Real Fan Pain vs. Feeling Sorry for Yourself

Image: MGoBlog
As you think about this season and listen to sports talk or read message boards, you may hear/read someone say that "Georgia is terrible." Or "It's hard being a Dawg fan this year." That sort of hyperbole isn't constructive, and it's not really true.

If you want to see what it's like to really follow a terrible team, check out MGoBlog. Brian Cook writes about sitting through a game in "subfreezing wind chill, rain, sleet and snow" (Weather from ESPN) only to watch Northwestern beat his team and leave Michigan a gut punching 3-9. He describes it as the type of game that not leaving early empirically establishes a fan as hardcore. Per Brian:

If you put up with it (and far, far fewer than the announced 107,000 did), you are hardcore. You have a black belt in fandom. You get the Fandom Endurance III merit badge. If anyone ever questions your Michigan allegiance, you can just say "I was at the 2008 Northwestern game" and they will have to step off.

For me that "I was there when we hit rock bottom" moment was the 1995 Florida game in Athens. I sat until the bitter end as Spurrier ran the WR reverse pass to break 50 points in Sanford Stadium. The problem with staying through a debacle like that...you then owe it to yourself to never leave a game early again.

It's actually a burden. You now have to live up to that rep you earned during such a bitter loss. Past You will always be looking over your shoulder like Capt. Miller at the end of Private Ryan telling Future You...."Earn This."

(Image: Capt. Miller. Not Westerdawg)

That said...while sitting in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium this year, I honestly felt less like a soldier marching across the French countryside than I felt like Izzy from Grey's Anatomy wondering why Dr. Karev won't open to me. (Note: The Cocktail Party would be playing the role of Karev).

As Meyer hung 49 or so on us, I just thought..."I'm so stupid to keep coming back here. Jacksonville is not good for me. I need a healthier relationship with a kick ass mid-season, boozy neutral site bowl game." Yet, I ran home as fast as possible and wrote this piece about why we should never leave Jax.

Where was I? Oh yeah...wuss town referencing chick shows. Before that? Oh yeah...being a fan in tough times. Apparently, I digressed wildly.

So Back to UGA's Season
Travis Fain asks what numeric rating would you give this season on a schedule of 1 to 10...in terms of satisfaction. I can't imagine giving a 9-2 season anything below 7, but an 8 seems kind of high. Is 7.5 too low? Travis went with an 8. What would you give? If we go 11-2 with a win over Ohio State, I could see that score creeping up to 8.9 maybe.

Also, Senator Blutarsky talked about the feeling of satisfaction or lack thereof related to this season. So what score would you give this season in terms of satisfaction?

See Also:
-- Pick Your Metaphor - Maize n Brew
-- A comeback that wasn't - EDSBS

PWD