You are correct, BEST Darksider ... only the best receive the awards ... no participation trophies here!
Yes, yes, yes, this to me is exactly the question. champ is just a caricature of a poster - there is no such thing as hope, since until the Jets actually win a Super Bowl they have accomplished absolutely nothing. I can't possibly agree with him even if I agree with him - it's the stopped-watch-is-right-twice-a-day effect. So if the award literally is "Who represents the darkside of being a Jets fan the most? Pessimistic to the core, no hope in sight," I do think it has to be him. @Cman60 is completely different - I find him to be one of the best posters on the board, because he uses the weight of almost 50 years of history to make cogent arguments about the present and predictions about the future. No one has mentioned me as a darksider, and I don't really think I am one, but I have enough experience with this team to think that history suggests it's a lot more likely that they'll make the wrong decision than they'll make the right one. I never read Cman's posts and think that anything he says is ridiculous - I either agree with it, or recognize that he has a point that is worth considering. And no one could possibly have so much hope for so long about Petty and have "no hope in sight"! If the award is mean to be "best quality poster with a usually negative opinion of the team's chances" I think Cman is at the top of the list (unless he would challenge that characterization of his views).
I agree with you, Cman is awesome and fully deserving of the love coming his way. To me, part of being a darksider is, using a pro wrestling term, being a heel. In other words, not only having the doom and gloom of an experienced skeptical, maybe even cynical Jets fan, but also a sort of unpopular antagonism to boot. This is why I don't think Cman deserves this award. He is everything I listed but the antagonist. He is a super nice guy who has just been through a lot. Champ is the true darksider because he embodies the unapologetic, almost villainous antagonist who isn't afraid to tell the truth as he sees it. Most people don't like that truth because it conflicts with their hopeful somewhat optimistic worldview, but there is no hopefulness with Champ's views. In some ways, he is right, but it is hard to see that when you have a bias against what he represents. He is the picture of what it means to be a tortured Jets fan. The fact that he got to witness Namath win the Super Bowl with the Jets makes it all the more authentic because he knows what good looks like and holds a high standard for it. The Jets overwhelmingly do not live up to that standard. I truly believe if the Jets win a Super Bowl anytime soon, we will see Champ right there with us celebrating in that glory. My father was also around for the Jets Super Bowl win. He isn't jaded to the point that Champ is, but is always telling me that when people rip Namath for one reason or another today, it is most likely because they never actually watched him play. According to my father at least, watching Namath play was not only special, but something he hasn't seen since as a Jets fan. Once you've felt that good about something, it is hard for some people to recapture that feeling.
Everything your father says is true. I’ve been watching the Jets since 1964, and it is only people who didn’t see Namath play who don’t understand the effect he had on the game. I am plenty cynical about the team after almost 50 years of failure, but I will never understand people who choose to make themselves miserable watching a team for which they have no hope and from which they get no pleasure. I don’t view that as being anything like “telling the truth” - it’s just willfully choosing to be unhappy.
I don't understand why people used to get so bothered by championjets69 (I know he got banned a few times). I personally never got annoyed. He's like Gramps crapping his diaper, only he's not my Gramps so thank heaven I don't have to change it. So, yeah, champ. I don't consider Cman a 'Darksider' (what is that, some dumbass 'Star Wars' chit?). More of an intelligent fatal realist, like yours truly - minus the intelligent part.
I'm surprised there isn't 'The Best I'm Always Right Award (The nyjunc Award)'. He's another one who didn't bother me nearly as much as he bothered other people. I never reported or put anyone on ignore in my entire history here. I don't know, it just seemed pansyish, fight your own battles. Probably the only three things that would prompt me to do that would be repeated talk of suicide that's hard to read, serious death threats, stalking to the point of being mentally ill, or obvious sexually predatory behavior. Yeah, I got a couple of disgusting PMs from GreenHornet, but I didn't report it (what kind of condoms did I like the best? Ribbed, etc., and some other shit). In retrospect, maybe I should have; but it stopped as soon as it started. I just didn't respond (obviously), because I wasn't going to give him a cheap thrill like a heavy breather on the telephone by reacting to it. If it continued, I would've more than likely just dealt with it in a PM death blow. This was right around the time he was serially perving PF4. I saw some of his public comments to her on the tail end of it, but I also saw it was being dealt with. However, I had no idea that he was PMing her nasty suggestive crap on a constant basis. I would have destroyed him publicly if I knew. She was one tough cookie and knew how to stand up for herself, but what an all around POS that guy was. He should have gotten permabanned for doing that to her and saved the board his boo-hoo fake brain cancer story. So anyway, jackass I'll kill you!
The good news is, those types don't tend to last. Unfortunately, for some, the damage is already done. Shining examples of empathetic humanity.
I meant four things, not three. My brain is always on drugs even though I don't do drugs. Now go perform a shining example of empathetic humanity and buy me some crack so I have an excuse.