One fan's p.o.v....
Two years ago when I first found this site I criticized some posters for bitching about the Dawgs when they lost a game, and I was duly reminded that it is a fan's right to complain in such situations. It's interest on the principal we put in for supporting our team.
As fans, it's our right. Right?
Nobody here took a single step back in their love for the Dawgs because they complained about the game. I agree, Mike Bobo isn't an idiot, and that he didn't personally make those mistakes. He DID, however, abandon the successful series of downs that led to our first touchdown for...what? And all of us know, in the moments when each of us allows ourselves a moment of venting, that \"idiot\" is a euphamism, a metaphor for \"what the hell is going on with our game plan?\"
Also, the consternation with CMRs warm and fuzzy feel for the world as a whole is well documented and valid, at least from a fan's perspective. I love CMR. Want him to stay forever. God loves all of us, probably CMR a tad more than some for being a good Christian...I'm okay with that. God will forgive CMR if he rips some ass every now and then, or cuts Willie loose if Willie's defenses continue to get gashed (see the fourth quarter for evidence of gashing.)
Hell, I'll forgive CWM if the D steps up and forget anything that happened before. But, until it happens, I'm not going to like it. I'm personally not letting up on criticism of the play of the D, nor am I going to forget the DC simply because he hasn't suited up. Same with the offense.
It's easy to deride complaining and criticism, but this is a lot like life. We only complain about the things we care about. If nobody cared, this forum could be a warm and fuzzy bake sale of a thing where everybody chirped happily about all the good things Dawg. We could give over the nailbiting and hair pulling in favor of warm milk accolades, ignoring the negative because it somehow marks us as less faithful than those who choose to ignore the bad or at least not cast light upon it.
But I'm a fan. A DAWG fan. Correctly, a DAWG fanatic.
It means something to me when a running back, carrying the burden of my hopes on his shoulders, continuously trips at the merest touch of a finger. One time I can forgive, five...six times...those are my hopes he's carrying. Same with the QB. Same with the D. Same with the DC...etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum.
Some of us never got to rip a touchdown out of the hands of a beleaguered QB in the endzone, and enjoy the spiritual awakening of winning a game on a highlight reel play. Some of us have only got as close as the back side of the hedges to the field. It doesn't lessen our joy and anguish at the play of the team. There are the hopes of millions riding on Saturdays in the fall, and if those charged with carrying them let us down, I don't think it's too much to ask forgiveness if we piss and moan a little by way of dealing with our disappointment.
Nobody came here to say they're done with the Dawgs. Won't ever happen. The loss didn't stop me from slapping a big 'ol in-your-face-mullet-wearing-gators-of-soutwest-florida oval g on the back of my Titan because I was now ashamed to be a Dawg.
I'm a fan. A DAWG fan. A DAWG fanatic.
Lose 'em all and me and my hopes will be back next year, giddy like a child on Christmas Eve as the season begins. When we win, I'll sing it loud to anyone who will listen. But again, I'm a fan, a fanatic, and if the team loses don't expect me to go quietly, or not speak my mind about the game.
I owe my hopes at least that much.
Go DAWGS.
"The freedom of individuals to verbally to oppose or to challenge police actions without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state."