Thoughts on Brotzman and BSU

After watching the Boise State/Nevada game, I was glad Nevada won. Colin Kaepernick is one of my favorite college football players and I have enjoyed watching him play for years. I love watching a good upset and I was surprised Boise went down, since they were well on their way to the Rose Bowl and maybe the national championship game.

Everyone knows I’m not high on Boise State. They are Idaho’s rival. I shouldn’t explain why I don’t like my rival, but I won’t get into that right now. I don’t hate them; I just have a strong dislike for them. How can you hate on a guy like Kellen Moore. If only some of the fans were more like him.

The biggest no-no of college football fandom is hating on players on your own team. It’s ok to criticize their performance, but it is inexcusable to harass them and spread hate.

I was ashamed of the so-called fans that called to harass people named Brotzman in the Boise area: http://www.ktvb.com/sports/Criticism-and-support-for-Bronco-kicker-110915324.html

The video has some of the phone calls.

Then there are the Facebook groups that popped up after the game. I was embarrassed as an Idahoan to see this happen. To hate on a fellow Idahoan that has done so much for his team was just terrible to see. However, to Boise’s credit, the good fans stepped up and supported him and it has drowned out the idiots for now.
I hate to say this, but I predicted the idiots to come out in force. It’s happened before. Jared Zabransky got some hateful treatment from Boise fans. I think it was the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise; the fans were booing him when he got the MVP trophy against Boston College. Boise did lose that game.

When a fan base is spoiled, and the team wins all the time, you forget what it is like to lose and how to lose gracefully. I don’t think much of the Bronco fan base knows what it is like to have a losing season, or even three losses in a season.

My advice to Boise fans is this: don’t take the game so seriously. It is not your whole life; don’t wrap your self-worth around it. Sometimes, I am obsessed with my team, but I don’t let it ruin my day. BSU won’t win football games forever, and undefeated seasons are as rare as they come. If BSU has a losing season, don’t jump off the bandwagon. Don’t hide the car flags. Don’t hide your bright orange sweatshirts. When you go through a losing season, it will separate the real fans from the bandwagon fans.

Boise’s problem is the media plays into the fan base. The fan base eats up everything sports radio says and follows it. I’ve heard blatantly false things on Idaho Sports Talk and the fan base repeats it. I was disgusted to hear Paul J say on the post-game that it was “all on Brotzman”. Ya know, it’s not all on him. Where was the Boise defense in the second half? You know where the fans get the idiot behavior. It’s from guys like Paul J and Jeff Caves. BSU football is the #1 and only thing during football season in Boise. If you read the papers and listened to the radio, it’s the only thing that matters. BSU football has no competition in Boise. They get all the media coverage and it’s almost PR-ish to a point.

I agree the BCS system is messed up. There are so many good teams out there with one loss, and it would be cool to see a playoff. It would be great to see Boise up against some of the best competition out there week and in week out and see how they handle it.