The person is saying that they want to see BYU win. They'll enjoy the game if BYU wins.

I wouldn't want to live my life being that restricted, and limited to such a tiny amount of potential enjoyment. That's got to be a deeply depressing, gloomy experience.

If BYU wins by using the wishbone - they'll love the wishbone and enjoy watching the game.

Or they won't care about the wishbone, because they're fixated on the win. And they won't be able to enjoy the wishbone on its own merits, only if it just randomly happens to be the offensive scheme being used when the team wins.

If BYU throws if for 5 million yards a game, but still loses every game (yes, hyperbole. I know this.) then they WON'T enjoy the game and it won't be entertaining to them.

Again, I would hate to have my enjoyment so restricted. If BYU played 59 minutes of every game putting up massive offensive numbers, then lost the game in the final minute, am I going to let that one minute negate the other 59 minutes? No. That would be stupid. I would be disappointed that BYU lost, of course, but it wouldn't change the fact that almost the entire game was awesome.

5 million yards might be exciting at first - but it gets old fast and is completely worthless if your team loses more than they win.

It hasn't gotten old for me. Five a half decades of watching football, and I still want the offense to throw the ball on every play. Anything under 300 yards passing per game is not worthy of being called "offense." On the other hand, three yards and a tiny cloud of dust isn't even exciting at first. If it does--on rare occasion--result in a win, it will be the most tedious win possible, and would be completely worthless since it would drive fans away from paying money to see games faster and more permanently than losing ever could.

They aren't saying they don't want to watch the game and they only care what the final score is.

No. They're saying that if it doesn't result in a win, the time spent watching the game will rot and transform into pain. In other words, they'll create a situation in which it would have been better for them not to watch the game. It would still be a loss, but at least they wouldn't have spent time and money on it.

They are saying they want to know that BYU will do well, and then they'll enjoy watching the game HOWEVER BYU does it - and of course they'll be interested in seeing how it happens.

Ah, yes. They want clairvoyance. They want the spoiler to the movie.
That will never happen, of course. Naturally, they could give up the fixation with winning and enjoy watching the game HOWEVER BYU ends up on the final scoreboard.

Would you still enjoy watching football games if your team lost every single game?

Well, yes. If the games were otherwise interesting, of course I would enjoy watching football games. Why would I spend time and money on it if I couldn't enjoy it win or lose? That would be really dumb.

I'm trying to make the point that for some people they don't want to watch the game and won't enjoy it - it won't be entertaining to them - if they know their team is going to lose.

But they don't know their team is going to lose. Unless they've developed the aforementioned clairvoyance. (They haven't.) Not knowing is one of the most entertaining aspects of competitive sports. Every so often, Louisiana-Monroe will beat Alabama.

They are saying that are actually capable of enjoying more than one form of football.

Unless the team loses.

They can enjoy football if it's the wishbone.

Unless the team loses.

They can enjoy football if it's the wing T.

Unless the team loses.

They can enjoy football if it's the run and shoot.

Unless the team loses.

They can enjoy football if it's west coast offense.

Unless the team loses.

And they can enjoy football if it's three yards and a cloud of dust.

Unless the team loses.

They would enjoy all of those styles and all of those games - and they'd enjoy seeing how the game went under all of those types of offenses - IF THEIR TEAM IS WINNING.

In other words, they can't enjoy the game on its own merits. Their enjoyment is determined by a result of the game, not by the game itself.

I'm not sure I can say it any other way.

No need. I understood perfectly from the beginning, so don't worry.

To them - they enjoy the game of football and will enjoy ANY style of offense

Unless the team loses.

they aren't limiting it to just one like you think they need to.

1. I neither stated clearly nor implied that I think they need to do so. Quite the opposite. I'm advocating enjoyment of the game to the fullest and broadest extent possible.

2. They aren't limiting the style of offense. They're eliminating EVERY style of offense from the equation on the flimsy foundation of an always unpredictable result that is only actually established once the game itself is over, rather than on the merits of the actual game itself. They're eliminating most of the possibility of enjoying football.

They'll enjoy seeing how it all works out.

Unless the team loses.

But they don't enjoy it if it isn't competitive and their team isn't winning their share of the games.

Regardless of how incredibly awesome the actual game itself might be. It has to suck to be under the control of something so unpredictable and fleeting, to be so vulnerable and fragile as to be in constant danger of one sole element of the whole destroying the whole.

Many people are emotionally invested in how their team does.

And there's the always fatal flaw. We're stepping into just a bit of basic psychology here, but humans require a certain amount of emotional detachment and distance to enable them to truly enjoy things. Not necessarily a complete lack of emotion, but enough emotional disconnect to not take the results of entertainment, etc., personally. Being emotionally invested so deeply that your emotions have such power over you is, to put it mildly, extremely unhealthy, and severely restricts enjoyment.

When their team wins, they get a high.

In other words, their emotional fixation controls them.

When their team loses, they get a low.

In other words, their emotional fixation controls them.

Entertainment is supposed to be enjoyable

Correct. It's supposed to be an opportunity to unstring the bow and let go of emotional investment.

which doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't ups and downs.

Correct...to an extent. Not everything will always go as planned or desired. However, if entertainment frequently involves emotional distress, then it's not entertainment. There's no "carnivalesque" if the "carnival" is causing pain.

People still enjoy sad movies now and then.

Yes, but if they're emotionally invested in the movie at all, it's very temporary and doesn't ruin the enjoyment. (Unless they're psychologically disturbed and can't differentiate between fantasy and reality, of course.)

But when the team is losing more than they are winning - and they are emotionally invested in the game/team - then it's easy for them to decide it isn't worth the investment of their entertainment time and they walk away.

And if they are that emotionally invested, they need to walk--or even run--away without delay. Being that easily controlled by emotions that are that easily controlled by the result of a game is deeply, deeply unhealthy.

For them, at least, it is no longer entertaining and therefore no longer entertainment.

Exactly! You do get the point! That's exactly what I've been saying. They make football not be entertainment by letting themselves be emotionally controlled by one aspect of the whole.
That emotional investment--the irrational fixation on the result of a playtime activity--actually prevents, or at least hinders, them from enjoying that activity. It makes it nearly impossible to be psychologically healthy (or spiritually healthy, for that matter).

I would compare what you are describing is more in line with when I turn on the TV to watch a game between two top teams that I don't cheer for and have no investment in their failure or success. Then I can just enjoy watching the game for what it is.

That's close to the ideal approach to maximum enjoyment of games.

But many people can't do that with the team they are a fan of.

Every normal adult CAN do it, but many choose NOT to. The more they give in to the emotional attachment, the less ability they have to fight against its control.

They can't turn it into emotionless entertainment as you seem to be suggesting.

That's not what I'm suggesting. At all. Again, I'm advocating the opposite. Emotions can be a great payoff for certain actions. I encourage fans to get out of their own way and enjoy that payoff.

The problem with emotions is that they can be good passengers (giving that great payoff at times), but they are always horrible drivers that inevitably take the car over a cliff into a pile of fire, twisted metal, and screaming. Or prevent people from enjoying the trip simply because the destination might not be as nice as we had hoped.