Each of them is probably being truthful. Losing sucks and winning makes everything better. Even when the football team was losing it was probably better for those guys because the expectations were so low and only the diehards really paid attention to the program. Nobody was tweeting Kellen Lewis to tell him about every missed play. People were writing TJD to let him know how much he blows.
I don't buy that fans dictate whether a team can win, but I do think our crazier fans have been used by media to get clicks and that the picture they paint probably makes this place look kind of unattractive to players and their families. Apathy is the best way to express our disappointment anymore, not anger. Writers don't have much to go on when the story is "Team sucks, fans didn't show up."