Since just about everyone else in the Michigan blogosphere has made comments, I figured it was time for me to weigh in on the subject of BOOING. Apparently that took place in large quantities at Michigan Stadium on Saturday.There is a fine line between being a fan and being an idiot. I find the type of fan that would boo your own players one minute and then cheer loudly for them the next minute to be -- untrustworthy.
A few simple thoughts I would ask you to consider:
1) Booing your favorite college football team in your stadium is not acceptable. These are 18-24 year old kids working their asses off. Yes, your purchased ticket gives you the right, but it is not OK.
2) The players can not tell the difference between booing the coaching and booing their play. That excuse is off the table.
3) It is OK to boo a bad call by the ref and poor sportsmanship.
3) If you feel frustrated with the quality or style of play, I would suggest you talk to the person next you about suggestions for improvement, stand up walk out and get a coke, or yell something constructive like DEEEFENSE or LET'S GO BLUE.
4) You do not know more about football that the current staff of coaches. You may have coached your kids soccer or baseball team, but you do not know more about THIS team at THIS moment.
5) You are not a better football player than the dudes in the cool winged helmets. You may have played in high school or even in college, but you could not play QB better than Steven Threet right now.
If you disagree with me, I assume it is because you have a passionate love for the program. If this is the case, look at it simply as an investment in our future... What recruit in his right mind would want to come to play for a school that has idiotic booing fans when they can choose another place with passionate adoring fans ?
This system re-construction project is going to take a long time. The debate on "is RR the right guy" or "should it have occurred this way" has long past, get over it. In the future, there will be pathetic moments like the first 10 minutes of the Notre Dame game -- AND there will also be glorious moments like the 4th quarter of the Wisconsin game. If you can't take the bumpy ride, do us all a favor and hop off the bandwagon. There will be plenty of room for you when things get better.
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28 comments:
perfect. Best take I've read on the booing so far.
I was at the game on Saturday. Some guys sitting in front of us left midway through the 3rd quarter - and then actually came back after hearing the cheers of our first TD.
You are correct - no fan should ever boo for their team, never ever, ever!
I agree that no one should boo their own team. I never have and I also have only left a game early because of other plans (nephews wedding - a whole other issue). You mentioned booing being acceptable for poor sportsmanship. This brings up another of my concerns. I know I this is going to sound bad to some, but why does everyone have to yell out "who cares" when the other team is announced and "you suck" when the band plays temptation after a third down stop. Maybe we should think about what kind of sportsmanship that displays to the other team. I want Michigan to beat everyone but would like for all the fans to display true Michgan sportsmanship. The other team is 18-22 year olds just like our team and we should think about that also.
I am all for making the visiting teams uncomfortable with the noise level and organized cheers. We don't want them to feel welcome. The "who cares" during intrductions bit is a fun tradition at Michigan Stadium. In my opinion it is harmless.
However, the "you suck" thing at the end of Temptation is a recent phenomenon (I can only guess it migrated over from the Yost Ice Arena crowd). It makes me cringe everytime I hear it, to the point where I don't want the band to play that tune anymore. I guess I will have to write it off as "generation" thing.
Booing is a part of sports and will be there in every facet of it. The players and coaches "boo" in a way with their reactions and body language (throwing headsets, dumb personal fouls, etc.) Booing does not mean that you're a fair weather fan. In fact I think it's exactly the opposite. If you are going to take the time to boo it shows that you still support the team and want them to turn things around. If you stand up and leave that just shows that you're only going to be there for the good. Fans have no outlets to participate than to cheer and boo. That gets them in the game and for that I have no problem with booing. I'd rather have 95,000 people stay to the end of the game and boo then look around and see 50,000 empty seats. That would hurt recruiting more.
If you want to talk about bad behavior at The Big House there are several things that could and should change. The "key play" on third downs is ridiculous. Can you imagine if every single person there was jingling their keys and not yelling? It would be almost quiet and the opposing team would love it. They need to just focus on a D-fense chant or something else. Yes also after a stop on thrid down and the students yell you suck is also quite ridiculous. Especially when, like in Saturday's game, MI is losing 19-0 to Wisconsin but yet w still think "they suck." Please. For my final burn do we really need to copy every other program's fan base? Or more specifically Penn State's. There never was a "Maize out" until PSU started their "White Out." Now we have this "block M" which looked like a block M drawn by someone with a handicap. At times during the game it looked like it was morphing into something else. Can we as a fan base not come up with our own unique way to support the team? And if not do we even need to?
the white out was around before PSU. The fans of the Winnepeg Jets would do it while there was still a team there. That tradition carried on to the Coyotes. Now it seems every team is doing a white out, red out, blue out, maize out and whatever. While it looks neat, it is old school.
Old school it may be I don't remember it hitting the national stage in college football until PSU played O$U a few years ago and they called it their "white out" and then PSU beat O$U and knocked them out of the NC picture. Then it seemed like the next big game MI had was when they tried to start the "Maize out" and it failed miserably. I'm sorry I don't care if it's a "maize out" if I'm going to the game I'm going to wear my expensive jersey not my 5 dollar maize t-shirt. Now with the block M thing it just seems that MI fans are posers.
