BerryGT
Jolly Good Fellow
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2003
- Messages
- 1,549
Things I\'ve been wanting to get off my chest...
So 2 weeks ago I'm sitting at a Jiffy Lube here in Vegas waiting on my truck and an NFL game is on in the lobby so a woman from Texas, a man Philadelphia, and me starting chatting about football and where we're from and the woman asks me, "So are you a Georgia fan?" and I immediately laugh a little and say, "No, I'm a Georgia Tech fan.", and both of them immediately perked up and smiled said something like, "That's great." and you could just tell that they respected GT and respected me for being a GT fan.
Now, I was a runner in high school and college. Nothing spectacular but I was on one of the better teams in GA late 90's in h.s. and went on to run at Berry College, one of the best small college programs in the country. Once in high school my coach got on to one of the guys for leaving his jersey laying on the ground after a race and told him to have pride in that jersey and the school represented by it. I never forgot that and always from then on tried to take a minute before every race, wether I was racing some class A high school or the best D-1 program in the nation, to slip on my jersey with a little pride almost like I was showing off where I go school. It wasn't like I was Rudy seeing my ND game jersey for the first time but just that when I put it on I wanted to do it well. I still do it everyday when I get ready for work when I put on my flight suit(it's even stronger when your "team" is your country).
Do you think the team as a whole feels pride when they put on the White and Gold before games? (Not just guys like PJ, Reis, & Gerris but up and down the roster) Do you think Chan and the coaches have that pride in the school and try to relay that to the team regularly, the way PH did with the BB program or like Weis did with ND this year? And lastly, do you think they REALLY understand how much we, the fans, care about the school, the program, and their reputations?
I would submit that teams who have pride in the greater whole, be it a team or a school, would not put forth the type efforts we saw yesterday or any of the other ridiculous losses or close wins the past few years and that the great wins over the same time frame seem more and more like occasions where alot of selfish people just happened to all try to make their personal statements on the same day.
Sorry for all the ramblin' on, but one final thought...
Ya know how fans of most teams, after a big win(say against a #3 on the road) or a pretty good effort in a tough loss(say against an in-state rival), get all excited, start feeling good about their team, and feel like they can build on it and improve, and they'll say stuff like, "______ better watch out for us next week" or "Just wait til next year".
I WONDER WHAT THAT'S LIKE???
So 2 weeks ago I'm sitting at a Jiffy Lube here in Vegas waiting on my truck and an NFL game is on in the lobby so a woman from Texas, a man Philadelphia, and me starting chatting about football and where we're from and the woman asks me, "So are you a Georgia fan?" and I immediately laugh a little and say, "No, I'm a Georgia Tech fan.", and both of them immediately perked up and smiled said something like, "That's great." and you could just tell that they respected GT and respected me for being a GT fan.
Now, I was a runner in high school and college. Nothing spectacular but I was on one of the better teams in GA late 90's in h.s. and went on to run at Berry College, one of the best small college programs in the country. Once in high school my coach got on to one of the guys for leaving his jersey laying on the ground after a race and told him to have pride in that jersey and the school represented by it. I never forgot that and always from then on tried to take a minute before every race, wether I was racing some class A high school or the best D-1 program in the nation, to slip on my jersey with a little pride almost like I was showing off where I go school. It wasn't like I was Rudy seeing my ND game jersey for the first time but just that when I put it on I wanted to do it well. I still do it everyday when I get ready for work when I put on my flight suit(it's even stronger when your "team" is your country).
Do you think the team as a whole feels pride when they put on the White and Gold before games? (Not just guys like PJ, Reis, & Gerris but up and down the roster) Do you think Chan and the coaches have that pride in the school and try to relay that to the team regularly, the way PH did with the BB program or like Weis did with ND this year? And lastly, do you think they REALLY understand how much we, the fans, care about the school, the program, and their reputations?
I would submit that teams who have pride in the greater whole, be it a team or a school, would not put forth the type efforts we saw yesterday or any of the other ridiculous losses or close wins the past few years and that the great wins over the same time frame seem more and more like occasions where alot of selfish people just happened to all try to make their personal statements on the same day.
Sorry for all the ramblin' on, but one final thought...
Ya know how fans of most teams, after a big win(say against a #3 on the road) or a pretty good effort in a tough loss(say against an in-state rival), get all excited, start feeling good about their team, and feel like they can build on it and improve, and they'll say stuff like, "______ better watch out for us next week" or "Just wait til next year".
I WONDER WHAT THAT'S LIKE???