A few years ago I was taking in the sites and sounds of the saddest team on planet earth, the Colorado Rockies. They were going through their normal ‘June swoon’ and were on quite the losing streak. The game I was at featured a Rockies team that scored seven runs in the first three innings only to lose in heart-breaking fashion by a score of 12-7. I think they were playing the Cardinals, but it does not matter. No professional team should score a plethora of runs so quickly and lose.
Being a paying fan, I booed. I was pissed. The Rockies lost control of the game and gave up. A professional athlete should never quit, especially with all that coin they take home once a week. An old, senile man in front of me – decked out in purple – said to his wife “I hate when little f—ers boo our team.” That old man clearly had no idea what it means to be a fan.
If you are a fan that has ever said or wrote on the Twitter “Always proud of my *insert team name here, no matter what,” here are some pom-poms and a mini-skirt you are officially a cheerleader. If you are a fan that says, “They put in too much work, you cannot be angry at them,” your fan card has hereby been revoked. You are really bad at being a true fan, and need to be punished.
Since when has complacency taken over the desire to win? Nowadays, if you want to be considered a loyal fan, you better be happy all the time. If you bad-mouth your team, you are just a hater. Wow you hater. How dare you expect better out of your team. When the Lions went 0-16, in 2008 did fans not deserve to boo, and be angry with management and players?
By a lot of your standards, not at all. Those players went to practice, put in the work, and still lost. Well, shucks there is always next year, at least you tried hard. No! Expect better, damn it! After this football season I am beyond pissed at our football program. Not only did we miss a bowl game but we finished last in the Mountain division, lost to our rival Colorado and to top it all off the team rolled over by losing seven of their last eight games.
Still many of you wrote all over social media “Proud of you boys! There is still next year!” Proud? What pride is there in losing by 49 to Boise State? What pride is there in losing to a hapless New Mexico program? This football season was an embarrassment. The only way for Craig Bohl to achieve his ‘culture shift’ here in Laramie is if the students, and the fan base, hold the team accountable for winning. He would be the first person to tell you that, too.
This does not mean to give up on the team. I am loyal till the end with the Wyoming Cowboys. I want them to win as badly as anyone else. But that does not mean I will continually be happy when over the last two years we have secured nine wins. Do not dare call me a fair-weather fan. I show up every week only to watch this team fall flat on its face. If you disagree send me an email, let me know how awful a Cowboy I am. Ask yourself, are you a fan or a cheerleader?
