Whiney Fans Annoy Me

I think the difference between whiney fans and other fans are that the whiney ones, you can see as kids they were the kind of kids that screamed in the ice cream aisle as Safeway when they did not get their way. Those are the kind of fans who make these great sweeping statements about a program (SEC fans, for example) and base it on one or two examples. The SEC IS GREAT BECAUSE GEORGIA BEAT ARIZONA STATE ON THE ROAD LAST YEAR!!! Never mind that Georgia was supposed to win the national championship and Arizona State was a second tier Pac 10 team last year.

It is those SEC fans who do not understand the Pac 10, and reason why there is an East Coast bias. It is because in any given year, one team is great, and then two or three years later, that team is not so good in the Pac 10. There are only a few programs that are consistently good in the Pac 10. And it is cyclical over time as well. Washington State in the 90's and early this century was great. Now, not so much. In three years, who knows. Same with Washington. Oregon State is a good case in point. In fact, the only team that really has never been much of a factor at the top of the conference is Arizona, and they never schedule BCS conferences during their out of conference schedule. But even they have been a bowl team on occasion, and they have been good enough to take Cal or Oregon or Oregon State out of pretty good seasons. In other words, there are no truly horrible teams over time. Not even the Bears - we had a decent set of years in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. But it was not until this decade where we finally seemed to be elevated to the top tier of the conference for a decent duration. So as you look at these things, and you see that USC seems to be dominating, and no consistent threat seems to be coming up (except, I would say Cal and Oregon, and Cal is better), then as an east coast guy, you think - man, they must all suck. Never mind that your conference has the best record against all other conferences over the course of the decade, or that you won all of your bowl games. But it is those kind of whiney little SEC fans that I am comparing Cal fans to.

Cal fans in general have to be the biggest bunch of whiners in the history of college football. I mean, really (by the way, I welcome comments to prove my point). I was on linked-in, the business networking site, and I was checking out the Cal alumni group. There was some discussion on the Bears, which was started by saying, we are ranked #10 (where he got that, I do not know) but that undoubtedly we were doomed for another disappointing season. After a bunch of folks sent in tidbits to say, "dude, what's up with all your negativity, Cal is at the best place it has been for a while, he responds:

"This discussion has turned into a comparison of coaching eras. There is no comparison since Tedford is by far the best that we've had in modern ball.

However, if you can't admit that Tedford's teams have broken your heart, you're not a fan. We have been so close to greatness and choke every time. 2004 was the best chance and blew it against USC and then choked in the bowl game when we were snubbed. We had virtual Heisman candidates at the QB (Rodgers) and RB(Arrington) positions an excellent receiving corp (McArthur and McKonnen), nasty front-lines on both sides of the ball and quite a stout defense.

The talent hasn't been SC caliber, but there is no denying that a number of the teams we have put on the field in the past 5 years should have worked their way to a BCS bowl.

Tedford is not a big game coach. I love the guy, but he can't be one of the best until he wins the big games and I'm not talking about beating Stanford and UCLA."

I was going to reply on Linked-In, but it seems like that may be a bit of professional suicide. The type of language that I was going to use was not appropriate for a professional forum - so I thought: Blog.

Here was what I wrote before better I thought better:

"Tedford has won big games. He has also lost some. He beat USC in 2003 in a pretty big game. He beat Michigan State at Michigan State (Ranked 12) in 2002 in a pretty big game at the time. He is 6-1 in Bowl games, which generally are pretty big games. He beat Oregon at Oregon two years ago to become ranked #2 in the country, in what was a pretty big game. If you mean he hasn't beaten USC except for once, and lost on the road at Tennessee, then I guess you are right. But to say that he can not win a big game is just wrong. Losing in 2004 on the last play to the #1 team in the country on the road is not choking. We may have had two possible candidates for the Heisman, but they did have the actual Heisman winner on their team.

It turns out having a QB who is capable and uninjured is probably pretty important. Cal has been the second best team in the Pac 10 since Tedford has been there. Based on recruiting geography, we are never going to overtake USC as a program, unless they get dinged by the NCAA. But we will beat them every once in a while, and we will win the Pac 10 in those years.

We are making big strides in recruiting this year, with out best year ever. With the SAHPC, an upgraded stadium and overall improved performance, we will continue to be a force in the Pac 10 and Nationally."

But here is what I really wanted to write:

Look, loser-boy - if you are tired of your LA SC Neighbors bagging on you and you can't formulate an argument to get those losers off your back - that is your problem. But stop whining to the world about something you clearly have no sense talking about.

I see it a lot in the LA fans - those who only get to see the Bears lose in So Cal. Stop whining and get on a plane. It is $100 roundtrip. If you can't afford the juice, shut up.

Anyway, I guess I am really just pissed because I expect that whiny stuff in the sports pages, but when I am on a networking site, and hit with this idiocy, then it really grinds my chops.

GO BEARS!!