Those of you that know me probably know that I am a sports fan. Those of you that know me better would say that I would consider "sports fan" an insult. Not because I am one of those crazy, obsessive fans that paints his face and chest, or that will argue how my favorite team is "awesome" or how whoever their rival is "sucks". No, I would consider it an insult because I have been around sports fans as long as I could walk and have seen and heard firsthand the ridiculous things that are said. It isn't the fact that these "fans" are making the arguments that bothers me, but it is the fact that they clearly have no understanding about what they are professing their undying love for. By nature, I am a problem solver. In order to be a problem solver, I have to establish an understanding of how things work. Once I have that knowledge, I can then form an opinion as to what the next step is. After all, knowledge is power.
However, this does not always make you popular. How many of YOU were told by their mother that they were no longer allowed to sit near her when watching their younger brother's basketball games, because the comments made about the other players on the floor, no matter how accurate, weren't the most popular with the other parents. On more than one occasion, an upset parent would ask me what I was saying and why I was insulting their poor kid and what qualified me to do so. At that point, I would have to explain what the coach was doing, why they were attempting to do what they were doing, and why it wasn't working. Explaining that not everybody is equal in their physical gifts or their understanding of the game. Most parents came away understanding that I wasn't putting their son down, just that his skill set was the one that is most appropriate for that situation. I would explain that I had coached one year of JV CYO basketball and in that one year, I had a 24-5 record and won the league regular season and playoff championships. Sometimes the guy telling you he knows more than you, is only doing so because it is true.
But back to my original point, most sports fans are reactionary and ,unfortunately, stupid. They know as much as they want to know and that's it. In Syracuse, a few years back, the local university football team had been stumbling according to the standards that had been set for the program. Everyone was blaming the head coach. "Coach P must go!" they said...and then they got what they wanted. Well, Coach P did just fine, he's been consistently employed, usually in the NFL, and just this season took a job as the head coach of the UCONN Huskies, a Syracuse rival. SU? Went into a free fall that they are just coming out of. A deeper look at this situation would have seen that the problems that Syracuse were going through were initially caused by their own success. Donovan McNabb's senior season prevented a would be freshman Mike Vick from signing there because he wanted to start for 4 years. Traditional recruiting hotbeds of New Jersey and Florida were drying up due to the emergence of local schools like Rutgers and South Florida upping the ante on recruiting their own local kids. Star players attract other star players. No McNabb, no Vick, less talent coming in, other teams getting stronger all combined to weaken the Syracuse team. But what was the FAN calling for? Fire the coach. I remember driving home from work after P was fired thinking this was a bad day for SU and once more I turned out to be right.
OK, so I DON'T know for certain that Syracuse wouldn't have continued sliding down the rabbit hole towards what at the time was mediocrity before almost hitting rock bottom with the same coach, but I do know 4 years later that people were looking back and talking about the good old days with Coach P at the helm. All I could think of was the lyrics to "Big Yellow Taxi"
The problem with being a wiseass know-it-all, ends up being that you have to admit that other people are right. And you have to do it a lot. It doesn't mean necessarily that you are wrong, but you can agree with them, and then actually give depth to their argument besides "They suck." And it's OK, because sports are cyclical. What goes around, for the most part, will eventually come back around. And when it does, you can just sit there next to your once proud fan and put your arm around him and hum a little tune or sing a little lyric.
"Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you got til it's gone."
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