Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Silverman / Sports Titans Fans Are Lame--The Sequel
Posted by Jack Silverman on Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 5:03 AM
"I was shocked when I walked into the stadium. There had to be at least 20,000 Steelers' fans there. The Terrible Towels being waved reminded me of the tomahawks you see at an Atlanta Braves HOME GAME. Gramsey sent me a text message as soon as he got in there that it looked like Heinz Field."I know that Steelers fans are legendary for showing up in other cities, but I can't remember ever seeing such a strong showing. The obvious assumption is that thousands of alleged Titans fans gave up their tickets. Cold weather or not, it was probably the most significant game of the season, for arguably the NFL's top team, yet many fans couldn't be bothered. And it was sunny, for chrissakes! As you can see below, Browns fans don't let a little bad weather bother them.
Comments (11)
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Look, Jack, I can't disagree with you. I was at the St. Louis game and the Buffalo playoff games in '99, and our crowds were phenomenal. Now, unless it's a Monday night game against the Colts, it can look and sound pretty pathetic. We were spoiled, and now we're lame.
I will note that coverage at the end of the Kansas City/Miami game Sunday showed a totally empty Arrowhead Stadium in what was a very exciting game, and Chiefs fans are among the most loyal in the league.
In our defense, I will offer this up: unless you're ten years old, you weren't born a Titans fan. Nashville was previously made up of Steelers and Cowboy fans, and a lot of those folks never changed over.
If you just want to make the point that a lot of Titans fans are lame, well, that is true. But, to somehow say that Browns fans are not lame because they spend their hard earned money to continuously support one of the perennial bottom feeding teams in the league, and they do this at the risk of their health and well being in sub-zero temperatures, well that just speaks for itself.
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I also noticed the large number of fans. What occurs to me is that,given the proximity of the holiday, many ticketholders may have put their tickets up for resale. Pittsburgh fans do travel quite a bit, and those two things may have made the difference.
Anonymous, your point about no one being born a Titans fan is a good one. In Cleveland and other longtime NFL towns, it's in your DNA to love the hometown team. I can still remember being 5 years old and watching games with my parents while Jim Brown was still playing.
But I take issue with this sentence: "But, to somehow say that Browns fans are not lame because they spend their hard earned money to continuously support one of the perennial bottom feeding teams in the league, and they do this at the risk of their health and well being in sub-zero temperatures, well that just speaks for itself."
I stand by my statement, that Browns fans are not lame, and your statement doesn't disprove my point. Now we may be stupid--but that's a whole different discussion!
I'm just messing with you, Jack. I have respect for Browns and Browns' fans, I actually wish they could be good again. I remember the Marty Schottenheimer years, and they were damn good ones.
My father-in-law goes to every Titans' game, regardless of temperature. I, on the other hand, sit lamely in my living room, yet so comfortably close to the refrigerator, the bathroom, and the central heat and air.
Understandable that Browns and Steelers fans want so badly to travel to away games. I would want to escape from Cleveland and Pittsburgh too....
When I looked around the stadium Sunday, my first thought was not "shame about our lame fans" but rather "Woo hoo! Think of all the sales tax these folks are generating!"
An usher told me that she knew of groups of fans who had been at the Marriott downtown since _Monday_. There's nothing fair, in the cosmic scheme of things, about relatively prosperous Nashville taking large sums of money off of people from our country's decimated industrial Midwest. But that's what we just did, and maybe all those yellow towels represent one less painful budget cut in higher ed or healthcare.
I was in amid lots of the Steelers fans behind their bench, and they couldn't have been more pleasant. Wish we could invite 'em down five or six times a year.
I was there, I'm a Steelers fan, but proud of my new hometown Titans, and shocked they played so well considering the injuries, momentum and playing one of the world's ubiquitous sporting brands. Having fans for the opposition is fun, not embarrassing. But I do agree with one thing, it was pretty quiet at times. TV timeouts are the real embarrassment. These need to go away. We're there to watch football, not players stand around while networks pay their bills. Place the ads around the foot of the stands, figure out other ways to monetize...but I guess I'm forgetting it's really a television sport.
This just in: this happens at every NFL stadium.
Yes, the Steeler fans travel well, but I would guess that most of the yellow on Sunday came from people who live in this very region. The Steelers are one of those teams, like the Cowboys, who had so much success over the years that they have developed fan bases across the country.
The effect is compounded by the fact that the Steelers are really good this year, making their fans even more likely to come out of the woodwork.
Also, we are in a recession, people have lost their jobs, and Christmas is upon us. There is a certain percentage of wealthy people that this will not affect, and they will go to games regardless (Titans fans AND visiting Steelers fans). But many of the Titans' season ticket holders are far from wealthy, and if you've lost your job and got a family to take care of, does it really make you "LAME" to put your tickets on eBay so you can buy presents for your kids (or even put food on your table)???
I am inferring from your writing that you think this takeover by Steeler fans is something that happens to lowly Tennessee, but would never happen to an older, more established franchise. Think again. Did you watch the Redskins vs. Steelers game earlier this season? (I'm guessing not, since you don't seem like much of a true football fan, but rather a marginal sports fan who claims an allegiance to the Browns as a way of differentiating himself from all the redneck Middle Tennesseans). The Redskins had to go to a slient count IN THEIR OWN STADIUM (do I need to explain to you what a silent count is?).
A very minimal amount of research yields similar Steelers stories from three other NFL cities just this year - Jacksonville (from Week 5, when they were still 2-2), Cincinnati (a division rival), and New England.
But hey, those fans in Cleveland are great. Just ask Terry McAulay. Or Braylon Edwards.
"I am inferring from your writing that you think this takeover by Steeler fans is something that happens to lowly Tennessee, but would never happen to an older, more established franchise."
And you're inferring that by what? The part where I clearly stated, "I know that Steelers fans are legendary for showing up in other cities"?
Hmmmm....
And if you're using Jaguars and Bengals fans as your barometer, well, 'nuff said.
Still I agree that you have a point, that this year in particular, Steelers fans have been turning up the heat in opposing stadiums. But I've asked many people from other NFL cities who now live in Nashville, and all agree that the Titans fans lack the enthusiasm of their hometown teams. Hey, I'm also a Titans fan, believe it or not, but the Browns still come first for me. (And it ain't a joyride, I needn't tell you.)
As far as your comment that I'm a marginal sports fan claiming "allegiance to the Browns as a way of differentiating himself from all the redneck Middle Tennesseans": I don't recall mentioning anything about rednecks. Did I strike some sort of nerve? Methinks thou doth protest too much. (And though I may not watch every NFL game these days, I grew up going to every Browns home game for at least 12 years.)
Most importantly, I remember seeing the Steelers play the Browns in Cleveland on a Sunday night game this year, and Steelers fans weren't a factor at all. And Pittsburgh is a two-hour drive from Cleveland. I rest my case.
As a Nashville native, I can tell you one reason why you see so many Steelers fans in town:
We've only recently gotten a team!
For years, besides Atlanta, who sucked, and Miami, who aren't even considered Southern, we weren't located anywhere near an NFL team. The Steelers were long ago one of the favorite teams in town. I know. I grew up one of those Steelers fans.
I dropped that allegiance long before the Titans moved to Tennessee.
And in all sorts of irony, one of the Steelers biggest rivals, the Houston Oilers (think '79 playoff game), became the Tennessee Titans. A lot of folks could never fathom rooting for the Oilers/Titans....
So there you have it. Steelers fan everywhere are diehard and don't give up on their team -- even when they have their own team to cheer for.
Not me! I'm a Titans fan to the core!!1
