Fanatics

Fanatic: n.
A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause.

Or a team.

Unreasoning is key. There is nothing that is or isn't out when it comes to being a fanatic. I happen to think that either there is a great misunderstanding about what it is to be a fan, or that criticism aimed at \"unreasonableness\" is simply a deflection from the real problem with a specific cause.

Or team.

I'm a fanatic. I'm a Georgia Bulldog fanatic and if there is a more unreasonable, passionate cause in the world, I don't know what it is. I came to Georgia during the Dooley years of the late 80s, suffered all the way through Jim Donnan, and finally landed upon the era of Mark Richt.

Mark Richt has given the Dawgs a reason for high expectations, but also fuel for unreasoning expectations. Anybody who understands what it is to love the Dawgs would never question the rise and fall of emotions that accompanies fanatics through the fall. We want to win. When we win, we glow. When we lose, we growl. It's that simple. Some of us growl louder than others. Some criticize the coaches, some the players, and some both. Seldom do we give credit to the opponent; it's just not done. We win because we were better. We lose because we beat ourselves. If there's any other explanation that fits the mentality of the \"fanatic\" then I don't know what it is.

It's that simple.

I write the \"Section 109\" bits as a form of catharsis for what I feel after games. That was where I saw most of my games while attending UGA. It's where I was introduced to Herschel, Larry, and Lewis. It's where a kid from England learned to appreciate southern accents, southern women, and Georgia football. Georgia is where I lost my love of fish and chips and found grits and cornbread and Popeye's fried chicken. I happen to feel that my wayward stork got blown off course. I was meant for Athens, not the Cotswolds, but I'm better for both experiences. I cannot separate my love for the Dawgs from the passion such love requires. When the Dawgs beat Auburn to make it to the SEC championship game, I was higher than a kite. They could have kicked kittens instead of extra points and I'd have defended it to the end. Today is the opposite of that feeling. I don't care if the team that played today finds a cure for world hunger on the way home, I'm pissed and I'm not going to hide it.

But I'll be back next week. Why? Simply because I'm a Georgia Bulldog fanatic. This team is like my kids. I'll forgive them anything they do, but don't expect me to be quiet in the process of forgiveness.

So it comes to this that today there was criticism of the reactions of fans on the site to the dismal play of the Dawgs. To whit I say \"so what?\" It's not the griping, critical fan who is the problem. I'll promise you that every one of THOSE fans will die a Dawg. Remember, we're unreasoning. Try to make sense of that and you might as well try to teach the world Quechua (it's a nearly dead language, btw.)

Fanatics feel every victory, every defeat, as thought we were playing on the field. It is so very far from the truth to say that we don't know anything because we might never have played a down. It is the very essence of the fanatic that, at our core, we are lifted higher or beaten down by the outcomes of the games. It's passion defined. Remember what T. Roosevelt said?

\"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.\"

We know victory and defeat, and we suffer much and enjoy much because of it. We dare entertain the idea of a national championship every year. We are Fanatics.

Can you imagine the team whose fans never complain? It's like a nation whose populace never rises up against tyranny, or a victim who remains silent out of fear. All these things carry the common outcome of having nothing change. In this we exchange unreasoning for madness, and it is unacceptable.

It might come as a shock to some here, but fanaticss are the single most important component of any team. Why? Simply because if the fanatics didn't come to games, there would be no games. Bite off a piece of THAT reasoning, chew it a while, and taste the flavor of truth.

Or prove me wrong with a counter point.

But never, under any circumstance, criticize the passion of the fan base. We don't have to play football to know a stinker when we see one, despite Joe Cox's contention that our opinions don't count. If it wasn't for the love of the Dawg fan, there would be no reason to come to Georgia to play football. We earned the right to call out players and coaches when we decided to dedicate ourselves to the finest institution of higher learning anywhere. It's rent for our passion and conviction, and we expect it to be paid in full on demand. Joe Cox claims to love the school, but would Joe Cox give up his spot for the betterment of the team? No, not voluntarily. Yet supposedly, Joe Cox has more insight into what it is to be a Dawg fan than I do, some how his point of view carries more weight than those of the thousands of fans who just witnessed one of the poorest performances from anyone wearing that uniform in the past 20 years. And please, correct me on that if you disagree. I pick on Joe because I've realized that he doesn't get the fans, and because it is his burden to bear as the leader of our Dawgs. He sees us as an annoyance, yet unimportant. I suggested we wear brown paper bags as a tangible show of our displeasure, yet that comment brought out the boo-birds moreso than Joe's performance today. There are fans who don't get it, either.

