Fans
Fans piss me off.
The Internets fixed a spotlight on the fact that there are a lot of really, really, bad sports fans in America (I assume in Europe too, but being an American, I don't care about them.)
The Internet Age has done some great things: free porn, free music, free movies, and the ability for doofuses like me to make a living working in a t-shirt and sweats without having to deal with rush hour traffic. I love me some Internet.
It's also brought to the surface the complete and total idiocy (and arrogance) of the sports media. I'm no Bob Knight fan, but he's right when he says most are dead from the neck up. I'd have never known that if not for the Internet and ESPN. These guys used to have their little newspaper gigs, and no one reads newspapers so very few people outside their inner circle cared what they had to say. ESPN and the Internet changed all of that and now these loons have a large soap box on which to show off their ability to say dumb shit. But people watch them say said dumb shit so we get more and more loads of it.
But I have grown to accept that. When I see Skip Bayless, Jason Whitlcok, Mike Lupica, or the rest of the gang on the tube, I give them a virtual noogie and change the channel.
It's the fans that disappoint me. I don't expect much from the media but the fact that the Internet has brought to surface the idea of fan self-hatred...that saddens me.
EVERY team has bad fans. All of them. Your team (college, NBA, NFL, whatever) has them, too. It's when you read what they have to say in 'print' on fan forums or newsletters and the like that you start to realize that there are more out there than you ever imagined.
My beloved Buckeyes are by no means an exception. We have a lot of great fans, and we also have a lot of idiots masquerading as fans. We're also extremely spoiled.
Case in point:
Ohio State played it's number two rival yesterday, in the rain, with winds gusting upward to 35 MPH. It was dreary, raining, and the OSU field has been chewed up of late and the ground was like playing on a slip and slide. This was a bigger factor than the rain, actually. (The grass is being replaced right now as I type this; it really is a mess). Both offenses struggled. Heisman candidate Troy Smith looked very average except for one amazing scramble and pass for a 55 YD TD. Still, OSU won 28-6 thanks to two late INT returns.
If you can stomach to read websites like Bucknuts (I don't advise it) you would have thought the Buckeyes lost and all hopes of a title run are over. We won 28-6.
This is the problem: a lot of fans of high profile college teams are never, ever, happy. A few schools have a rep for having fan bases that love to bitch just for the sake of bitching. OSU is one of them. (Kentucky basketball is another.) Winning isn't enough. I don't know why that is...but that's the mentality of a lot of fans -- instead of breathing a sigh of relief that we beat Penn State in terrible conditions and dodged a bullet when the offense didn't play its game, we have fans who act like we're Michigan State.
And thank God we are not Michigan State. If there was ever a fan base with the right to bitch and moan and call for a coach's scalp -- it's Spartan fans. Just be happy, whoever you root for, that your head coach is not John L. Smith.
Anyway, Ohio State is still ranked #1 despite what some OSU fans think or what John Saunders says (somehow USC should be #1 for beating Arizona 20-3, which looks better than the 28-6 OSU win. Saunders also wonders aloud if OSU played Texas again...would we win? Ahh I love the media. Cute, cuddly, and dumber than a box of hair.)
Ohio State plays the game on the schedule next week that will, IMO, be its toughest test outside of the Michigan game -- @ Iowa at night. Unless we win by 30, expect a lot of sad faces in Columbus.
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Dan:
September 25th, 2006 - 08:40
OMG, that MSU game was a debacle. They did the same thing last year but barely held on for the win, and did the same against OSU. Its definately coaching IMO, wether its physical conditioning or mental the coach has to get them to play for 4 qtrs. I think Jonh Ls job safe though for now. He was brought in after the Saban,Williams era to clean up the program and get guys to graduate. In that task he’s done extremely well. You don’t hear of MSU guys getting into trouble and most of them are graduating. Plus his wife is fighting breast cancer and I don’t see the administration cutting him loose if he can stay near .500
September 26th, 2006 - 22:27
let me say, bill, that i went to Penn State, class of ’95. i truly bleed the navy and white. also being a big college football fan, Ohio State scares the bejesus out of me. i don’t see a real weakness in any facet of their game (i’m not a pro determining facets of anyone’s game, actually). bill, i will be shocked if they don’t win the nat. title. they just look that good to me. remember florida state teams of the early 90′s. when you would watch them play, and think to yourself ‘they have to have pro’s on their team’, ‘look at all that team speed’, etc. that’s what I think of now. Good luck this year, luv ya lions for next.
September 27th, 2006 - 16:15
Are you serious? I think i finally found someone who has wrote this in print…fans everywhere are so brainwashed by the dumbass’s on tv its disgusting. Lee corso could be the worst person ever.. the guy doesn’t know his ass from his elbow. he picked miami and cal to be in the national championship game.. well they both lost week 1 and miami isn’t even in the top 25. he also said notre ‘i suck ass’ dame would crush michigan.. well everyone knows how that ended. he then was sayin how brady quinn should be back in the heisman race after the msu game, but after chris fowler completely shut him up for is idiocracy, corso didn’t talk for the rest of the show. he should be fired for how dumb he is. Espn needs new and young analysts who know what their talking about…