MikeHamiltonFan
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Clay Travis just wrote a book about Tennessee, and the fact that he said this in an interview about his book is sad:
Clapping your hands really hard and saying, Score some points, damn you! isnt really going to make the difference between success and failure. Fans like to think they hold the key to their team, that if they just sprinkle the right magic dust, or use the right inflection in their voice they can turn defeat into failure.
At first I was going to malign Clay for not understanding what happens at a football game, but then I remembered the absolute idiots I sat around before who cheered on offense.
IF TN scores. Cheer. If TN runs a play you particularly like that is successful (pass to TE which has not worked well since Witten), it is okay to Cheer. It is okay to be very happy and clap alot over a 4 yard run. When our RB picks up 1 yard before he is crushed, you are betraying that you cannot see the field or cannot measure distance when you clap.
On the other hand, fans DO make a difference, but in one way only. When the opponent is on offense and is lined up, make as much noise as you possibly can until the ball is snapped. This is particularly crucial on third down. The reason fans is that almost all of the teams we play are relying on verbal cues from their QB. The center waits to snap the ball until he hears the right signal and the offensive linemen wait to move until the ball is snapped or they get a penalty. When you and 40,000 other people (typical at Neyland as more than half of the bluehairs make no noise at all for the only cheering that matters) make so much noise that the O Line cannot hear the QB and they have been getting beaten on by Orgeron coached fireballs, they will be tired and will start early. That is the one way you directly impact the game. It is what people mean in large measure by "home field advantage"
It is sad that this must be explained, but if you have gone to a game, particularly if you have season tickets you know that this problem is real. People do not yell, or they yell at the wrong time, or they clap their hands which acoustically is not powerful at all compared to yelling. If you leave a TN game and your voice is not scratchy, you may just be a well hydrated individual with perfectly trained vocal cords, but it is more likely you cannot say with the players, "I gave my all for Tennessee today"
If you are a spectator, watch on TV or sit in the rich section behind glass where your cheering would not matter anyway.
Fans, please show up, scream at all the right times, intimidate opponents, impress recruits. Thanks
Clapping your hands really hard and saying, Score some points, damn you! isnt really going to make the difference between success and failure. Fans like to think they hold the key to their team, that if they just sprinkle the right magic dust, or use the right inflection in their voice they can turn defeat into failure.
At first I was going to malign Clay for not understanding what happens at a football game, but then I remembered the absolute idiots I sat around before who cheered on offense.
IF TN scores. Cheer. If TN runs a play you particularly like that is successful (pass to TE which has not worked well since Witten), it is okay to Cheer. It is okay to be very happy and clap alot over a 4 yard run. When our RB picks up 1 yard before he is crushed, you are betraying that you cannot see the field or cannot measure distance when you clap.
On the other hand, fans DO make a difference, but in one way only. When the opponent is on offense and is lined up, make as much noise as you possibly can until the ball is snapped. This is particularly crucial on third down. The reason fans is that almost all of the teams we play are relying on verbal cues from their QB. The center waits to snap the ball until he hears the right signal and the offensive linemen wait to move until the ball is snapped or they get a penalty. When you and 40,000 other people (typical at Neyland as more than half of the bluehairs make no noise at all for the only cheering that matters) make so much noise that the O Line cannot hear the QB and they have been getting beaten on by Orgeron coached fireballs, they will be tired and will start early. That is the one way you directly impact the game. It is what people mean in large measure by "home field advantage"
It is sad that this must be explained, but if you have gone to a game, particularly if you have season tickets you know that this problem is real. People do not yell, or they yell at the wrong time, or they clap their hands which acoustically is not powerful at all compared to yelling. If you leave a TN game and your voice is not scratchy, you may just be a well hydrated individual with perfectly trained vocal cords, but it is more likely you cannot say with the players, "I gave my all for Tennessee today"
If you are a spectator, watch on TV or sit in the rich section behind glass where your cheering would not matter anyway.
Fans, please show up, scream at all the right times, intimidate opponents, impress recruits. Thanks
