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Originally Posted by SmootSmack
Solid post, SkinsFans4Ever. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree though. I don't care for most Redskins fans. I think they are far from the best...and much closer to being the worst.
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SS, maybe I'm wrong but I think it's possible that you've, perhaps, lumped some of your recent bad experience(s) together of most Redskins fans.
This season, particularly Gibbs 2.0, has been a tough one to stomach for fans, coaches, and players alike.
First of all, let's be honest, it's really hard to put this subject in its proper context. Here's my reasoning when it comes to Redskins fans and most NFL fans: fans are up and fans are down. But you know what, so are players and so are coaches. And so is the media for that matter. So is the ice cream man. So is the guy next door. So is my plumber. It's all human nature. I'll go a step further too. Now, this is purely speculation on my part, but people that tend to be fiercely loyal to their team..I mean the ones that really drink the so called Kool-Aid, I'll bet they're like that in other areas of their lives and with other relationships.
See, I'm of the opinion that one's fandom is simply an extension of other things and people they relate to on a daily basis. I'll bet some of you on this very website would help me at the drop of hat if I was going through some type of personal crisis. Other's would say, I don't really know 12th. Seems like a cool guy but I don't really know him like that. You can't hate on that, and it doesn't make one person that maybe loaned me $10 better than the other Warpath member that questioned my motives and integrity. It is what it is. (I don't know if I may argument is making much sense at this point)
But I think it's that one single trait about Joe Gibbs that has endeared thousands to him; he's fiercely loyal - almost to a fault. I never realized this until I heard him being interviewed shortly after he accepted the job the second round. You know, the reporter is grilling him. Trying to see what Gibbs' motive "really" was for returning to the Redskins. Then the reporter crossed the line some. He asked if Gibbs ever thought about coaching another team, perhaps the Cowboys even. Without hesitation Gibbs shot right back, and said "it never crossed my mind, I'm a Redskin." I couldn't (Gibbs cackle) imagine wearing anything other than burgundy and gold. Now that's a damn fan if you ask me.
That's why you'll never, ever hear a player publicly bash Gibbs. They know it goes beyond coaching with him. They know he looks at them as 53 sons with the last name Gibbs etched somewhere on their uniform. So to bash him publicly would almost be like bashing their own father. We're so foolish. We always talk about Gibbs being a Hall of Fame coach and how he deserves respect. That's not why Joe Gibbs deserves respect. He deserves and commands respect because he is, in my book, the greatest Redskin fan of all time. I'll bet he'll trade in that bust in Canton in a heartbeat to go down in history as the greatest Redskin fan and he'll trade in all three of those Super Bowl rings for the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet and have some influence on a few Sean Taylors along the way. Now those statements seem completely subjective and opinionated, but that's what I believe. That's how I see it.
To that end that's why it stinks to high heaven to people like you SmootSmack when Gibbs is questioned, ridiculed and scorned. Because the bar is so high and our fans are so human. We quantify success in terms of playoff victories and Super Bowls. Joe Gibbs measures true success by lives touched and changed. The rings and accolades are a result of the latter. So it's an impossible benchmark for most to meet -impossible. But neither is an indictment. I think, and this is the only way I could possibly say this, Gibbs 1.0 we witnessed one of the greatest coaches of all time. Gibbs 2.0 we're seeing a good coach but also the greatest fan of the Washington Redskins.