Ridiculous Fan Comments 9.4.2011

My name is Matt and I often read the comments on sport articles.

Whew. Admitting that feels good.

I know, I know, it’s ridiculous. The fans that regularly comment on sports articles and message boards are usually the fans that are somewhere between extremely passionate and maniacally obsessed with their teams. They have customized jerseys with their own names on the backs, they call into radio shows, and they yell at you at games when they don’t think you’re cheering loud enough. In other words, logical thought often loses to (crazed) emotional feeling when these fans share their opinions through various mediums.

That’s not to say that all message board and article “comment-ers” are nuts. Some do submit very logically sound arguments and opinions. In my experience, though, that’s usually not the case. As a result, reading these comments is usually a completely fruitless and mind-numbing exercise, much like I imagine watching Jersey Shore would be (if you watch Jersey Shore, you know you hate yourself a little bit every time you turn it on and feel a little dumber when you finally turn it off).

Nevertheless, I still read, and you Jersey Shore fans still watch.

In an effort to make the exercise a little less than completely fruitless, I’ve decided to start writing about it. In a segment titled “Ridiculous Fan Comments” I will pick out the craziest of the craziest comments on the articles and message boards I read (or at least my favorite ones) and provide my own commentary. If it’s well received, “Ridiculous Fan Comments” may become a regular segment here at Let’s Be Logical.

At the very least, it gives me an excuse to keep my addiction.

The first ridiculous fan comment (RFC) comes to us from Jeff Schultz’s article on ajc.com titled “Georgia gets hammered and doubts aboutRicht grow” (I know what you’re thinking, reading Shultz is almost as bad as reading fan comments. I try to avoid him as much as possible). First, I’ll give you the comment, and then my response.

(Before I do that, I need to say that I’m not going to talk about the game, the team or Coach Richt. Plenty of other people are doing that. Onto the comment…)

Sickening…………….absolutely sickening.

I can’t recall an ERA when The Dawgs performed so badly.

Coach Dooley, if you care anything at all about UGA call Adams / McGarity or whom the he!! ever you need to call to get this ship turned around.

I wouldn’t send my dog to UGA much less my kids at this point.

FLA DAWG

Class of ‘79

posted by FLA DAWG on 9/3/2011 at 11:55 pm

Really, FLA DAWG? You wouldn’t send your kids to UGA because the football team is struggling? I guess that means that Duke, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, UCLA, Virginia, and Wake Forest are out, too, even though each of these schools rank among the top 25 universities in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report. In fact, the only “successful” football programs in the top 25 are Stanford and Southern Cal (which barely qualifies since it hasn't been that good over the past two years and since the NCAA ruled that nothing good can be said about USC while it's on probation). Saying you wouldn’t send your kids to UGA because its football team is struggling is like saying you wouldn’t visit San Diego because the Padres and Chargers suck.

Also, FLA DAWG, you say you can’t remember an era when Georgia performed so badly. You also claim that you graduated from UGA (I assume) in 1979. Sorry, FLA Dawg, either your memory is bad or you’re just ignoring the facts. Since the 2008 season (when complaints about the program began to move beyond mere grumblings), Georgia has a .600 winning percentage, going 25-16. If you don’t want to count their 10-3 2008 season, Georgia has a .519 winning percentage (14-13) since 2009. FLA DAWG, I’m with you that those numbers are disappointing, but like I said, they’re definitely not the worst you should remember.

From 1969-1970, Georgia posted a .476 winning percentage, going 10-10-1. From 1989-1990, they only won 43.5% of their games (10-13), and from 1993-1996, only 48.9% (22-22-1). I’m no mathematician, but I’m pretty sure all those numbers are worse than the numbers the team has posted over the past 2 seasons and one game. In your defense, FLA DAWG, you said this was the worst era you could recall, so maybe you just forgot about all those other bad seasons, even though you were probably at least 10 in 1969.

Finally, FLA DAWG, do you really think Coach Dooley has the power to dictate a change in the coaching staff of the football team? Even if he wanted to, what do you think he would say to the president that forced him out or the athletic director with no ties to him that would convince them to finally make a change?

That’s it for this post. If I get a good response, I’ll keep the ridiculous fan comments coming. By the way, the information for Georgia’s records came from georgiadogs.com. Thanks for reading.