Do other fanbases have such negativity?

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Cayman

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I know the football program is in a low spot right now, so it's justified to go into every Saturday for the rest of this season not expecting to win unfortunately, but that's not really what I'm getting at, as this doesn't only apply to the football team.

I just read a thread suggesting that Marcus Jones might be out for the rest of the season, which would be too bad as I personally really like him. The poster then decided to take a shot at him for one garbage excessive celebration call against Nebraska last weekend. (When I was watching this game, the announcers seemed to disagree with the call and almost sounded like they felt bad for the kid). Do other fanbases take shots at their players for things like this?

After our exciting game against USC, losing by only 2 points on the road to a ranked opponent, starting out the season with genuine optimism and hope that maybe we could go to a bowl game in Coach Kill's first season, someone pointed out that we easily could have lost by 40+ points. Ok, so what? We didn't lose by 40+, so what's the point in saying that we could have? Do other fanbases actually COMPLAIN when things go better than expected?

On the basketball board, some people still try to downplay the importance of Al Nolen to last year's team, insisting that we still would have sucked even if he were playing for the full season, that somehow having a senior and a great defender as the floor general wouldn't have helped maintain the leads we had and lost late in games last season. Do other fanbases insist that their team would have sucked even if things had gone right?

Do other fanbases have sports writers that rip on them and the teams they support?

Do other fanbases search for negatives in even the greatest of victories?

Ok, my rant is done. I realize this is probably just a vocal minority who have this attitude of how things always could have been and should have been worse and seem almost disappointed when things are going well, but since such negativity is not uncommon here, it just led me to wonder if perhaps some Wisconsin fans chalk up 2005 as a Minnesota victory because they "shouldn't have won?" Or maybe if, up until this year, when a writer is evaluating the coach of the Chicago Bears, he or she doesn't take wins over Detroit into account because the Lions always stink and wins over the Lions don't count because they are a given? Maybe some people think that the USA's win over the USSR in the Olympics was just a fluke, and so it doesn't really count, because the USSR could have beaten them by a lot. If by some miracle we beat Wisconsin this year in football, and it's the program's greatest, sweetest win in the last 10 years, will someone point out that we should have gotten killed instead of celebrating the victory? Unfortunately we will probably never know. It just seems that for a football team coming off a bad season, albeit with a good ending, and likely in the midst of an even worse season, and a basketball team that was likely about to have its best season of the last 10 years until Minnesota bad luck reared its ugly head yet again, some "fans" really like to downplay what little we do achieve, and attack players who sometimes don't really deserve it.

TL;DR Do other fanbases have the same level of self-deprecation that we have?
 

The only way negativity will stop is if we start winning games. Complain about stupid and preposterous statements made by naysayers if you want (as long as you're clear that it's the "stupid and preposterous" part that you're criticizing). But all this acting indignant about criticism and negativity is getting old. I don't find it pleasant to read either, but let's face it: they have good reason to complain and be negative. If and when we do climb out of the gutter, you'll find a lot of these people who are willing to be positive.

Bottom line, if you've got a problem with people thinking we're losers, the best remedy is to stop losing. Otherwise, you'd best be advised to steer clear of this board on Saturday afternoons.
 

BBQ Platypus said:
The only way negativity will stop is if we start winning games. Complain about stupid and preposterous statements made by naysayers if you want (as long as you're clear that it's the "stupid and preposterous" part that you're criticizing). But all this acting indignant about criticism and negativity is getting old. I don't find it pleasant to read either, but let's face it: they have good reason to complain and be negative. If and when we do climb out of the gutter, you'll find a lot of these people who are willing to be positive.

Bottom line, if you've got a problem with people thinking we're losers, the best remedy is to stop losing. Otherwise, you'd best be advised to steer clear of this board on Saturday afternoons.
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It is what it is, for now, I am a season ticket holder and that's the attitude that I have at the moment. All the negative talk doesn't bother me because it goes with the territory of losing like we have and a lot of these people love Gopher Football and want to see the program succeed. My 15 yr old son said to me the other day," The Gophers could go 0-12 every year and he would still go to the games". He loves Gopher Football and so do I.
 

Very few programs have been as dreadful as we have been for as long as we have been. The fact that we have as solid of a die-hard fan base as we do despite our best bowl being the Sun Bowl since 1962 tells me that our fan base isn't as negative as it could be.

