That is definitely part of it for me. Bottom line, if you are not playing or coaching, sports are entertainment and nothing more. To me, things are much more entertaining if you are optimistic and supportive. Even though you might recognize flaws in "your guys," you continue to root for them.
But beyond that, there is a wealth of evidence that points towards KF being a decent human being. I have only spoken with him VERY BRIEFLY a couple of times, but he came off as genuine and friendly to a person of no influence from whom it would make no sense to curry favor. I have known several former players who spoke very positively of him as a person. And there are tons of fellow coaches and media-types who clearly have a lot of respect for him, and that does not just happen by accident. Most of us don't know him well enough on a personal level to say definitively that he is a great guy, and I am not suggesting that we put him up for sainthood, but I will tend to lean in the direction of the evidence (and give him the benefit of the doubt because he coaches my team).
I am fascinated by the phenomenon of fans who do not know KF at all on a personal level (correct me if I am wrong on that one) making vicious and scathing character attacks based on 1) a failure to win football games and 2) a few press conference utterances. When writing of his failure to win, I have seen words/phrases like lazy, extreme arrogance, egomaniacal, middle finger to fans, etc.. It almost seems quaint when someone restrains themselves to just calling him stupid. When referring to his press-conferences, he is smug, a lying thief, a buck-passer, a two-faced politician who panders to his audience with no intention of following through on his promises.
I think there are much easier explanations that do not require character assassinations. I think he coaches how he coaches because he feels (rightly) that every good team needs to have strong belief in a system that they adhere to tightly. He is also dogmatic and resists change to his system, which makes it hard to evolve as a coach, but which does not make him a bad human being. He is also extremely risk-averse (probably to his detriment), which makes things like switching QBs mid-season or using a 2-QB system very difficult, even if he can rationalize it. We have evidence that he has traditionally given one QB that vast majority of practice reps and that he feels strongly that this is necessary for success. If that is the way you have always done it, it is hard to convince yourself to change.
As for his press-conferences, they really do not represent how forthright he is with his players. If he only communicated with his players through press-conferences, then you could criticize him for leaving CJ out to dry by not explaining his exact role on the team. But for all we know KF is very up front with his players regarding where they stand, he just chooses not to reveal all personnel decisions to his opponents prior to games. Playing it close to the vest in press-conferences does not make one two-faced. Likewise, if he says "that's football" I don't look at it as a lack of accountability or indifference to the result, but rather an unwillingness to call out specific mistakes of players or coaches. And when he talks execution, I don't think he is transferring blame to players because he does not see execution solely as the domain of players. He views execution as the backbone of his teams' success, and as a responsibility of both his players and the coaches who work with them all season.
For those that level the strong character attacks, have you ever had any interaction with him? Do you know someone who has worked closely with him? If not, why do you choose to attack the person as opposed to the performance?
