You walk into the bar. You've been a patron of this bar since you turned 18, many years ago. It's "your" bar, the bar closest to home, the one with all the folks you know, all your friends and ex-girlfriends and former enemies, even the moms and dads of some of your old high school classmates. It's as close to "home" as a place with a liquor license can be.
And everyone in this bar loves the Vols. Venerates them. Each and every game is played live on all seven TVs hanging in all the corners and side walls, and then played again at least four or five more times during the week. Orange is by far the predominant color, both in the decor and on the backs of the patrons.
It's okay to talk trash about the head coach, as long as it's clear you love the guy and would run through the wall for him. Not because his name is Butch, but just because he's our coach. Some of the folks in the bar think he's not the long term answer, sure, and plenty of beer has been spilt over heated debates on that topic. But even for them, while Butch may be an idiot, he's OUR idiot. Any fan of another school walks in that door and takes advantage of some insider criticism, and they'll quickly find out that the color orange is FAR more important to us than petty disagreements about any particular coach or player.
This is a Tennessee Volunteers bar. It's a second home. Arguing, dancing, or watching the game together, it is comfortable as the womb, because it's full of people who share a love. A Vols love.
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That, that word picture I just drew, that's what a lot of us would like VolNation to be. An online version of your favorite bar, the place where you get together with friends to talk Vol Football.
Trouble is, Freak doesn't sell beer.
Okay, we can get beer out of our own refrigerators. So we'll overlook that one.
Trouble is, the social anonymity of the internet encourages people to act like jackwagons to each other.
Okay, that's just life online. Have to roll with that.
Trouble is, we're infiltrated with fans of other schools pretending to be Vols fans just enough that they can cause trouble. Not talking about 99gator or bamawriter, or guys like them. They're open and honest about who they support, they're guests in our house, and welcome for their (wrong, inbred and socially inept, haha) opinions. No, talking about the trolls who pretend to be Vols but are really just here to denigrate.
Again, that's just life online. Have to ignore them as best we can and get on with it.
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This thread is really for and about the other group. Those folks who haven't yet figured out how to be a devout fan while criticizing. Those who, when they turn on the negative flow, don't know how to control it, who haven't developed their fine tuning enough to avoid being nasty, petty or boorish when they want to talk about how things aren't perfect.
Norm walks into Cheers, everyone shouts NORM! He sits down, orders a beer, and joins the chatter about the Red Sox. He's not a big fan of John Farrell, and he's free to explain why, BECAUSE he is so well known in the bar to be a consumate Red Sox fan. Because for everything critical he might say about the manager or one of the players, he says ten or twenty positive things about the team. And even if he's not the hugest fan of Farrell, he wouldn't for a minute put up with a Yankee fan walking into the bar and talking trash about him or any other member of the team.
Why can't we all be like Norm?
When did disagreement forcibly turn into hate and rudeness?
Something to think about.
Go Vols!
NOTE: Not saying anyone (other than the trolls, they know who they are and we do, too) isn't a fan. This isn't about defining fandom or excluding anyone. It's about suggesting that we, as a group of Vols fans, consider raising our game, becoming more the fan base that ALL of us can be proud of.
