With not too much going on in Chicago sports, one's attention turns to what is going on nationally. All the past few days' news has been all about USC and what is going on with their head coaching position. The only professional football team in Los Angeles of course lost their captain in
Pete Carroll and gained their new leader in former Tennessee head football coach
Lane Kiffin.
I do not want to get into a debate of whether what happened was right or just. Keep in mind, players leave schools early for the NFL just like coaches change schools for better opportunities. Either way you look at it, the idea of moving on whether your a coach or player is just the nature of college athletics and more so football than any other.
If you are honestly upset that
Lane Kiffin left Tennessee
(maybe the fifth best job in the best conference in football) for the best job in college football at USC
(Los Angeles, endless funding, great location, more exciting football conference, less pressure from fan base, etc.), then get over it.
If you work for Circuit City as a sales clerk and Best Buy comes in with a sweet deal plus you get a free IPod, you would leave to. If ESPN Radio were to come my way with a syndication hosting deal, I love the 670 The Score but adios amigos!
What I was more interested in was the
reaction of the
fans in Knoxville when they heard the news of
Lane Kiffin leaving. Rioting, burning mattresses, and ultimately
defacing the cherished "Rock" (photo NSFW) with all kinds of lovely goodbye wishes for their departed head coach. Their reaction was juvenile and un-necessary but let's look at it from a local angle.
Obviously in Knoxville it's all about Tennessee football and that is what they live, breathe, and die on. Here in Chicago we are blessed to have five professional sport teams on top of a few NCAA programs. It's almost an oversaturation of sports here in the "Windy City."
The question is there a coach or player in this town that fans feel so connected and attached to that if that coach/player were to leave, would there be a similar reaction to what happened in Knoxville on the Tennessee campus?
Obviously Chicago is
not a true college town, so you would have to dismiss Northwestern, DePaul and UIC from the argument.
The Blackhawks have not truly caught onto the city like some people believe they have. In other words if
Jonathan Toews or
Patrick Kane decided to leave town, I am sure there would be some outrage but not much because the depth on the roster.
Bulls fans have wanted
Vinny Del Negro gone since he was been hired and
Derrick Rose has not done anything yet where I believe people would riot if he were to fly away to another NBA team. The Bulls still do rather well in the attendance figures with sub par teams since the days of Jordan and Jackson.
Then we get into the White Sox and the only one I believe the south side would be up in arms about would be
Ozzie Guillen. If the
"Blizzard of Oz" were to head to another team or simply retire, Sox fans would definitely have something to say and possibly stand up and shout it. However
Ozzie Guillen for years has said he will get up and retire whenever he wants and when he gets tired of the game. Maybe a prelude to get Sox fans used to the idea of the "Southside Hitmen" without
Ozzie Guillen.
The Cubs are a different story all together. There is not anyone beloved on the north side of town because the team simply has not met expectations every year for the last century. The expectations are so high it's really hard to get to love anyone on a team that has a 140,000,000 dollar payroll. Most Cub fans want to clean house on upper management and staff including Sweet
Lou Piniella. The only player I can imagine Cubs fans would be slightly upset with if he were to go would be
Derrek Lee. Then again Cubs fans wanted
Michael Hoffpauer for the first two months of the season last year while Lee watched from the bench.
The Bears....oh Da Bears! No fans want the head coach.
Jay Cutler's popularity in the city got lower with the 26 interceptions this year. The franchise player,
Brian Urlacher, is considered an old worn out baby of a player. Most of the talent on the field is either too young, too inexperienced, too egotistical, or too bad. It's not an easily likable team that shakes the lake on Sundays.
So what can we gather from this?
For a city that preaches they love players/coaches with
"the fire and the passion", do we have any? When you look around the city, there is no one on any team in Chicago that fans will honestly feel upset if they got up and left suddenly. There is not one guy on any of the five professional teams in town that fans would protest his departure.
To me that means that fans in Tennessee care more about their team no matter who is on it than any Chicago sports fan cares about theirs.
