So I perused a Clemson fansite and came across this 25-year-old guy whose only Clemson football experience is the dreaded Hatfield and West years. To wit: he never experienced what a championship Clemson team.
You know about message boards, right? Those whose posters coach Dabo Swinney referred to as “irrelevant” in his post-game press conference after the inexplicable loss to Florida State? The third swipe he’s taken at fans this season?
Dude went on to say that he’s quitting his Clemson patronage after this season because he’s sick of it.
Gotta say, I’m impressed with the forethought and wisdom in this young man, as he is seeing the writing on the wall at such an early age, a wall scrawling that people twice his age have yet to realize.
It is indeed disheartening, discouraging, and every other dis to be a Clemson football fan nowadays. No conference title in almost 20 years, no 10-win season, no BCS bowl invite, nothing. It’s become a waste of time, energy and money for many fans, and this 25-year-old has accepted this fact at such an early age.
Gives you a glimmer of hope that those of his age aren’t all a bunch of Jersey Shore-watching, Facebook-posting, Halo-3 nerdberries.
There were some who understood his pain but, as expected, there was a backlash from the Pumper commune.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
“Calm down.”
“While you’re at it cancel your subscription.”
“Take all those fair-weather fans with you.”
Those are a few of the comments. The fact these come from the Pumpers is funny on many levels.
Funny strange, not funny ha-ha.
First, the pumpers are largely the group that bitch and moan about the “haters” dividing the fanbase with their negativity. Yet when a fed-up fan decides to quit on Clemson, which I understand completely, they launch into said fan, effectively dividing the fanbase themselves with their negativity.
But the haters largely direct their negativity toward Swinney, Terry Don Phillips, James Barker and the board of trustees. These morons, on the other hand, direct their negativity at other fans and, in sleight of hand fashion, at the players with their “we don't have the talent we think we do” crap. So, who is dividing the fanbase more?
Second, I’ve noticed after an inexplicable loss, which are many, when the realists launch into Swinney, TDP, etc then the pumpers come out and say something like “it’s just a game.” But when a fan such as the guy above realizes it is just that and gives it up, the same pumpers launch into him for not being a true fan like them. They basically bid a nasty farewell by saying “good riddance, we don’t need fans like you!”
But I thought this was just a game, right? If it’s just a game, then why are you getting all riled up over a fan who decides this so-called “game” is no longer worth his time and resources and decides to live life differently?
To the pumpers, it is just a game when Clemson loses. But when Clemson wins it is the start of something “special”. And when a justifiably disgruntled fan departs, these same people label him as a bad fan.
The pumper crowd rears its duplicitous head when fans decide to take direct action instead of pouring money into a failed program and burn a candle by their bedside hoping for the best as they do. It’s like the pumpers want the whole of Clemson’s fanbase to be just like them - a throng of rubes who are continually taken on a ride by the university’s marketing and public relations arms. To dutifully eat the same old shit sandwich the university feeds them and like it out of some warped moral obligation to “the kids”.
Clearly, Clemson’s fanbase is still divided into two distinct camps - the “true” fans, a.k.a. the pumpers, and the realists, a.k.a., the haters. Who knows the percentage of each but judging the message boards it appears slightly in favor of the realists but not by much.
But it’s rather like Congress. Sure one party has a majority, but there’s still enough of the minority party to be obstructionist and bring everything to a halt.
Until Clemson’s fanbase gets to about three-fourths of one side or the other, you’ll have this infighting but the infighting will continue regardless if the underachievement continues. Hopefully the future three-fourths will be those with a brain and clear vision and will see the deplorable state the football program is in and demand (not hope for) change.
But forget all this verbose bluster - I thought it was just a game?
