How high and mighty we've become.

I've been reading some posts recently where "veterans of this site" seem to have had their feathers ruffled by "new kids" and it's reminded me again of how fortunate we are to have a good football team to root for. But even more, it's reminded me of the absurdity of this notion that it's appropriate for long-time fan bloggers to take ownership of a free site, open to everyone, and to denigrate newcomers just because they "haven't put in their time." 

First of all, it's a damn shame we're not all together on this. Sharing opinions, arguing and debating is fun, and we all love to do it, but to ignore new fans (and even call them fairweather fans or bandwagon jumpers just because they're new) is to literally look a gift horse in the mouth. Part of having a successful franchise is generating a lot of interest from fans all across the enthusiasm spectrum. The way some of these "newbies" are being treated around here, it sounds like some of you guys don't even want them around; like Stampede Blue is all of a sudden some sort of exclusive club. If you're okay shutting them out from blogs are you attempting to monopolize Colts fandom? I'd be willing to bet that if only "informed" Colts fans that made salient points on this (and other) Colts blogs came to Lucas Oil Stadium on game days, it would be awfully quiet in there.

Secondly, I think it's time to step off the high horse all together. As nice as it is to pretend that we're authorities on Colts football because we devote a lot of time and energy studying it and discussing it on blogs, there's absolutely no one reading our thoughts except for each other. We should treat this like a glorified, edit-able barroom argument. Snarky at times, but overall, polite and open to new opinions. No one cares (or should care) how old you are, how long you've been a Colts fan, or what city you're from. There aren't any merit badges to earn. We're all Colts fans, fair and square. And believe me, I've fallen victim to this mentality too. I'm a season ticket holder who pays $1200 a year to see the Colts play, so you're damn right I feel like I've earned a spot among the upper echelon of Colts fans in the Colts VIP room. But I haven't. No one has. We're all just fans, and we don't have anything to prove.