Dolphins Players Have No Right To Call Fans Out
By Brian Miller
Pro sports players have a tendency to over inflate their popularity and their own personal value. More often then not, a pro athlete will misinterpret popularity as a sign that they know what is best and that they stand in front of the congregation and dictate the rules and therefore have the right to decide who is a fan and who is not.
Well, I got news for pro athletes, your worth is all dependant on your play, your attitude, and your respect for the fans…and very very few athletes know what that means.
So why am I standing on this little pill box you ask? Well let’s just say I’m getting tired of Miami Dolphins players feeling they have the right to call out fans and say they are not. Earlier today I was given a link to an interview with Miami Dolphins starting TE Anthony Fasano. Good read but when it came to the fans rooting for the “Suck for Luck” strategy, Fasano had this to say:
"It’s sick actually. I can’t even fathom those thoughts of those people that conjure up that stuff. They have never played sports and pretty much aren’t really our “loyal” fans."
Really? Only a short two weeks ago it was Karlos Dansby who was calling out fans for their repeated “suck for Luck” antics. Well I got news for them. We have been fans longer than they have been in Miami and will be long after they are gone.
I understand the frustration of players and it is a little disheartening to hear boos emanate from the stadium you play in but reality is a completely different bird. Consider how many fans simply forgot that the NFL took the entire off-season off because the players wanted more money and wanted to practice far less. How is that working out for ya? A lot more injuries this year than in years past, and the tackling is a lot worse as well.
The truth is fans have a right to be critical. Those fans in Detroit that are out there cheering every game for their Lions have been cheering for that same logo the last 20 years with bags on their heads. Every so often a player comes along that fans cling to. Fans in Cleveland don’t cheer for the Ravens players and never did…even though they used to be the Browns. They didn’t seek to have the players returned to Cleveland, they demanded the team name and colors and tradition stay in Cleveland.
In other words, fans root for the team not specifically the players on it. It’s why they call us “Dolphins” fans and not Miami Dolphins and Anthony Fasano fans.
In Miami, there is Bob Griese, Larry Csonka, Dan Marino, and more. They have a commonilaty between them. They respect the fans and understand why they are there and how they are suffering. These athletes today could care less about the common fan.
Do you think that a player gives any care whatsoever when he becomes a free agent and splits town for the money? Do you think Jason Taylor cared at all about the fans when he bolted to NY last year? So what they are saying is it’s o.k. for them to up and leave but we can’t root for them to fail so that we can have a realistic shot at fixing the franchise?
Sorry, but no one will ever make me a non-fan of the Miami Dolphins. I have the logo tatted on my arm…how many Miami players have that? I am betting none. I and other fans pay to see these games and the players should be paying us for the garbage we have to endure. Fans have a right to cheer for failure when the best product our team can produce is a 15 point lead throwaway with less than 4 minutes in a game.
I’m supposed to cheer for that?
We are supposed to root for one or two victories? Where are the playoffs? To hell with the playoffs, where is the freaking competitive play?
I have news for Fasano and Dansby and any other player that wants to take a shot at Dolphins fans for booing and rooting for Andrew Luck. We have paid our dues and you have not. We are lifer’s and you are not. We want a new coaching change and a new franchise QB that will bring excitement to the field and fill the stadium so we are not sitting there alone. And when all this actually happens, you will be nowhere to be found. Some other team perhaps? Some other city? Sitting on your couch hoping that ESPN gives you a call so you can jump in the booth and tell us all how little you think we know? Retired living off the millions of dollars you bilked out of the owners and fans with your piss poor below average play?
If I worked like half of you play I would have been fired a long time ago.
Get over yourself. You’re not that good in the first place. In fact, your average at best. How do I know? Because the team is winless six weeks into the season.
I am not on the “suck for Luck” bandwagon, yet. I want the Dolphins to win, but I want them to play to win, not simply gain a victory because the other team simply sucked more. I won’t root for that. I won’t root for the team to go out there and half-ass effort it to collect a paycheck. Prove to me that you are playing to win every single down and then ask me to cheer your mediocrity with full enthusiasm. If you don’t want fans yelling the name Andrew Luck then win a few games and screw them out of that desire.
In other words, play to win and earn their cheers.
I will tell you who are fans and who are not fans Mr. Fasano and Mr. Dansby. Fans are the ones who want this team to win so badly that they will root against them simply to get the best pro-prospect in a decade, that’s a fan. They take the ridicule and still watch the games. The put up with the garbage from other fans and yet on Sunday show up and cheer until they realize that you, the players, don’t really care what happens.
If I was Andrew Luck I would want to play for that fan base. Why? Because Miami fans have endured for so long and put up with the worst decisions by coaches and GM’s that they simply don’t arbitrarily turn on it’s players. They have patience and they stand behind them. Until such a time that the players give up themselves. And that is exactly what is happening here.
The fans haven’t turned on this team, the fans have turned on the effort by this team. For all the blame Tony Sparano gets, the fact is the players are not executing the plays and thus are as responsible for his failure’s as he is. Maybe more.
So don’t call fans out as not being fans until you invest more than a few seasons as a member of this team. Until you go and get their logo tatted on your arm and sit in the stands and watch what we watch every Sunday. Get over yourself. You make the money and you take the money and then you leave. 90 percent of the time you don’t work hard for what you earn or you never play at the level of your paycheck.
Dolphins fans may not be the most stringent supporters of a failing franchise but they will be back in droves and the truth is they never really leave as it is. They just simply realize that there are far more important things to do in life than to cheer for a bunch of guys who play like they are more interested in getting the game over with than getting a win.
Start winning, start playing like you want to win, and then start calling out fans. Fans hoping for an Andrew Luck 2012 is sickening. The play by these so-called pro-football players is sickening. No Mr. Fasano, a lot fans have never played football before. Looking at the number of wins in the Dolphins win column…I would say you all aren’t either.