that is not the Yankees.

Editor, BC Interruption

by Brian Favat on Jan 24, 2012 1:11 PM EST up reply actions

“I’m really not sure how you can dispute this fact.”

Easy, I’m not disputing it. It’s completely true. But you’re not adressing my point that a huge percentage of those bandwagon fans are from OUTSIDE THE STATE. Anyone in Boston could care less about those people. Same reason nobody likes Duke fans. Because half of them don’t even know what state Duke is in.

“Also generally accepted: Boston fans have a chip on their shoulders "

Agreed

“and are insecure based on the fact that they are not New York”

I’d say it’s based on the fact that they had almost no success outside of the NBA for 80 years. Has nothing to do with NY. I also don’t see how it’s relevant.

My point is that the Boston sports culture in the 90s and the Boston sports culture now are fairly similar aside from the whole optimism/pessimism thing. The focus on pro sports was always there. The irrelevance of BC to Boston was always there. The local Red Sox/Patriots fanbase was always there, same as it is today. An argument can be made that the Bruins and the Celtics are more revelant now, but that’s about it, and it’s got nothing to do with BC which has really never mattered in what has always been a PRO SPORTS TOWN

by spideyguy0 on Jan 24, 2012 4:52 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Yankees have more World Series appearances and wins than any other team since 1970 (arbitrary color tv year) by a wide margin. The Giants, Mets, and Rangers have all won at least one championship in the past 25 years. The Knicks and Jets suck, but at least they have won before.

by bc2208 on Jan 23, 2012 1:24 PM EST up reply actions