Unintended consequences

[SJBuff]

I wore blue last week. I wasn't at the game, I wasn't even in the state, but I wore blue as my own private protest.

I can be superstitious at times, especially about my buffs. I wore blue last week and you know what, they WON! I'm going to wear blue again today and if they win I'm going to keep wearing blue on game day. If they win out, I'm wearing blue all next season. I want our team to win so bad I would even wear something that makes me physically sick, red. That's not disrespect, that's commitment to do anything it takes for my team to have success.

PS Please buffs, start winning. I really don't want to have to wear blue and God forbid I have to start wearing red and throwing up all the time.

 

[IDBUFF]

I'm waiting for it...You just know that there will be 5000 fans who opted out due to the Powder Blue Out.

Amber Fartenspoogen, a lifetime season ticket holder was quoted as saying, "I go the the game win, lose, or draw. But I could not bring myself to Folsom fearing that I might have to put my black and gold shoulder next to some snot-nosed spoiled rich kid who is disrespecting my players by wearing that god awful powder blue."

GOOD ONE does she sit next to Lugar Wikkipooner? I know Lugar has had season tickets his grandfather bought in 1901.:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[somebody]

I thought the message was pretty clear:
we think our team sucks. Did I miss something?

no, I didn't wear blue, but don't expect the players and coaches to grasp the minutae in the protest. It was a clear expression of fan displeasure, and with the mentality of a football team, if you diss the performance on the field, you diss the whole team.

The coaches, the players, the trainers and the guy who runs around with Gatorade. Dissed.

Not what the protest intended? Get over it. That's what the team heard. And saw.

This is a repeat, but that's okay, cuz so was your response. :smile2:

I don't understand why you think it's minutiae, when the protest was clearly stated. It's like you think 18-22 year college kids can't read with comprehension. To me, that is a bizarre thought.

 

[The Guest]

Walrus,

There's no doubt this isn't a rational pursuit. If it were, I probably wouldn't have been at my daughter's first college homecoming staring into my blackberry during the aTm game as I refreshed the gametracker feed over and over and over and over and over.....

To my mind, it's counter-productive to participate in game day protests. It looks like crap on tv; it can't help with recruiting; and, despite the best intentions of the participants, it has a negative effect on the players. (Yeah, I know TH should grow a pair, but I just don't think it helps for the players to think that the fans aren't 100% behind the team.) Is it better than not showing up for games? I'm not sure. No-shows indicate a lack of interest in a not-quite-mediocre product and deliver a potent economic message; protest gear delivers a different message that is subject to many interpretations (as the TH comments show) and reflects on the university in strange ways.


What do I think would be a productive way to channel frustration with the program? Well, other than firing off emails to the AD and administration, I'm not sure that there are many productive things to be done that would have much effect on the current coaching situation.

Despite the debacle that this season has become, the players do not appear to have turned on Hawk or the program. After a season of soul-crushing losses, they showed up and played with passion last week. And, they won. We also know that the team has a fair amount of young talent, which bodes well for the future. I think the best thing we can do is fill Folsom and show 100% support for the team -- though, games like the Mizzou game can make that a hard thing to do.

I'll be at Folsom for the NU game -- my third game of the year, which ain't bad for an East coaster. I'll be wearing b&g and hoping like hell the Buffs win. And that will be the case even if they lose today and against OSU.

My post about picking up trash was out of line. I share your frustration. There's little we can do. I hope Buff Nation can rally behind the team despite the shoddy results on the field.

Good response.

To make my stand clear, I tend to be one of the optimists, and I haven't really weighed in on what I want to see happen to Coach Hawkins--though I did lose a lot of faith in his ability to turn this thing around during the KSU travesty.

Also, I'm not in the TH should grow a pair camp. The guy's out there working his ass off, he gets the benefit of the doubt from me.

However, after four years of substandard results, I think we're all frustrated. I'm support those who constructively express their frustrations in any walk of life. I tend to appreciate protest in its many forms.

Where you and I disagree is the value of the Blue-Out. The value, to me, is that frustrated fans are permitted to express frustration. I see value in that at an individual level.

And finally, the fallout to me isn't about players feeling frustrated with blue-wearing fans. The real issue is an administration willingly twisting the message to pit players against fans. That was a disappointment.

 

[MiamiBuffs]

Do any of you think that a player with half a brain who wants to play would take a position contrary to his coach?

No. And he's an awfully young man who hasn't quite grasped the significance of the subtle message.

 

[DBT]

Good response.

To make my stand clear, I tend to be one of the optimists, and I haven't really weighed in on what I want to see happen to Coach Hawkins--though I did lose a lot of faith in his ability to turn this thing around during the KSU travesty.

Also, I'm not in the TH should grow a pair camp. The guy's out there working his ass off, he gets the benefit of the doubt from me.

However, after four years of substandard results, I think we're all frustrated. I'm support those who constructively express their frustrations in any walk of life. I tend to appreciate protest in its many forms.

Where you and I disagree is the value of the Blue-Out. The value, to me, is that frustrated fans are permitted to express frustration. I see value in that at an individual level.

And finally, the fallout to me isn't about players feeling frustrated with blue-wearing fans. The real issue is an administration willingly twisting the message to pit players against fans. That was a disappointment.

