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Oh lawd, I can hear the Barners now, "Them cheatin bammerz think they created fubawl PAWWWWL"
To Spoil:
To impair, damage, or harm the character or nature of (someone) by unwise treatment, excessive indulgence, etc.: to spoil a child by pampering him.
For just a minute, let's put aside the 15 National Championships as the main reason Alabama fans are thought to be "spoiled". After all, if you take away the ones we claim, we still have more (10) than anyone else. #Gumpin
What other "records" could make Alabama fans spoiled?
If I'm missing any or my stats are off let me know..
- How about the 827 official victories? That's 7th best all-time.
- The 27 Conference Championships? (4 Southern Conference and 23 SEC championships)
- NCAA-record 59 postseason bowl appearances?
- NCAA record 23 10 game+ win streaks
- 57 straight home wins from 1963-82
- 18 seasons with a 10-0 start
- 31 10-win seasons (NCAA record)
- 35 Bowl Victories (NCAA record)
- 10 undefeated seasons
- Leads the SEC West Division with eight division titles and eight appearances in the SEC Championship Game.
- 675 Weeks as the AP #1 (#1 in the SEC, 7th all time)
- Alabama holds a winning record against every current and former SEC school, except for SEC newcomer Missouri (2-2).
- The AP ranks Alabama 4th in all-time final AP Poll appearances, with 50 through the 2012 season
Given that list, how could Alabama fans not be spoiled? Our best tradition at Alabama is winning and the fans know it (And will let everyone around them know it). Heck, we have fired coaches for not winning. Unfortunately, this is the ugly side of winning. BTW, when was the last decade that Alabama had without a national title? The 1950's? That's crazy.
But are we too spoiled and is this attitude unfounded? Well, looking back a bit, since 2008 Alabama has-
- 61 wins and only 7 losses
- 3 National Titles and 2 SEC titles
- 1 Heisman winner
- 24 players drafted to the NFL.
That's a lot of success in a very short amount of time and still expect fans to stay reasonably sensible.
We were discussing last week whether or not the 2013 defense will be sub-par. The main point made by almost everyone was so gumpalicious -The only teams currently you could possibly compare to Alabama's defense was....Alabama and/or LSU. No one else was even in the discussion.
Not that other teams have bad defenses, its just that given the defensive stats over the last 2-3 seasons, Alabama pretty much owns every one.
But has this success on the field made Alabama fans unbearable? Well, um, according to the internet is has...
But it's not just rival fans that have pointed to this inherent spoiled nature. Even our own fan base has started to be irked with the empty seats at BDS, the general quietness of the fans at games and the unreasonable expectations heaped on each team to be better or live up to the hype. I think our very own J Tadpole said it best:
That's the thing. We've become so damn spoiled that it's surprising to us when a team makes a decent play. Most of the country gives up around 300YPG and 20 or more points, especially against better teams
So, are we too spoiled and if so, is there any way to reverse this unsightly trend?
References:
Football Bowl Subdivision Records