CU Guru [1339]
TigerPulse: 79%
Posts: 3557
Joined: 9/27/05
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This was on TigerIllustrated, but the same can be said
Dec 9, 2009, 4:55 PM
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for Tigernet as well.
The angst, the sheer venom, the downright hatred that’s on this message board and presumably others, is worse than I have ever seen it since we went online back in 1999. There are numerous elements with regard to this team and staff that can be and have been criticized this year. But never before have I seen a year where there have been more out-and-out hit-jobs conducted on so many people within the Clemson athletics department, whether it be coaches, student-athletes, administration personnel, etc.
I walk into an elevator at the Hyatt in Tampa last week, two Orange Bowl officials are on board, and then a 7-year TI subscriber hops on with his 13-year old son. He introduced himself to me, and then quickly told me how he has stopped letting his son read this message board because of the garbage, gutter language and attacks on posters from other posters and of course people at Clemson. He said his son only reads articles and has been forbidden to click on the West Zone.
I walk into the press box at Raymond James Stadium Saturday evening and the first member of the media that sees me walks up to me and says, “So how bad do you think it’ll be on your board tonight if they lose? How bad will the language be?”
It’s embarrassing. It truly is. The guy in the elevator with his son, and the Orange Bowl people standing there just listening to how people behave on a message board, my message board, I was embarrassed. When we have teenagers who can't even read a sports forum to follow their team because of filthy language and daily hangings and people denigrating other human beings, it's pretty sad.
For those of you who have stated that you prefer a change in coaching at key positions and you’ve done it without launching these incessant personal attacks at other human beings, for those of you who have engaged in critique of performance, this is not for you.
But there is a select few who over and over and over again are ripping football coaches, other staffers and it’s a day-to-day process, it seems. It’s become personal and has gone beyond the boundaries of criticism of performance on the field. If Clemson football has become such a burden to follow and brings no pleasure whatsoever, then please let me encourage some folks to simply approach the individuals you want fired at The West Zone or on the IPTAY speaking circuit. Tell them personally you want their livelihood taken away from them. Then you’re welcome to come back and tell us how that went. If you must, galvanize support for your cause and submit petitions and letters to Clemson’s athletics director. And for those of you who want him fired, then submit it to the Board of Trustees, since many Clemson fans strongly disapprove of the president of the university.
There is another reason I mention this. I received a telephone call on Monday from a source familiar with a Clemson coach’s meeting with a prospect. The Clemson coach was stunned. Because in his first 35 minutes of communication with the prospect at a school, he did nothing but answer questions about Internet posts here, his fellow coaches getting hung daily and ripped to shreds on the Internet. Other programs, I know of two staffs in particular, are printing out posts on this message board and showing them to prospects, hitting Clemson in the mouth with it. (I won’t mention the prospect or coach, because then the next time media talk with both, that, in and of itself, will be the focal point of that interview, and then it becomes yet an even bigger issue).
Losing games doesn’t help recruiting. But fans lambasting coaches, athletics directors every single day on the Internet and on radio call-in shows, people clearly going out of their way to use filthy language and conduct these hit-jobs on people in the university, I’m convinced, makes the problem worse.
If people want changes, they’re entitled to that. But my point is that I strongly believe there is a better avenue to channel that desire.
Believe me when I tell you an athletics director will spend far more time looking at a petition or a hand-written letter from a supporter before he’ll give any credence at all to a message board post that simply says, “TDP sucks. TDP isn’t worth a piece of _ _ _ _ or let’s just fire every human being in the athletics department.”
The stuff that’s gone on here has made it tougher for your football coaches to recruit. That’s a fact. The stuff gone on here has made it tougher for many subscribers to get into legitimate discussion and debate and critique. That’s a fact.
I want to encourage some of our readers to please strongly reconsider your tone, the use of filthy language and the way you’re going about your agenda.
There are many things with regard to this team and the athletics department that can improve. No question about that. If fans want to characterize the season as a success or not, that's their right. Certainly steps forward were taken, given that a division title was won, and it was done in a first-year regime under a rookie head coach, a rookie coordinator and a rookie QB. And most people on this very forum pegged this team to finish 8-4 back in August, as did myself, Larry and Ryan.
I've tried to be as absolutely lenient as I can this fall. I don't know. You have people that subscribe to your Web site, your company, and it means a lot to you. You want to believe these are good people and they're passionate and you want to give them all the leeway possible to use a forum to provide their perspective and insight. But it's important to all involved, believe me, that we keep it at that... perspective and insight, discussion, debate and critique. The venom, the hatred, these hit-jobs, that just cannot be a part of this environment.
This is a pretty big deal to us. And I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention.
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