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An Excerpt Applicable to the Last Couple Days

Posted on 11/24/09 at 10:51 am
Posted by timlan2057
In the Shadow of Tiger Stadium
Member since Sep 2005
19523 posts
Posted on 11/24/09 at 10:51 am
From "Bringing the Heat" by Buzz Bissinger, p. 96.

Substitute "Saturdays" for "Sundays."
Sustitute "Purple and Gold" for "Green and Silver."
Substitute "Joe Alleva" for "Norman Braman."
Substitute "Tigers" for "Eagles."
Substitute "Baton Rouge" for "Philadelphia."

... and Bissinger paints a perfect picture of many whom the Les Miles debacle has posting all over this board the last three days.

Richie and Norman and the players preferred fans who rooted rationally, who showed up Sundays decked in green and silver and cheered their heads off and then--buoyed by victory or disappointed by defeat--returned to their lives refreshed, pleased with the memory of an exciting afternoon. Norman was convinced that most fans were like this.

But the most visible and vocal fans were those whose self-worth seemed to hang on the Ealges' fortunes, fans for whom winning was not just a preferred outcome on a fall afternoon, but something owed, by the players, the coaches and ultimately by Norman Braman himself, presumably in return for the cost of their tickets or, for the hardcases, as a Philadelphia birthright.

The Id-people came out on game day, thousands of them, for some primitive venting ritual. They howled abuse and hatred at the enemy--anyone they perceived as an obstacle to victory.

They reveled in the violence of football, would cheer when hated opponents (or sometimes hated members of the home team) were carried bleeding, mangled or unconscious from the field. They were like the throngs who cheered the dismemberment of Christians in Roman coliseums or who turned public hangings into social events. The sheer unthinking brutality of these fans connected vaguely with Norman's Jewishness, summoning disturbing ancestral echoes of murderous mobs, or porgroms and Kristallnacht.


The Les Miles debacle has definitely brought the "id fans" out of the woodwork.
Posted by Germano Tiger
Baton Rouge, LA
Member since Aug 2003
1814 posts
Posted on 11/24/09 at 11:19 am to
No doubt about it. Luckily, the inmates aren't running the asylum at LSU.

timlan I spoke with someone from your neck of the woods last night, a big TAF and LSU Foundation supporter, and he said the season is going exactly how he expected. Losses to Florida and Alabama, and probably one other one. 9-3 is what he was shooting for. I can promise you this person is not "happy with mediocrity" as some on this board suggest. He has invested tons of time and money in this place. But he understands reality too. Some years line up to be great years, some not so much. A good coach can still recruit and have winning seasons in the "off" years, keeping the bus moving forward. Stovall, Archer, Hallman, Dinardo...these guys couldn't do that. The wheels fell off for them (actually, Hallman's bus was in reverse from day 1). The ole miss loss, as mind numbing as it was, was only one loss, and there's not a coach in America who can't look back at one game and say "man, I really blew it there." Nick Saban has noted plenty of times that he felt he screwed up as LSU's coach.

This is not to say everyone is blind and can't see any problems. But you have to let the season play out and judge things on the big picture of the season and state of the program.
Posted by taddcalif
Member since Nov 2009
144 posts
Posted on 11/24/09 at 11:20 am to
incredible post, 500+, it should be mandatory reading for anyone who posts here
Posted by taddcalif
Member since Nov 2009
144 posts
Posted on 11/24/09 at 11:21 am to
The id fans here are incredibly pompous and insufferable. Do they really think someone at LSU cares what they think?

You would never see Pete Carroll bashing like this.
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