Any thoughts?

"I received the following letter from a former University of Oregon football player who attended his first football game as a fan last Saturday for the Ducks game vs. UCLA. This player played in a recent BCS bowl game for Oregon. Now he's a fan. He was incredibly disappointed and dismayed at what he observed.

Is the former player right? or is this an isolated experience?

His words...

I Love The Ducks. I Hate Duck Fans.

I, for the first time, attended a ducks game as spectator. I was excited to experience tailgating, cheering, and being with friends, rather than the seriousness that comes with preparing for a game. My buddy, whom I had given tickets to all throughout my time as a player, decided he wanted to pay me back and offer me tickets in corner end-zone seats as a regular fan. I accepted his offer with enthusiasm.

We enjoyed seeing friends, shaking hands, and sharing drinks with fellow supporters.

My friend and I took our seats where I soon became acquainted with the most ignorant people in all of college football. Directly behind me were a couple of drunk (expletive) who criticized Marcus' ability to throw the football, DeAnthony's ability to run the football, the lineman's ability block, and the coach's ability to analyze film and call plays. After hearing so much ignorant (expletive), I turned around to tell the "fans" to chill the (expletive) out. Marcus had overthrown a receiver on a tough play and the spectator made comment, "Hey, Marcus! Throw it inbounds, dumbass!" in, which I finally had enough, and turned around and asked if he would like to get down there and take Marcus' place. The man responded, "No". Then I asked if we were all still rooting for Oregon, in which he responded in an aggressive, irrelevant and incoherent manner and so I decided to discontinue the conversation I had started with him.

I was then verbally attacked by other spectators saying, "you need to keep your (expletive) mouth shut, because you don't know (expletive) about football." They claimed that I didn't know that they had coached college football, and that I had no idea what I was talking about. Ironic to say the least, considering my background and what you know of me, what my old teammates know of me, and what my old coaches know of me.

Not too long after, a woman a couple seats down yelled for 10 minutes straight about how the players were playing like "(expletive)". The coaches were being "(expletive)". The refs were being "(expletive)". All during the time I was telling my friend how embarrassing it was to have her on our side. And then I started hearing laughter from the surrounding crowd and encouragement of that behavior. Is this really what goes on in the stands? Is this really the type of people we attract???

I remember walking in from fall camp practice and talking to my teammates about how similar our lives were to the TV series Spartacus. We were slaves. We were paid enough to live, eat, and train... And nothing more. We went out on the field where we were broken down physically and mentally every day, only to wake up and do it again on the next. On the outside, spectators placed bets and objectified us. They put us on pedestals and worshipped us for a short time, but only as long as we were winning. In the end, we were just a bunch of dumbass (racial slur) for the owners to whip, and the rich to bet on.

What I described is a business, I know. It's how it works, and it is something we understand as athletes entering the system, as (expletive) up as it is. For many people entering that system, it's better than what life has to offer elsewhere. So they take it. But having been on the outside now, to witness this disgusting display of "support", I know that I want no (expletive) part of it. I will never attend a duck game as a spectator again. I am disgusted by duck fans and I will sit back and observe from afar with high hopes for the player's success and understanding of their sacrifice, without having to hear the spoiled woes of ignorant fans.

I will always love the ducks: my coaches, my teammates, my brothers and family. The rest... Go (expletive) yourselves."

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2013/10/canzano_blog_ex-ducks_player_t.html

That's literally what every stadium on this planet is like on gameday. Obviously some are worse than others, but they all have "those people" in them.

with probably ASU second but at least their women look better.

And that's going back to before they got really good & seeing truckloads of these tools showing up with their goofy-ass Duck-bill-lipped noisemakers.

I don't think I saw the duck-lips last year during that shootout but in my lower end-zone section there was some older Duck fans who obviously didn't know shit about football cursing & acting to disgusted with their own team on basically any play that wasn't a touchdown (and considering they scored a TD on all but maybe 2 or 3 possessions all game it was even more ridiculous) along with a younger group that were passive-aggressively trying to start some shit I was too old to care about.

