Because you can't hit "sim season" in real life?
I think there's a lot of truth to this.
For many fans, arguably in the 50 and under crowd, games have been a bigger part of their fan experience over the last 30 years or so. As such, whenever things don't go right in real life, it's easy to fire up a gaming system and play out a fantasy.
As those games have advanced, they've enabled people to take on more active roles as GMs thanks to franchise modes. A good majority of posters here, myself included, have spent many hours turning the Rangers, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Yankees, and Mets into dynasties.
Unfortunately, the downside is that it makes us assume the fixes are easier, and come faster, than they do in real life --- at least on a subconscious level.
Then you factor in that this team is coming off a successful period in its history, and some fans have seen other teams mired in sucky, but not sucky enough situations for a decade, and it doesn't really increase the appetite for a rebuild.
Rebuilds are much easier to endure when other people have to go through them. We don't live it day to day, but we definitely take notice when it works.
Yeah we look at the Penguins, the Jets, the Bolts, the Bruins, etc. But we also forget those fans also struggled through some pretty hopeless years. Not just one or two, but several. And in some cases, two different eras.
Yeah, you need to do a good job of drafting.
But the teams also have first and second overall picks, multiple times over the last 20 years.
Regardless of our debates on the importance of those picks, or other factors that play into them, that also requires a lot of losing.
