I Get It. You Don't Like The Team...

If anything happens that

doesn't directly benefit MY team...

SUSPEND SOMEBODY!!!

You know, I've been wanting to write about this for a while. It never ceases to amaze me the depths that people will go to in order to hate on any team that isn't their own. For example, we've been seeing it whenever the New England Patriots win a game. You will see fans of the team that the Pats beat 38-3 claiming that the only reason New England won was because they cheated. The fact that their team only had 3 first downs and 107 yards of total offense, combined with 12 minutes time of possession had NOTHING to do with the loss. The Patriots cheated, and should be fined, and stripped of every win in the team's history! Okay, I'm exaggerating...a little bit.

But in week 17 of the 2015 NFL season, there were 2 glaring examples of this idiotic Haterade that I noticed. Both of my teams were involved. In the New England Patriots game at the Miami Dolphins, the Dolphins beat the Patriots 20-10. During the game, Dolphins defensive lineman, Ndamukong Suh was trying to sack Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady. Suh hit Brady low, and Brady was injured slightly. Turned out to be a sprain. It was a clean hit, and there were no flags thrown, but within minutes, all the bloggers were posting about how dirty it was, and how dirty of a player Suh is. To be fair, Suh does have a history of dirty hits, and he's been fined heavily in the past. BUT, he did not commit one single dirty play this entire season. This happened literally every time Suh got a sack or a big hit. You'd better believe that the NFL had the refs watching Suh like a hawk, ready to flag him for a dirty hit that would have him suspended for the year. It never happened, to the dismay of all the Suh haters. But, on every single one of these blogs, you'll find comments like "Dirty POS needs to be kicked out of the league!" How about their teams try something like maybe STOPPING Suh? But they would rather have the refs make a bad call and eject him for no reason. To be fair to Patriots fans, I saw lots of comments from them saying "I'm a Patriots fan, and as scary as it was, that was a clean hit." These comments are from "fans" who just like to bitch and whine about anything. In fact, every time it happened this year, there were comments from the fans of the team Miami was playing saying that the hit was clean. But, like the Patriots haters, the Suh haters are going to pounce every time he breathes. Its ridiculous.

What the haters forgot to mention in their blogs
was the Patriots player grabbing Suh's face mask
that pulled him into Brady.

Next up, the Carolina Panthers game vs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bucs fullback, Jovorskie Lane suffered the worst injury I've seen since Joe Theismann. His ankle was flopping around. It was painful to see. It was so bad, the TV network even refused to show it a second time. You know its bad when the opposing team's players are in tears, and standing with the team's players in solidarity and respect for the fallen player. 

Yeah, it was terrible.

As Lane was carried off the field, Panthers players were encouraging their fans to get LOUD in respect for him. And, they did. Lane later tweeted that he was going to be okay. Nobody; not bloggers, not Bucs fans, not announcers even suggested that this injury was intentional until......

The sad part? This guy is a Panthers fan. I was watching the game, and saw the hit. I saw it several times online afterward. You can't plan to do that to someone unless you have them strapped down, and smash them with a sledgehammer. In fact, nobody even hit Lane in a one on one collision. It was a pile up. Come on, man! Did he think that the Panthers huddled up and said "Ok, guys, lets take Lane out. When we pile up, let's just make sure that in a fraction of a second, someone snap his ankle!" Some people need to get a clue. It was an accident. A horrible accident. Nothing more. And, Thomas Davis, the player who made first contact with Lane and rolled over his ankle was destroyed emotionally about it.

Does this look like the reaction
of someone who intentionally
hurt someone?

I get it. People are always going to have teams that they hate. I hate the Patriots. I hate the Jets. But when they beat Miami, I blame Miami for crappy play. I don't blame refs, or accuse someone of cheating. Its called MANNING UP. Its ridiculous everyone wants to blame someone else when they screw up or their team lays out a stinker of a performance. Its also ridiculous that people think that you can have a violent game like football and be injury free. The idea that whenever an injury happens, someone is to blame is stupid. Its thinking like that which is responsible for all these rule changes that are slowly changing football into flag football. 

When a person signs up for the military, there is an accepted fact that they may be in harm's way, and could be killed. These people make significantly LESS than an NFL player, but still enlist. In football, you know there is a chance that you could hurt. Like the military, the risk goes with the territory. The players do understand that. The fans should too. If all the fans who are blaming everyone but their team for a loss or injury would just man up, that would go a long way towards reversing the trend of pussification in this country.

So, if your team loses, its because your team didn't play as well as the other team. If a guy gets hurt, it is RARELY intentional. And, the NFL is NOT rigged in favor of specific teams or players. This is a fact. Deal with it.