i may not be the sharpest spoon in the shed, but this seems ridiculous. you care about a team, you hold a different opinion than another person who cares about said team, so they are not "real fans?" sure. and then there is the quick comeback of "am too, you're the one that's not a real fan." and so it goes. genius. and fun! my kids can do that sort of stuff all day. and you know the rest of us enjoy listening to that sort of stuff.

so here are my criteria for "real fans" and "not real fans."

1. real fans: physically exist. they have mass, will bark their shins on coffee tables and potentially bruise their heads if they fall down. unless they are wearing helmets. yes, even in the shower. as compared to not real fans who have no physical existence.

2. real fans; care about the team. not real fans; do not care about the team.

and that's pretty much it.

but to be complete, here is a list of things that i feel are not necessary to be considered 'real fans;'

1. agreement with all other fans, all the time. not necessary. it is just necessary that all agree with me, all the time. i kid. sort of.

2. a wide ranging knowledge base, including the name of the 112th selection of the 1997 draft and or the name of the third gentleman to break the bronco record for most yards after the catch on thursday night football in the month of november. not necessary. i appreciate well educated fans. i try to educate myself. but not necessary.

3. righteous indignation. real fans do not have to be filled with righteous indignation, or any particular emotion, at any time. just because you are outraged that no-one recognizes how wonderfully tebow crapped rainbows doesn't mean i have to be outraged, too. just because you are disgusted with him because you think he was the most over-hyped, luckiest, worst throwing neanderthal of a qb ever doesn't mean i can't miss him. if i have a different emotional response to a situation than you, either in tone or intensity, well, that does not mean that i am not a "real fan."

4. my same highly advanced value system. just because someone doesn't act the way i think they should doesn't mean they're not a fan (double negative.) i thought the video-taping scandal was poised to destroy all the credibility we, my team, has built up over the decades. not everyone agreed with me. they're still fans. you see the scum bags being rude to visitors fans in LoDo, and like it or not they may actually really care about the broncos, they may be fans. not good representatives of our team, crazy eyed hairballs, sociopaths, criminals, whatever. they bleed orange, they're fans. criminals,maybe. but fans.

and here's the thing; i like mhr. and iaofm. i learn a ton. there are people here i respect greatly, i make a point of reading their posts. conversation like this flourishes here while, on other fansites, the blogs run to crude trolling and smack-attack posse mentalities that, frankly, bore the crap outa me. so why does this site rock? there's a tone here of support and respect. i think we have bena to thank for setting and enforcing the standard, but we also have too many members to mention who live up to it and expect it of others on a daily basis. and this whole "i'm a fan and you are not" mentality runs counter to what makes mhr exceptional.

just my .02. and btw; if you don't agree with me, well, then, you are not a real ... a real ... i can't do it. you're still probably a fan. just not as cool as me.