Still, next week I'll be cheering on the Dawgs, hoping for a win. We don't bet on the same horse if it loses every race. We don't vote for politicians who get caught with their pants down. We fire our employees for poor performance. Yet when it comes to the Dawgs, we always, always come back. Why? Can you explain it? It's unreasonable.

It's called \"fanatic.\"

I agree 100% limey. I would be very disappointed if there were no grumbling and griping after a loss--that would indicate no passion from the fan base. And I think there was only 1 boo-bird from your paper bag post--I for one realized it was mostly tongue in cheek.

Well said.
We are too talented a team to play like we did today.
I suffered through the Goff years. I don't want to suffer like that again,

You summed it up nicely and I couldn't agree more. I was born and bred a Dawg and will be until the day I die; but on days like today you have to wonder why, and you want to just get out there yourself and do it for them, even though you know it would be suicide on your part!! Lets not forget either that we have been going to UGA games longer than these boys have even been alive, I think that does give us a right to kick and scream and throw our tantrums at times like this; however, as you said, we WILL be back next week and for every other game, cheering just as loud as we were today. GO DAWGS!!

LimeyDawg wrote:

They could have kicked kittens instead of extra points and I'd have defended it to the end.

Thanks for that mental image. At least that would have made the game a little more fun to watch today.

I'll say one thing about fanatics, and then I'll go.

Coming into the game Saturday, Tennessee was 2-3 with wins over Western Kentucky and Ohio...not much to be happy about. On the shuttle on the way to the stadium and at the tailgate I spent time at before the game, Vol fans were resigned to their fate. \"We'll need a miracle to beat you,\" one said. \"Maybe we can hope for a flash of brilliance,\" said another. The local radio talking head even said, \"The only way we're gonna beat Georgia is if they beat themselves with stupid penalties and turnovers.\"

BUT:

On their first defensive series -- their FIRST, on FIRST DOWN, not third-and-short, their FIRST OF THE GAME, not the first one in the second quarter with a big lead -- Neyland Stadium got louder than I've EVER heard Sanford Stadium get except for the 2004 LSU game and the 2007 Auburn game. This is a fanbase resigned to a 2-10 season. This is a fan base that had NOTHING to get excited about, a fan base with no quarterback, no receivers and no hope. Sanford Stadium didn't get that loud when Georgia came into the stadium ranked #1 last year. It didn't get that loud when Stafford hit Massaquoi in the end zone against Tech in 2006. Ditto for Walsh's game-winner against Arizona State, for Joe Cox's against Colorado, or the SEC-East clinching win over Kentucky in 2005.

Tennessee's fan base willed them to victory on Saturday. We don't have that kind of homefield advantage anymore. I'm not saying that poor fan support lost us games against LSU and Tennessee and Georgia Tech and South Carolina in recent years. Far from it: poor play did. But if I were a recruit and I went to the Georgia-South Carolina game and then to the Tennessee-Georgia game and somebody blindfolded me for each and asked me where I wanted to play, I'd say Tennessee. The ground rumbled the very first time Joe Cox took a snap. THE FIRST TIME. Now, keep in mind, I wasn't in the Tennessee student section. I wasn't deep in the bowl. I was up in the nosebleeds, surrounded by Georgia people who were being quiet when we had the ball.

So when Georgia comes home to play Tennessee Tech -- probably with a record of 4-4 -- we need to be as loud as possible. The ground needs to rumble. I don't care that it's Tennessee Tech. I don't care that Oklahoma State embarrassed us, or that LSU stole a victory, or that SCarolina hung 37 on us without an offense or that Tennessee took us behind the woodshed and made Lane Kiffin look like a great coach and Jonathan Crompton like Heisman material (by the way, if Eric Berry doesn't win -- not place, but WIN -- the Heisman this year, the voters are on drugs), and I don't care that it's a terrible team from the OVC. We need to take Sanford Stadium apart brick by brick with noise alone. Because I'll be damned if I'm going to be part of a lamer fan base than Vol Nation. That's an embarrassment I'm not willing to shoulder. PERIOD.