That this was interesting. Below is a great email I received from one of my longtime readers yesterday. Reader comments:[SIZE=-1] I want to convey to you a feeling I have concerning the LSU football season. I have been a dyed-in-the-wool, purple and gold freak my entire life . I lived in Tiger Stadium for 4 years while going to school with no A/C and only one phone for the entire floor. We were lovers of LSU football. We, meaning the students and the fans. We had football games marked in the summer and planned our good times around those games. We had something to look forward to, something we cherished as part of our lives, something to make us feel good about life and something we felt lucky to be a part of. I now see a growing sense of apathy, a total disregard for what made us who we are and a constant dislike for one part of the program or the other. We seem to degrade the players, coaches, and even the announcers on each bad game, each small mistake, each stump of the toe. We seem to be disgruntled at each weakness, no matter how minute, and we harp on the negative aspect of how we performed at each level. What happened to the fans who loved the Tigers in big games, small games and even the ones that made no difference in how we finished in the SEC ? What happened to the student section being the one part you could always look at and see thousands of students cheering with the band next to them the entire game ? I know things have changed since I was there, but the idea of our fan base being this whiny, mean, negative, weak blob it has become, is obscene. If we lose the fever that once ran in our veins for the Tigers, we are back to being like every other school with too many fair weather fans with no personality and no soul. This year as been particularly painful with the way our home games have been scheduled. We are still the Tiger Nation--playing the good teams and bad teams-that has the reputation of Tiger Stadium being the best place to watch a college football game in the USA. How many schools can boast of that ? With the night games, the rabid fan base, the best marching band in the country more than once and we still find a thousand reasons to complain. Do you realize what we have with LSU football ? Even up here in Atlanta, each time I mention I went to LSU, each person says "Oh, that Tiger Stadium, why we went to a night game there once and blah, blah, blah. You get my point. I hate to see the demise of the frenzied crowd, the packed house, the noise the equals a 727 at takeoff. I want this apathy to end. It is hurting LSU nationwide and it is opening a wound that will heal very slowly if we don't watch it. Please realize what a beautiful monster we have in LSU football. Let's show it the respect it deserves and geaux back to being the place that makes memories for each visiting fan that comes to experience it. We owe it that much.[/SIZE]
He doesn't mention the last time he was at a game. How would he know what TS is like now? I was extremely impressed with the crowd for the Kentucky game. I never saw so many camera flashes for what was more than likely going to be a blow out. It was also the loudest I have heard it all season. Everything he is complaining about comes with being a top tier program. When you win like LSU does it is expected by the fans every Saturday and anything less than what the they expect will cause apathy. Get over it and just enjoy watching the tigers play. It wasn't long ago we were tearing the goal posts down for every game we won. And people complained about that too. Got Vaseline?
Absolutely. And if you think wanting the best for the tigers by bashing our coaches or players makes you a better fan - you are wrong.
It's not apathy. Everybody loves the Tigers and Tiger games. It's more a case of immaturity. I suspect most of the biggest complainers have been fans since 2002 or 2003.
Exactly. And he doesn't tell us where he is gathering this sense of apathy from. Is it radio shows, games on TV, message boards, his friend by the water cooler or bingo hall? It's kind of harsh to degrade all LSU fans based on a handful of bags that call in radio shows or post ignorant comments on the internet.
I'd say the crowds at Tiger Stadium are more apathetic than they used to be, but it is mostly due to such inferior competition. We've never had a team so good where all we played were teams so bad at home. But still, I think it is sad how the fans attitudes have changed so much in the past few years.
I think it has more to do with changes in our society over the years. People are different today than 40 years ago ... more rude, vocal, violent, etc. That behavior carries over into everything we do, inlcuding being a fan. Those days are long gone...
Yeah. Can you believe the bathing suits women wear today? It's disgusting. They didn't wear them like that 40 years ago. :hihi:
I think this guy may be a bit overboard, but he is right.Tiger fans in general have become unbelievably impatient...
