When Knaapp turned his TV off Saturday night he was being a fair weather fan.
I disagree with this definition of a fan. I have the choice to invest my time and money in a team that plays like that or not, at my pleasure. That doesn't make me a good or bad fan, that makes me a wise consumer.
I am a fan of a couple of chefs in this area, and I travel some distance to their restaurants to eat dinner. Fan though I am, I would not accept a meal prepared so horribly that I could not stomach it. I would send it back, or if egregious enough I may leave the restaurant without paying for the meal. This is perfectly acceptable behavior. It doesn't matter if I'm a huge fan of the chef who prepared the meal. I do not have to accept everything he makes, especially if it isn't palatable.
Further, like thousands of people, I didn't stop paying attention to the game. I followed along on Twitter, keeping up with what happened via text rather than watching. I still followed the game, just in a different format.
I have done this dozens of times, either by choice or by need. I followed most of the Penn State Volleyball match on Twitter because I wasn't in front of a TV at the time. That doesn't make me a fair weather fan, it means I used the means available to me to keep track of action.
I went to the parking lot at halftime of the 2011 Ohio State game, then went back in and watched the second half. I saw that comeback in person, I contributed to the noise at the stadium when tons of people left. Does that make me a better fan than them? Nope. They just have different tolerances.
The whole focus of this conversation is erroneous. People are spending more time expressing their displeasure with the fans who watched the game - in whatever format they chose - and less time discussing the game itself. It is, apparently, easier to focus angst at other fans than at the team or coaches.