Honest ? - why do Bengals fans care what other fan bases think?

[*Go Cards*]

(01-25-2023, 02:17 PM)GAWhoDey Wrote: Coming off what might be our most impressive postseason win as a franchise Sunday, seems a lot of the NFL has taken notice of the Bengals and our young core of stars. They've also taken notice of the brashness and trash talking from Eli Apple and others, and it's resulted in a lot of negative backlash towards our team and fan base.  

In turn, it seems that some of our fans are calling for our team to "be humble" or to stop the trash talking as to not draw this type of "negative" attention or to keep the outside perception of us in some kind of positive light.

I guess I understand all that, what I don't understand is why Bengals fans are choosing to push back against our own team right now when they're on the doorstep of getting to the Super Bowl for the second straight year. Who are we to tell the players how to think/act/behave/express themselves?  

And most of all, why would we care what other fan bases think of us at all? Are we trying to be buddies with everyone?  I love the brashness personally, but I'm wondering if this is a generational thing?  Are zoomers more sensitive to this kind of thing?  Personally, I'm not trying to be buddies with anyone, barely even fellow Bengals fans. Definitely not opposing fans on social media.  If 100% of them hate us, I'm cool with that.  

This mindset of worrying about our image with the media or other fans is just very weird.

Don't sweat it,  the players don't read this forum for advice on how to act anyway.