Go Boo Yourself
LSU fans are a fickle bunch. The coach is always wrong. The backup QB is always better than the starter, at least until he gets into the game. I don’t have ESPNU, so I was unable to watch the game last night against La. Tech. That didn’t stop me tuning into the radio. There are a few givens when listening to the LSU Sports Radio Network. First, optimism reigns supreme to start the game. Second, Jim Hawthorne is going to call several players by the wrong name. And third, you are going to hear boos.
I don’t know what it is about TV, but the boos are much louder on the radio. Maybe they turn down the crowd mikes for TV. The SEC has an image to protect, after all. The radio is different. The microphones pick them up loud and clear. Hawthorne and his broadcast partner become quite uncomfortable. It’s painful to hear.
Why are LSU fans booing? After all, they bleed purple and gold. They live and die for this team. They call every radio show in town to voice their opinion about plays that would have worked. They never understand why the coaching staff isn’t smart enough to think of these things if they can.
There is one thing you can always count on with LSU fans – there isn’t a bigger group of front running cowards in the country than the people that sit in Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night, screaming at the top of their lungs to boo a kid that is young enough to be their own. Cut the crap about “We’re booing the coaches, not the players” angle that you will spend the week telling Jimmy Ott and Buddy Songy after you sober up and feel guilty for embarrassing yourself. The fact is you booed Jarrett Lee yet again last night. I know he threw more than his share of Pick 6s last year, but he’s still an LSU student that is trying his best and doesn’t deserve the treatment you are giving him.
It’s pretty typical of you to eat your young like that, Tiger fan. You booed JaMarcus Russell when he was here, too, until it was convenient for you to tout him once he was drafted first in the NFL. And you booed Nick Saban for every loss when he was here, too. You complain about Jordan Jefferson, so you get Jarrett Lee. Now you turned on him and want Russell Shepherd. Why? So you can destroy his psyche as well? Have you figured out that players talk to recruits and tell them what’s going on? Have you figured out that no one wants to play for a fanbase that is waiting to turn on them? I’m not even going to get into the leaving early, the late arriving student section, how none of you know how to use a trash can, the adding profanities to every song the band plays, or worst of all, the wave.
Every single “adult” out there that gets a stiffy for booing kids should rethink your priorities. You can’t throw any better than #12. You can’t block better than T-Bob. You can’t do anything better than Chad Jones, one of the few players that you haven’t destroyed yet. These are all the same kids that you take the day off of work for every February to go celebrate their ability to use a fax machine. What happens to the passion and promise of THAT day?
Next time you are screaming at this terrible band of misfits that, by the way, could go 10-2, remember the 15 or so years that you had Archer, Hallman, and Gerry D patrolling the sidelines. You want to talk about some bad teams. And you know what? Not a single one of those players deserved to be booed either.
