Yeah, I saw our old ESPN Page 2 punching bag Gregggggggg Easterbrook's silly article diagnosing the 'problems' plaguing the Indianapolis Colts. My favorite part was when the yutz talked about how 'predictable' the offense has become, and that this predictability was why they are currently struggling. To prove his point, He With Three Gs cited a play last season (the Tracy Porter INT in the Super Bowl) as 'proof.' However, Gregg neglected to note that the Colts rolled up 432 yards of offense in that game, and that in the playoffs Indy had waxed the top five defenses of the Ravens and the Jets.
Easterbrook is a clown, folks. Everyone knows it. You shouldn't worry when he writes stuff about the Colts. When Gregggg isn't making anti-Semitic comments at the underwhelming New Republic magazine website, he's using his Page 2 football article to spew his brand of social-political idiocy about subjects that are clearly over his head.
Nothing worse than a a self-important idiot who mixes politics and sports.
But, despite my indifference overall to Greggggggg's article, there were a few lines that got under my skin a little bit. Maybe they were designed to. After all, Gregggggg needs sites like mine to link to his crappy prose, and what better way to do that than to get 'spoiled' fans like me red-faced and angry so that I could write a long, lengthy beatdown of his naive thoughts complete with link back to the source URL. Otherwise, no one would know he wrote the stupid thing.
Anyway, here's what man with three ggs in his first name said:
Booing -- the Indianapolis home crowd was booing the Colts early in the second half Sunday night, when the contest was far from over.
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This tells us the Indianapolis fans are spoiled.
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With five weeks remaining, the Colts could still make a run -- I'd put a chip on them before I'd put it on several teams with better records. But the spoiled, booing Indianapolis spectators ought to cheer while they can because this franchise might be entering a cycle of decline.
I'm willing to bet Gregggggg hasn't taken the time to visit Lucas Oil Stadium of late, or even set foot in the city of Indianapolis unless he was catching a connecting flight somewhere else. If he did spend some time in Indy, he'd probably have some idea as to what the context was for the booing. He'd also likely understand that booing the home team when they are getting their butts kicked is no huge deal.
I mean, if Indy fans are 'spoiled' for booing bad football at home games, then Giants, Jets, Eagles, Redskins, and Browns fans make Marie Antoinette look like Mother Theresa.
While I think there is something to be said about Colts fans having high expectations, getting pissy at them for booing an under-achieving team is just another example of Greggggg acting like a pretentious schmuck. We can debate all the reasons why the Colts are underachieving (injuries, bad coaching, poor management, dumb luck, etc.), but if you told fans back in August that this Colts team would be behind the Jaguars in the AFC South as November was closing out, they'd be disappointed. The bottom line for Colts fans is that, for many of them, this season was about Super Bowl or bust, and there is nothing wrong with that mentality especially considering this team entered the 2010 season with lofty expectations.
And if people are 'concerned' that Colts fans are 'freaking out' about nothing at all, then those people should kindly explain to me why an offensive line that Bill Polian supposedly 'fixed' this off-season is getting slapped around, or why a defense that returned most its starters from last year's Super Bowl run is surrendering 136 rushing yards a game.
Colts fans are booing because they are seeing the same mistakes repeated week, after week, after week. When you see the same problems over and over again, it's kind of human nature to expect someone to, you know, fix them. When they aren't fixed, it's also human nature to express disapproval, especially when you're paying $200 bucks a pop just to sit and watch.
Also, I never understand this serf-like mentality of 'Oh, you better not boo them now because what will happen when they go into decline?'
The answer is simple: I won't boo because I won't care.
See, fans boo because they are invested in the team and want to express their disapproval when the team isn't performing to their expectations. The fan is the customer. You'd voice disapproval if you paid for a foamed latte and they gave you a warm cup of piss, right? Same is true here. The football being played on the field is for the fan's entertainment.
When they expect to be entertained, but the show isn't going well, they boo.
However, if they know the product is crap going in, they're unlikely to boo because they know it's crap in the first place. They become complacent and, eventually, stop caring until the team invests in getting good again. We've seen this happen in recent years to the Indiana Pacers. The team started losing as a result of poor management, cheap owners, and a lack of commitment to providing the customer with a quality product worth watching.
The results were a lot of empty seats at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Some people incorrectly label this mindset as 'flaky' or 'fair-weather.' These kinds of people are the ones who would pay money to watch the Washington Redskins practice. What they call 'fair-weather' I call 'smart consumerism.' That they call 'fan loyalty' I call 'being a sucker.'
It has never made any sense to me that people should expect fans to rally around and cheer for a bad product on the field. For me, this just encourages mediocrity and complacency. It is the responsibility of the owners and team managers to do everything humanly possible to place a quality product on the field (or court) for fans. Spend whatever they have to, work as hard as possible, do whatever it takes.
These guys are gazillionares anyway. Save the lectures on how it's easy for me to 'spend their money for them.'
Places like Lucas Oil Stadium are funded with taxpayer money, including a retractable roof worth $75 million that NEVER OPENS. Owners rake in money regardless of whether we attend games or not. The only reason they want us there is because it looks good on TV. It's the TV people (where all the real money comes from) that hate seeing empty seats.
So, when Colts fans boo the team at home, or start 'freaking out' because the players are playing at a 6-5 level when they should be playing at a 8-3 level, entitled morons like Gregggggg Easterbrook shouldn't get pissy with them. A fan booing is just as strong a reaction as a fan cheering. It means they are invested. It means they care. They have a certain set of expectations, and there is nothing wrong with the well-paying customer wanting things a certain way, especially when the service provider has told them going it that things should be that way..
When you hear nothing, then that's a real problem. That's when they don't care.
That's when they've moved on to other sports or entertainment-related services that are of a higher quality. Indiana sports fans love sports of all levels. Doesn't matter if it's high school, college, or pro. If one team or area is doing a piss poor job, Indy fans will simply shift their attention to something else. For me, I've always thought that this was a good motivating factor for owners, athletic directors, and managers to put a good product out there.
I mean, if idiots will cheer and pay for anything, why spend money to entertain them with something of quality? If they simply won't show up if the product on the field is not good, that kind of pushes the powers that be to 'WOW!' the fans.
Again, for old Greggggg, such a mentality is a 'spoiled' mentality. I guess it's easy for Gregggg to call people 'spoiled' when he is likely attending games for free and eating off the catered buffet during The Great Recession. Maybe he's lost touch with working class people on fixed incomes who actually have to lift and haul something for a living as supposed to typing out opinion articles about subjects they don't understand.
I mean, how dare they boo when the Colts allow Mike Tolbert to run for over 100 yards a TD in the stadium they pay for! How dare they express displeasure at Bill Polian for calling out the offensive line after the Super Bowl, only to 'fix' it by cutting their best interior guard and replacing him with a bunch of no-name scrubs! How dare they boo the refs blowing a pretty obvious pass interference call on by Eric Weddle, which resulted in a back-braking second pick six for Manning.
THE NERVE!
Yes, I'm sure Gregg is on to something calling these people 'spoiled.'
Or, maybe he's just a stuck-up ass monkey.
Boo all you want, fans. You're paying for it. Greggggggg isn't. Oh, and Go Colts!
Gregg Easterbrook: Predictability plaguing the Colts
NOTE: This article is nothing against readers like Reds_Colts1975 who may or may not like Easterbrook's writing. I've always disliked his work, but that's just me.