In the midst of Tennessee’s five year losing streak to Georgia, I’d forgotten how miserable fans of the Bulldogs can be. They’re disgruntled and rude if they win, they’re even more disgruntled and rude if they lose. Part of me would love to chalk this up to that minority of every fan base that doesn’t reflect well on the overall fan-base. But in the case of Georgia fans, I’m afraid that polite fans are in the minority (I’ve actually met two who are quite nice and good natured).
This feeling has only been enhanced in the past twenty-four hours following Tennessee’s come-from-behind victory over Georgia yesterday. Observing the things being thrown the way of Volunteer fans on Twitter and other social media outlets has led me to make the following list of the differences between UGA fans and just about every other fan base in college football. For the sake of this post and because I’m a Volunteer fan, I’ll put this out there as the differences between UT fans and Georgia fans. (You can laugh, because I’m trying to be funny here!)
- Tennessee fans wear their orange and white at home and on the road. Georgia fans are offended that orange and white is allowed in Neyland Stadium.
- Tennessee fans try to make Georgia fans feel welcome at Neyland. Georgia fans threaten to physically assault Tennessee fans before, during and after a game at Neyland Stadium.
- Tennessee fans applaud players from both teams if they’re forced to be helped off the field due to injury. When a UGA player is injured, Tennesee fans show concern and offer prayers and good wishes via social media. Georgia fans believe there are elaborate conspiracies to injure their star players.
- Tennessee fans don’t like seeing highlights of negative plays our team commits, but understands they have to be shown on ESPN. Georgia fans think ESPN should stop showing highlights that show Georgia surrendering a lead or losing a game.
- Tennessee fans support their team and coaching staff in thick and thin. Georgia fans want to fire Mark Richt because they didn’t win by a large enough margin.
- Tennessee fans love our legends and history. Georgia fans think that stats should have stopped counting when Herschel Walker won the Heisman.
- Tennessee fans got to listen to games called by one a broadcast legend, John Ward. Georgia fans got to listen to Larry Munsen, arguably the worst play by play broadcaster in any medium ever.
Just remember this is supposed to be in the spirit of fun and good natured rivalry.
Yeah, we’ll see how that goes.