Hating?

[Irish Duck]

Might it be possible that we stop talking about other ND Fans being haters, i.e., BK haters, Book haters, etc.? Let's talk about BK, he is a very good college football coach and, perhaps, a great coach. He is certainly one of the top five ND coaches of all time (Rockne, Leahy, Are, Lou and maybe, or maybe not, Devine). No, and unlike those other coaches, he hasn't won a championship but times have changed. The question is (or at least should be) whether he can get us to the promised land. I don't know of anyone that "hates" BK; they may not be enamored with him and they may think that there are better coaches available but that is an opinion, not hate speech.

The question as to whether or not Book was a great college quarterback because he clearly was. He never got us to the promised land and he generally did not show up for the biggest of games but he was still a great college quarterback. I know of no poster that ever wished him ill. He always had a limited ceiling and don't expect him to do much in the NFL but I hope that I'm wrong about that.

Who else are we hating? Are we hating Jordan Johnson because he didn't work out at ND? The kid has lots of talent but ND isn't for everyone (I speak from experience on this issue). There have been lots of other kids that didn't work out. I don't hate any of them (not even Aaron Lynch) and always wish them well.

There are lots of posters on this Board who I disagree with. Guys like Bodi are so over-the-top optimistic that I don't even bother reading his posts anymore but I don't hate him for that. SavvyandSassier seems to be more than a bit of a hatemonger (or at least the most frequent poster to accuse others of hating) but I don't hate him. I still read his posts because every once in a while, he actually has something of value to say.

So why can't we keep this Board more civil and allow for debate without seeing a difference in opinion as being an attack?

 

[john0gaunt]

Agree with all but the times a changin and we give BK some slack. Nope. They worked with the challenges of their time and flourished. BK failed to be win the big game. And his weakness would seem clear. Unlike all those you mentioned, and even the lowly Weis, he couldn’t bring in the great ND QB. It would seem to be a fail.

 

[savvyandsassier]

Okay, well, I'm the ringleader of the anti-hater movement I suppose. And there's only like, 2 or 3 of us. And it really only centers around Ian Book, an all-time great player in ND history and who led us to two of our best seasons in the modern era, who in many ways rescued ND football when it looked like the BK era might come to an ignominious end, and is largely responsible, as the starter at the all-important QB position, for getting us to the mountaintop in fairly improbable, almost storybook fashion.

And Book was pretty much roundly disrespected almost for the entire time he was the starter, with varying levels of contempt and derision hurled his way, when by just about any measure the exact opposite should have been the case. You could write volumes explaining just how misguided and misplaced all the wild criticism he took. If you were lucky the glass was merely half empty, let's put it that way....

Yeah, so that's it. It's not a complicated or subtle situation. Some fans have their things they're stuck on, and a QB like Ian Book just doesn't do it for them. And I suppose on account of how it's their 'opinion', they're not going to keep it to themselves. So I figured why should I? It is a ND board after all, we are going undefeated and making the playoffs when by all rights we probably shouldn't be, and may never again. So I just figured enough was enough.

Being a hater is not some scarlet letter, its not that big a deal. Quite frankly no reason to cause such a kerfuffle. You can see what the haters think of that definition of the term. Don't bloody like it!

So that's really all there is to say. When your team is going undefeated and making the playoffs and pretty much doing so by overachieving the way we are these days, you gotta pull back on some of the typical toxic-fan business.... And you can start by rallying around a great QB like Ian Book!

 

[Telx1]

This is our town square for ND football. While I fully agree with the sentiments expressed by Duck, I’m opposed to anything smacking of group censorship. I like the exchange of opinions and the banter back and forth, but detest when someone is labeled a hater just because they express an opinion that is critical of a coach or a players. The beauty of this board is each of us has the power to ignore anyone for any reason, and I’ve chosen to ignore the one poster who throws the hater term around way too frequently and too liberally.