I’m a Coug. And I’m proud to be a Coug. Except on Saturday, September 12. 2009. On that day I was ashamed to be associated with WSU. And it wasn’t because of our “football” ball team on the field – if you even consider the first 20 minutes of the game “playing football” on WSU’s side. No, I was ashamed to be a Coug because of our “fans.”
Our fans are some of the crudest, rudest, impolite, explicit, meanest and most negative fans that I’ve been exposed to.
More than twice the fans broke out into chants of “F— Hawaii.” Are you kidding me? Hawaii was doing what any team goes out on the field to do: win. Yes, the Cougs were losing, but it wasn’t that Hawaii was being exceptionally forceful about it. All the big hits were clean, all the penalties were accidents, all the points were earned. And you’re going to curse at them for that? The Cougs turned the ball over so many times in the first half they may have well been bakers.
The University of Hawaii is home to some of the nicest people on this planet and they are the athletic representatives for the State of Hawaii (since they lack a professional sports
team). They have never done anything disrespectful to WSU like spit/stomp on our cougar head (USC) or set a part of our field on fire (UW). They don’t deserve to be cussed at. If anything, chants of “F— Wulff” should have been expressed. And the F means “Fire.” Wulff has done a poor job of getting our team ready for the games. Don’t get mad at Hawaii for showing us what we need to work on.
Calls of “B—S—” when it wasn’t even clear that WSU was on the short end of a ref’s ruling are also inappropriate. Think about it; if you were a ref and the fans chanted BS on your calls, would you support them on the next close call? I wouldn’t. If we don’t respect the refs, they won’t respect us. They’re just doing the best job they can. If you don’t like them, simply boo to express disapproval appropriately and complain to the Pac-10 later for better refs. But don’t take it out on the guys in the stripes!
I’ve also seen Cougar fans starting trouble with Hawaii fans, leading the Cougar fans to being led out of the stadium in handcuffs. I don’t know details, so I won’t elaborate – but it’s shameful to see, regardless of the finer points.
Instead we should channel energy into being louder on defensive third downs (shoot, all downs), so they can’t hear the snap count and audibles, focus on the fight song so we clap on beat and yell louder on “Go Cougs!” chants to shake the stadium floor and pump up our team.
I love the passion we have for our football team, I just wish our maturity and class positively correlated with our heart. Otherwise, we look more like childish potty mouths rather than a respectful Pac-10 fan base.
Something to think about.
– Post From My iPhone
It's tradition man. You can't change 100+ years of Cougar passion. Don't be so sensitive
A fellow Cougar said something similar, that its the behavior of die hard Cougs to act like this, so I followed with this comment on Facebook:"Ok, but where do we draw the line from being first-rate fans to being douche bags that would be ashamed to speak our chants in front of our grandmas? Certain teams disrespect us, and they deserve our wrath (USC, UO, UW, etc.). But Hawaii was showing us real class. The fans were cheering for our team, the Hawaii players were helping up WSU players, Hawaii wasn't jawing and running their mouths despite the score and hits and Hawaii even led a post-game prayer for the injured WSU players. I love being a die-hard Coug – I traveled to Sacramento to watch our basketball team at the NCAA's and everything. But WSU fans frequently cross the line into the A-hole category. You really think our behavior is appropriate?"In retrospect, I suppose you're right to a certain degree.I just hold a special relationship with Hawaii, so it hurt to see my fellow Cougs possess such a hostile attitude towards genuinely nice people and an amazing state.But I understand the frustration and disappointment Cougars everywhere are facing, especially considering the past couple seasons.Hopefully Tuel will give us something to cheer about, so we won't focus our energy on being hostile and angry.
Thanks for your comment and Go Cougs!