I agree 100%. Fair weather fans are not desirable. I am true blue all the way. (Or as "the boy" says "you are such a homer!") I would never boo the team, nor did I like it when they did on Saturday.
Sitting in the student section you feel the full force of the "you suck" chant and I wish I could crawl into a hole every single time.
As for the Maize out, I don't really care where it originated or who else does it, the student section looks awesome all in maize and I think it would be tremendous if the entire stadium looked like that. I bought a maize hoodie last year for the cool weather games, just so I could still be in maize.
Just my opinion.
I had seen this a few days ago and could not remember where so I googled it again just now. Thanks, Hammm for reminding me of this. I like the Maize out in the student section but did not like the attempt at the block M.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/09/06/nhl_wants_trademark_white_out.aspx
Hey guys, dissing on the block M in the student section isn't cool. You have to hand it to them for trying something creative. Could you do better at organizing anything for game day in the crowd? It was a creative idea, it didn't turn out as good as I am certain that they had hoped for, but school spirit needs to be encouraged, not discouraged!
(Maize and Blue cards would be fun to try!!)
Hamm,
You couldn't be more wrong about booing the team.
Was I extremely disappointed ? Yes. I wouldn't ever boo the team. As a fan, you are here to encourage the team. Notice that I didn't say coddle. You can still vocalize your displeasure, and support the team. "Now, let's make a play!", "Do something offense!", "The D did their job, now it's your turn!", etc, etc, etc. Or you could always go with: "Go Blue". These are 18-22 year old kids that bust their ass. Give them a little respect.
How do you think those recruits felt listening to "fans" boo the team they were thinking about playing for?
I was not really trying to diss the attempt at a block M, I just think that it did not turn out as well as it could have. It has to be very hard to organize so I guess I was a little tough on this comment. Maybe they should paint the seats with a block M design like on the eastern side of the field and then the students sitting there would know what color to wear and it would also look good with the stadium empty. It also needs to be larger to really stand out.
Another observation. I really like it when the team comes over to sing "The Victors" with the band and students after a win. I hope this happens several more times this season.
Also, did anyone stay to watch the Wisconsin band after the Michigan band show was finished? After the Michigan band left the field, the Wisconsin band did their normal post game routine for the few hundred Badger fans who stayed and those of us M fans who were still around. The M band is obviously much better at marching and playing, but the Wisconsin band really seemed to be having fun (even after the loss).
In looking back at my previous comment with the website address attached I realized that I did not explain this very well. This is an article about the Coyotes having a trademark on the term "White Out" and PSU getting in trouble for using it. I think this kind of thing is really silly and don't get the point of trademarking a phrase like that. I guess Pat Riley started it by getting a trademark for the term "ThreePeat" and it just continues. By the way, you will have to copy and paste the name into your browser since I obviously do not know how to imbed it properly.
"dissing on the block M in the student section isn't cool. You have to hand it to them for trying something creative. Could you do better at organizing anything for game day in the crowd?"
I don't have a problem with their effort but they aren't being "creative" or original at all. If you are going to do something that someone else has already done it needs to look like it's done well. Albeit a good attempt it just makes the fans more seem like posers. I also do love that the student section is in maize but when you try n make the whole crowd maize then you really can't even tell where the students are. I think it would be better and more original if they asked the crowd to be all in blue and then the students in Maize. At least then it would be a purely MI thing. If they want to try and do a block m however impossible it would be to really stand out they should do the visiting sideline where it is already painted. That would be impossible though since that would involves thousands of fans and most of them are the richer uppity class with their 50 yard line tickets.
I will never agree with the argument on booing. Saying that if you boo you are not truly a fan is ridiculous. Look at some of the bigger franchises in the NFL for example. When you compile a list of teams with the biggest and best fan bases you see a lot of times they are also the hardest on the team itself. For example Philly Chicago and Cleveland have huge fan bases around the country and especially at their home games yet they have no problem letting the team hear their displeasure. Although these are still "just college kids" when you come to play at a place like MI you are playing in the national spotlight and you will get all the cheers and criticism that comes with it. If this were USC the fans wouldn't even boo they would just leave. Had the USC Oregon State game been played in LA those fans would have all left after half and not even booed. Thye don't care about their team they care about the glitz of LA. In MI and other places we care about our team and therefore stick it out.
I am all for being loud, standing and most of all witty retort whether it be at my own team, the Refs and especially the opposing team.
The "you suck" chant is most definitely a carry over the Yost Ice Arena. The thing I hate most about that chant is that 80% of students and fans do a tomahawk chop. WE ARE NOT FSU, UTAH or any other school with an indian mascot. Either make a fist as in bring the hammer down or turn your hand over and make a claw, but stop with the chop.
Numerous Yost cheers have been attempted at the Big House much to the dismay of many.