Go Gophers!!
 

I don't think any fanbase is as beaten down as the Gophers but given how horrible our football and basketball programs have been for decades it is amazing our morale isn't lower.
 


Art is Art. If you follow gopher hole he is mr negativity. Just dont judge all by him.
 

Doc1001 said:
Art is Art. If you follow gopher hole he is mr negativity. Just dont judge all by him.
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Correct - this poster always makes comments like that. But to your more general question, and others have addressed the reasons for negativity, I think every fanbase does have it. I went to the OSU game in Columbus in '09 and one person after another would talk about how terrible that team was. They won the big ten and the rose bowl that year. Just last week I heard tons of Nebraska fans say disparaging things about Marinez - granted he really can't throw - who has been a very succesful qb and is just a soph. Those are just two examples of which I believe there are some at each school.
 

When you haven't had success in 40 years and you are currently a bottom 10 team you are going to have negativity.


It's better than apathy, which is the next step. When we suck and people stop caring, that's when you will know the program can never come back.
 

Gophers are 11th and 12th in the Big Ten in most offensive and defensive categories, lost to New Mexico State and North Dakota State and haven't won a conference championship since 1967. A poster pointed out on this board that Minnesota has had only five winning seasons in Big Ten play since 1968. Explains the negativity...
 




I've been on this site for about a year and a half, I remember I started lurking the day that Minnesota lost to Xavier in their second straight first round exit from the NCAA tourney in 2010, so I've been around long enough to who Art it and that he almost never has anything nice to say. And I know that Minnesota has been cursed by the sports gods for a long time(on smaller scale, the loss of Al Nolen last year, Nebraska's fumble for a first down last week, and on a larger scale, the departure of Lou Holtz, and John Wooden going to UCLA), so some negativity I definitely understand, it's just the people who continue to try to find ways to be negative even when things go well that confuse me. We performed unexpectedly well against USC, and someone has to point out that we could have gotten blown out. Do we lose so often that winning or performing well throws some people so far out of whack that they feel the need to point out why we could have and should have lost?

I do understand the negativity due to a lot of losing and unlucky breaks just when things start to look up. It just bugs me that when things actually go well for once, some still grasp at straws trying to find ways to be negative. If we beat Wisconsin this year on a blocked punt, someone here will be moaning and groaning about how it was a fluke and we didn't deserve to win, and that the game should have gone much worse for Minnesota, just seeking out something to be negative about in an overwhelmingly positive situation. Why? Life can't be that enjoyable when you're always looking for something negative.
 

Can't argue there won't be a certain amount of negativity after 40 years of futility. Equally as important is the fact that we have a significantly reduced fanbase. Last week out of curiosity I monitored both the Gopherhole and Huskermax game threads during the game. The Gopherhole thread started up a couple of minutes prior to the game and ended up with 6 pages of comments with a fair amount of negativity. The Huskermax gamethread started shortly after midnight on Saturday morning and ended up with 40 pages of comments of which most were overwhelmingly positive. When the Gophers start winning the good vibes and fans will follow.

With respect to negativity elsewhere, I live in Tallahassee, where in the past 10 years Florida State has not lived up to expectations. The president of Florida State essentially ran Bobby Bowden out of town for failing to live up to expectations. He is a former FSU player who played for Bobby. FSU's record the last 10 years was no worse than Paterno's at Penn State during the same time period. The most likely reason for the firing, reduced attendance at games. The media and fan negativity leading up to the firing was quite high. That gives pretty good credence to the statement "But what have you done for me lately?". In case you don't remember the previous 14 years FSU finished in the top 5 every year.

Go Gophers, Beat Iowa!
 

First, you can find negativity anywhere ... there are fans who'll find something to complain about in a 55-0 win.

And they tend to show up on message boards in disproportionate numbers.
 



CrocShots said:
Does the sun rise in the East?
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Yeah. Every fan base has a group that thinks they are smarter than every coach and the athletic director. It's probably a bit more pronounced here given the forty years of futility.
 

Rosemountian said:
When you haven't had success in 40 years and you are currently a bottom 10 team you are going to have negativity.


It's better than apathy, which is the next step. When we suck and people stop caring, that's when you will know the program can never come back.
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I agree with that. If it gets to apathy, then it is over.
 


Minnesota negative can't come close to deep south negative.
 

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