It gets thrown out a lot because people don't like to admit they're pessimists. Calling yourself a realist makes you feel better about having such a sh**ty outlook on life, and in this case, your favorite sports team.
This. I really believe that attitude is a decision. You can decide to see things in a negative light, or you can emphasize the good in any situation. You can look for the things you are grateful for, or you can point to all the ways you are getting screwed. In my experience, the people who are never happy are "realists," and thus they are beyond critique because they aren't being excessively negative, they're just saying that there is a good chance we're all going to die in the next fifteen minutes, every fifteen minutes. Of course, when fifteen minutes pass and we don't expire, the next comment is, "hey, I'm GLAD I was wrong. I never wanted that to happen. But the sad fact is, pandas now have the taste for human flesh. And they are coming for us and they will eat your children in front of you and then they will shoot sharpened bamboo spears into your throat and it will take a LONG time to die. And it's going to happen in the next fifteen minutes."
"...Okay, so, no pandas. Hey, I never said I WANTED that to happen. I'm as relieved as anyone that we're all alive. But the sad fact is, Obama is actually Loki, he's played us all for fools, and pretty soon he's going to launch on Delaware. Once that happens, the Dover Reserve will release their secret biological weapon they've kept under wraps. Ever read The Stand? Well, we're all dead, and it's coming in the next fifteen minutes."
...ad nauseum--->