Perhaps a new feature here at the Spawn of the MZone
1. Top Ten Michigan Cheers or witty retort
2. What is the worse cheer at Michigan
3. Come up with a new unique tradition that could be started at the Big House
Now if we could only get the fan base in the stadium to stand up and make noise on every opposing teams offensive downs we'd be golden.
We need to design a cheer that gets everyone going and not just "key 3rd downs" ... every down.
Undoubtely I will be sitting in the alumni section this week. If you see a large blonde hair guy yelling and encouraging the alumni around him to get up and make some noise you've found me.
GO BLUE -- GET LOUD!
tuo$, wisky, i owe the world an apology have loud stadiums because they use the electronics, microphones and speakers to get the crowd worked into a frenzy.
On trademark of the white out....I bet the Evil Bettman is behind that somehow....Bastard.
I don't like it when other teams say "suck". it seems classless but then I think back to the 1997 Stanley Cup. After every Wing was announced, the crowd said, "sucks". That suckey team then proceeded to take down the Flyers in four games. It was awesome. Vladdy laid some of the incredible open ice hits and McCarty's goal to seal the deal was awesome. that's why I think we shouldn't say, "you suck".
Hamm-
The words I wrote may have reached you differently than I intended. If I came across as saying "you're not a real fan", than I chose my words poorly.
My objective was to state that we should encourage the team, instead of providing negative sentiments.
I think booing is detrimental. Notice I never said we should accept lack of effort or quitting, and the team didn't show us either of those traits throughout the game.
Your opinion is yours, and that's fine. I just wanted to expound a little.
I never was offended. I just don't think the boo bashing is as founded as most may believe. To me it comes off just like when the people tell you to sit down why are you standing. Booing is part of sports especially when you get to a big stage like MI. I'm not saying that I would go boo a team of 8 year olds playing football no but when you get to a place like MI you have chosen to play there because it is the big time. If they were booing because Wisconsin was completely shutting them down defensively then no it wouldn't be right but to boo a team that had fumbled the ball 11 times in two games is perfectly fine. These are fundamental skills and their focus obviously is lax, whether by the player's fault or the coaches. They are all too good to play like that and the second half showed that. There are highs and lows in everything.
Hamm:
We will agree to disagree on this one.
I feel it is perfectly OK to boo a professional player or team when they deserve it. They are getting paid to perform -- and when they do not, it is up to the fans to express themselves. I don't feel the same way about college players, no matter where they play.
About the "you suck" issue - it is a generational thing. I did many stupid things when I was a college kid, including buying a F*CK NOTRE DAME hat for $10 before a game and selling it after the game (but before I saw my mother at the tailgate) for $20.
I hope it passes.
They weren't booing....
They were saying Boo--urns....
the student section chanting "you suck" is pretty tame, isn't it? yeah, i may consider it poor form, but i'm old (and use phrases like "poor form"). it's hardly vulgar and frankly, i can't see discouraging anything that gets fans on their feet doing something other than jingling car keys.
as for booing, where do you draw the line? biggest "cheer" in the first half came on our first punt return that did NOT result in a fumble. 100,000 people stood up & cheered (half heartedly, mind you). is that too insulting? not supporting the team?
kids aren't stupid. they know a "big" cheer for a fair catch after a couple of fumbles is not really a "cheer", even if it's not a "boo". is that out of bounds? i hope not.
point is that fans are going to express their emotions, good or bad. in 25 years of regular attendance, i've only heard the crowd boo the team on a handful of occassions. halftime Saturday was one of them. based on the performance, i'm surprised it wasn't louder.
let's keep one thing in mind- if the miracle comeback hadn't happened, how much time would we all be spending debating the propriety of booing?
Booing reveals a lack of family values.
- Justin Boren as channeled through whetstonebuck
Justin should be very comfortable in Columbus. They have the best fans in the country.
as long as the Michigan student section does not adopt the "little brother" 'tradition' of saying "1, 2, 3, first down bitch!" after every first down, I will be pleased...
Andy,
I'm just an instrument. Don't fight it.
SiC,
Yes, that makes me a tool. That was too easy. Come up with something else.
"tuo$....have loud stadiums because they use the electronics, microphones and speakers to get the crowd worked into a frenzy"
you couldn't be more wrong about OSU. we're loud because we love football - we don't need no stinkin' electronics, microphones, or speakers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtnW7RGuckA
that's us being loud in YOUR stadium - no electronics needed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIVuEKAA4uQ
and indiana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA-V7g0GXL8&feature=related
and purdue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA-V7g0GXL8&feature=related
and northwestern
now to be fair, i was at the northwestern/michigan game in evanston last year and i DID hear some keys jangling ;)
Seriously guys. Booing has been around for years. It is a harmless three letter word that illustrates fans displeasure in the play of their team, nothing more, nothing less. It is not at all classless.
There are far worse things coming out of the mouths of fans all over the nation. And if you think booing gets into the heads of our players, then they are not ready for big time college ball.
Seriously, when did we get so soft.
Sports is about performance. When you stink you get booed. I don't do it but I've had my share and still survived without killing anyone.
I went to a Black out at South Carolina once. It was about 95 that day and people were droping like flies.
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