Not to say that TEN fans are better than fans of the Bulls/Hawks/Cubs/Sox/Bears, but their sports mean more in their daily lives. Sports fans in Chicago pay more attention to other things in their lives than Volunteer fans do.
When you hear people say that football is more important than religion down south, it's true because football is the religion. It could be demographic, economic, or strictly geographical. But for all the talk that Chicago is a great sports town and that's why athletes should come here, the fact is that
Volunteer fans put us to shame. Even after a 7-6 season under
Lane Kiffin, Volunteer fans were excited about the possibilities for next year.
Lovie Smith goes .500 the last two seasons and fans want him gone even after he took Bear fans to the promised land in 2006. Bulls fans never gave
Vinny Del Negro a shot even after he took a team to the playoffs and gave the Celtics a run in the playoffs.
Lou Piniella was a bum after one season cause he could not win in the postseason.
Maybe Chicago fans could learn a thing or two from the fans of the Tennessee Volunteers. They talk it and walk it. I do not think you can say that about us.
In the end, the Chicago sports fan lacks "the fire and the passion."
-RoCk
Rock Mamola is the Associate Producer of the Mully And Hanley Morning Show and co-host of The Joe O And Rock Show on WSCR 670AM The Score
You can follow the Mully And Hanley Morning Show at twitter.com/mullyhanley
You can follow the Joe O And Rock Show at twitter.com/joeoandrockshow
5 Comments
Birinus said:
The only question I have after reading your post is why exactly do we wanna be as die hard as Tennessee fans? What do we get out of it? As I watched Vols fans overreact and make fools of themselves on TV/internet, at no point did I think "I wish we were more like them...".
You can care about your team and voice frustration about it's direction without setting things on fire and drawings penises on things. Not to say that Chicago fans are above that type of behavior given the opportunity, just that you speak as though a sports team being a religion to those fans and treating it as such is somehow desirable.
Chicago has had quite a lot of success as far as sports teams go over the years and I think we've had it pretty good in comparison to a lot of other cities. Things don't look to good right now for our clubs with the exception of the black hawks right now but I don't see how acting like a church just got desecrated about it would change our situation much.
Of course the fans could make their voices heard with their money and not support inferior products but that will never happen.
Rock Mamola said:
Birinus,
It's not that I approve of how they made their feelings known by setting things on fire and such. We always talk about passion and fire and what we wanna see out of our coaches and players on the field. However we as Chicago sports fans never show it.
For example, spring football games sell out while bears pre season games have empty seats.
You bring up that things don't look good besides the Hawks right now. True, but this weekend and next weekend you'll find flocks of fans who are blinded to their own franchises problems at fan conventions for the Cubs and Sox respectively. That would never happen in Knoxville because the focus isn't about getting an autograph, it's about who's their backup fullback and making sure the university is aware of the concerns of it's fans.
That doesn't happen here.
I agree that if fans stopped paying that would send the message. We all know though that will never happen here.
Thanks for reading....
-RoCk
Birinus said:
I see what your saying and I agree with it to a certain extent but I'm not quite sure what "showing more passion" would actually accomplish. I mean I think the bulls are well aware that the fans want VDN gone but yet he's still here and I don't think that talking about why James Johnson should be playing more then pargo would change that. Bears fans bought a billboard pleading for lovie to be fired and there is no shortage of in depth bears talk all over the radio/newspapers yet he is still coming back.
I think we just disagree on how much influence a rabid fanbase actually has over the gm's and owners. I also don't really think there is a lack of passion really, maybe it's not focused properly but I think its enough. Of course the Tennessee fans are crazy but I also don't think thats normal or desirable and not really something to hold over chicago fans as a negative.
Thanks for the reply.
sullygwc44 said:
If I worked for Circuit City I'd cap my head. So Best Buy would not have to buy out my contract or my ipod or what ever you use as currency in you little writing world.
Rock Mamola said:
Sully...
I'm lost in your logic, but appreciate the contribution
-RoCk
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