Anyone ever have to suffer throuth a value analysis? Man, they suck. But why not do one on the "Blue Out." I'll start:

Advantages:
Voices the fan's displeasure
Sends a message to the admin
Sells a lot of powder blue shirts/Nuggets jerseys
Unifies the fans to a common cause
Brings publicity to the program
Gives fat assed couch potatoes something to do
Pisses the players off. Finally.
Gives message boarders something to talk about

Disadvantages:
Makes the players feel like we are against them
Makes grown men wear "powder blue"
Brings negative publicity to the program
Sends a message to recruits that "we suck"
Hurts sales of "black and gold" (weak, but hey)
Splits fans and Allbuffs in halves. Well, maybe 1/8th to 7/8th, :lol:

 

[AlferdJasper]

Good point, DBT.

I still think it was cool that the students were able to rally their troops and get some kind of event/message going.

but as far as the "message" delivered, you have to ignore the INTENT, and look at the RESULT.

It's like a fabulous tv advertisement that makes you laugh, cry, or comment to your friends, BUT you can't remember the product you were supposed to crave. That's what happened with the blue out. Successful as an event, as maybe a flash-bomb kind of happening,

but not as successful in communicating the desired message.

Because if it was mis-interpreted, then that's the problem. No matter how uninformed, stupid, whatever you want to call those who didn't "get it" ... they DID NOT UNDERSTAND the message, and that's not their fault.

Unintended consequences is the perfect title for this thread.

 

[DBT]

Good point, DBT.

I still think it was cool that the students were able to rally their troops and get some kind of event/message going.

but as far as the "message" delivered, you have to ignore the INTENT, and look at the RESULT.

It's like a fabulous tv advertisement that makes you laugh, cry, or comment to your friends, BUT you can't remember the product you were supposed to crave. That's what happened with the blue out. Successful as an event, as maybe a flash-bomb kind of happening,

but not as successful in communicating the desired message.

Because if it was mis-interpreted, then that's the problem. No matter how uninformed, stupid, whatever you want to call those who didn't "get it" ... they DID NOT UNDERSTAND the message, and that's not their fault.

Unintended consequences is the perfect title for this thread.

So "the message is misinturpreted" is a disadvangage.

 

[AlferdJasper]

disadvangage = ability to evaluate shortcomings.

:thumbsup:


I knew what you meant, I just liked the typo word.

 

[Darth Snow]

You want to talk about result? Ok.

Result = pissed off team battling hard and WINNING.

Therefore, wearing blue = WIN until proven otherwise.

Wear blue :smile2:

 

[sackman]

It's like a fabulous tv advertisement that makes you laugh, cry, or comment to your friends, BUT you can't remember the product you were supposed to crave. That's what happened with the blue out. Successful as an event, as maybe a flash-bomb kind of happening,

but not as successful in communicating the desired message.

I disagree. I think it had the desired impact - it helped give the team some focus. It took the message away from DS leaving, and focused it on how pissed off the fans are. If that got the players blood boiling and resulted in a win, it's all good. Mission accomplished. As I've said before, I don't care if they're pissed at me, just so long as they're PISSED.

 

[Junction]

To my mind, it's counter-productive to participate in game day protests. It looks like crap on tv; it can't help with recruiting; and, despite the best intentions of the participants, it has a negative effect on the players.

Maybe it didn't help, but it didn't seem to hurt much, given the number of commits we've seen this week.

This is a repeat, but that's okay, cuz so was your response. :smile2:

I don't understand why you think it's minutiae, when the protest was clearly stated. It's like you think 18-22 year college kids can't read with comprehension. To me, that is a bizarre thought.

:yeahthat:

Because if it was mis-interpreted, then that's the problem. No matter how uninformed, stupid, whatever you want to call those who didn't "get it" ... they DID NOT UNDERSTAND the message, and that's not their fault.

Agree. It is also not the fault of the people who clearly communicated their message. And the late, lamented 87 and his comrades DID clearly communicate their message. Personally, I think it is the fault of those who chose to lie to those players about the message, making the players think they had been targeted, in order to disguise the fact that they, themselves, were the target of the protest....

 

[AlferdJasper]

I disagree. I think it had the desired impact - it helped give the team some focus. It took the message away from DS leaving, and focused it on how pissed off the fans are. If that got the players blood boiling and resulted in a win, it's all good. Mission accomplished. As I've said before, I don't care if they're pissed at me, just so long as they're PISSED.

It might have given the team some fire in their step, but was that the intended purpose? All along? Honestly, I thought it was some kind of message to Bohn and the regents that they were on notice. That the fans were restless and didn't want to watch more bad football (which on a deeper level was about the coaching apparently, and not the players, even though... )

My reading comprehension must also suck, because I did not get your bolded statement as the point of the blue-out. Missed that one entirely, but I saw a lot of interesting trees in the forest and a couple of skunks, one porkypine and a woodpecker.

 

[sackman]

It might have given the team some fire in their step, but was that the intended purpose? All along? Honestly, I thought it was some kind of message to Bohn and the regents that they were on notice. That the fans were restless and didn't want to watch more bad football (which on a deeper level was about the coaching apparently, and not the players, even though... )

My reading comprehension must also suck, because I did not get your bolded statement as the point of the blue-out. Missed that one entirely, but I saw a lot of interesting trees in the forest and a couple of skunks, one porkypine and a woodpecker.

The point of the blue-out was, as you say, to let the administration know our upsetness. The desired effect was to win games. That's all we want - to win games.

 

[MiamiBuffs]

The point of the blue-out was, as you say, to let the administration know our upsetness. The desired effect was to win games. That's all we want - to win games.

If you want my money to be invested your program I expect, in exchange, to win and be competitive.

If you want squeaky a clean ivy league style team with no blemishes then drop athletics and leave it be. I bet you'll regret it in the end.

 

[Darth Snow]

STRAP IT UP BOYS! Time to kick some ass!