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Kicking Dogs & Taking Candy From A Baby
The Crimson Tide is now 4-1, working their way back up the national polls, and showing moments of greatness. There are moments of "other things" of course, and that seems to be the focus of far too many Bama fans.
Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin, Kirby Smart and all the Tide coaching staff get paid to do what they do. They know what they're doing. They've all been doing their "coaching thing" for awhile now. While they are used to criticism they get paid to coach. (The people that love to complain are right now thinking, or even say, "It comes with the territory."
What are you good at? Ever have something go wrong with what you're good at? Ever get frustrated with something you enjoy? Do you have thousands upon thousands of people shoving every single "thing" that doesn't come out right straight, directly, completely in your face? What if the people at work that currently talk behind your back were to begin tweeting it all to world, and calling you by name? Calling you incompetent, that you need to learn your job, that you're an idiot?
Of course, we're adults right? We're Amercians...the land of the free, the home of the brave, free speech and all of that. Sure! I can even run down a group of kids, call out every mistake they make, spinkle it with a few swear words, tweet it out and call it, "my right to comment".
Over the last couple of weeks the Twitter Tide group even began prefacing some of their comments with phrases like, "Lest I be thought a complainer...", or "I don't care what you say I've got the right to say this..." and even "I'm not trying to make anyone mad but...".
We've had the very same people complain about Jake Coker, then lighten up when he did a thing or two "right", only to turn on him again later. We have fans that think we should never pass the football, yet several years ago they complained the game, the team, was boring running the ball all the time. "Why can't we throw the ball sometime?" or "Why can't we pass the ball like other teams?" were just a couple of the things being said.
Saban has been pretty nice, really, when it comes to the fans. I still believe he's wrong on only 20% of the fans being bad fans. It really has to be higher than that.
Really, the flip-flopping that many fans do on Twitter would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic. In the same game one player can be both hero and villian to some of these fans. Commenting on the game, even being upset is one thing, but when it's to the point of calling these kids names...that's going to far.
You let someone talk about your "kid" the way some talk about these players and you'd be ready to fight. These players see many of the comments. They're on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the other social media platforms. I can say I don't like the pass, without calling Coker or whoever threw it a name, or insinuating (very strongly) that he's an idiot or incompetent. I'm sure that no one felt worse than Griffith missing those kicks, and I'm sure he and his family and friends would have appreciated not liking the miss without calling for his head (and worse which I won't repeat here).
Oh, I don't expect it to change. I've just set myself up as the target of their ire.
If you live near any of these fans, check their homes for that missing sock, or when your child is crying head on over there to see if he or she is the one that took the baby's candy, or when your dog yelps in pain check behind the bush to see if they are lurking there. (A little strong? I don't think so. After all, this is America. I can voice my opinion, and all the other things you guys say when going overboard on the criticism.)
Admittedly, some actually do the "criticism overload" just to have something to "say". So many love to hear their own voices, or in the case of social media, "see their words typed" with what they believe is great football insight.
So that's it. All I have to say.
Literally.
This is the last blog post. Goodbye.
