Actually, it was posters like you scaring off other posters from making any comment other than PC gushy, positive, optimistic sunshine and rainbows about players (thinner line to be crossed) and teams that ruined this board.
Entertainment is not had in this world by everyone agreeing with each other and playing nice all the time. There's no entertainment in every single person in the world talking about how great Tom Brady is and merely accepting that he is the best ever and that the Patriots should always win because he's the best ever, regardless if he and Belichick ever cheated or not. There IS entertainment, however, in wanting to see them lose and people even embracing a come-lately self-motivating team in Philadelphia that convinced people they were the underdog and to support their run to a championship over the "unbeatable" Patriots, even if they're attitude and approach is not exactly the poster child for a true-to-form "babyface" underdog (babyface is a pro wrestling term btw).
Social media forums don't last if every single poster is like "Aww shucks. My team lost. But Philadelphia is just such a swell team and I am just fine with losing to them. I will root for them from now on along with my favorite team no matter how many times my team loses to Philadelphia in the future because they are just such a swell and respectable team." It's just the same thing, over and over with nobody saying anything otherwise. It'd be great if we could all agree on something (like politics)..........sports teams should not be one of those things.
This thread is another case in point. 7 pages and we didn't get there by everyone marveling at North Linn's greatness.
P.S. That and parity (and participation) in sports breeds excitement, since we're on the subject now. How are we doing with parity in Iowa high school athletics? Of the 300 some schools that play sports in this state, why should 3/4 of them even bother discussing events if their school has no chance to play for championships, let alone State tournament berths, which have also been devalued over the recent years.
15 years ago, for whatever reason, two 8-7 teams battling for the middle of the pack in a conference race might have generated discussion. But over the years of being told such games don't matter, people have finally bought into it and unless you're a diehard on this board, nobody cares. What does it mean, even if it was against your rival? You're 9-7 now and you're chasing teams that are 16-0 and 15-1 and they beat you by 30 or 40 points, and you can see that this game did nothing but give you one more win than you had before. Of course people aren't gonna care as much as they once did. I also think people, young and old, have fallen under this delusion that you have to be really good and be winning a lot to talk about your team (aka "trash talk", "gloating", etc etc), or it would make you "look bad". Visit Hawkeye Report and the Main Rivals Boards and you'll know that's not the case. Not at all.
And one more add-on now that I think about it, the growing number of shrinking rural, and combining/sharing county school districts also probably plays a part in interest levels, including social media interest and participation.