That being said, this dude's article is terrible in its 'no shit'-ness & makes mind-numbingly obvious observations that it mistakenly believes are revelations.

>with probably ASU second but at least their women look
>better.
>

(damn right at the women part) but U of A is SO MUCH WORSE BOMB COME ON.

they're all a bunch of spoiled, coke-head Californian or rich east coast / AZ snot-nosed entitled shitheads. i grew up with a lot of them.

but i will never, ever defend what goes in and comes out of ASU. its sickening. but the women are great to look at.

>they're all a bunch of spoiled, coke-head Californian or rich
>east coast / AZ snot-nosed entitled shitheads. i grew up with
>a lot of them.

ive met a lot of guys/gals from both schools that liked coke, lol. the girls from both schools are hot enough to make me not give a fuck about much else.

I think I've only been to the U of A game twice, the turnout wasn't huge either & I've seen I believe every ASU game here since '04 with maybe one miss in between.

Least aggravating visiting fans I'd say would be Berkley, also the least amount of attractive women, not sure if there's a connection.

steeped in it.

there was nothing particularly ducky about the article or the situation he described.

at. all.

maybe if this was some mofo who transferred over here from australia after playing rugby i could understand how he wouldn't know all this shit, off-break.

and while i agree with a lot of his assessments, the 'no shit'ness fucks it up for me.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
** i move away from the mic to breathe in

that the Duck fanbase absolutely loathes.

1) he's a delusional moron. (He is writing all of this based on his experience of one section of a 60k stadium, during a single game.)
2) his rant at the end, while something I'm sympathetic to generally, has nothing to do with anything

btw the fans already figured out who it was. Just an idiotic move writing this.

Maybe he should've sent it to National Media, but if he wanted local impact... The Eugene paper has basically refreshed its ENTIRE staff in the last 3 years, and even though the beat-writer got a job at UO writing (arguably) fluff pieces, of COURSE he wasn't gonna publish it on www.goducks.com

Canzano seems to be really highly regarded nationally, so, there's that too, regardless of what Duck fans think of him. I'm not sure he should've published it, but it's on his blog, so I'm not sure he believed enough in it to commit it to tomorrow's paper anyway.

Edit: Didn't know the author had already been identified - I'll have to go take a look at ATQ

there's still Ken Goe, for example.

Canzano is "respected" nationally because he says/writes shit with a loud voice and he's in the major-er market of PDX rather than Eugene.

Anybody that actually wants to get a read on the Ducks (that knows better) reaches past him to Eugene.

Seriously, every fanbase have fans like this and they grow exponentially when your team/program is experiencing success.

Matt can correct me if he's heard differently

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2012/12/canzano_a_fiesta_bowl_story_wo.html

Said offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, "He'll do anything you ask of him; he's one of my favorite kids."

Also, it turns out Ebanez, a junior, is calling it quits this week. The Fiesta Bowl will be his final game.

I heard once from a college coach that every college player believes he's going to play in the NFL one day. I thought that to be true until Monday, when I met Ebanez and talked for a long while about the sacrifices he's made to remain a college athlete and the absurdity and hypocrisy of the NCAA.

His father, now retired, worked for years at the University of Alaska. His mother is a retired police officer. They helped pay his first year of college, but since he's not on scholarship and dedicates so much of his time to the full-time job that is college football, Ebanez has had to take out more than $70,000 in student loans during his four years of college. In fact, the NCAA is so strict with regulations during the academic year that the non-scholarship players aren't allowed to dine alongside those receiving financial aid for playing sports.

"We get out of our football meetings at night, and we're hungry and tired, and the scholarship players go off to the dining hall to eat together and us walk-ons all sort of just walk away and have to fend for ourselves," Ebanez said. "It's like a final little slap in the face."

>"We get out of our football meetings at night, and we're
>hungry and tired, and the scholarship players go off to the
>dining hall to eat together and us walk-ons all sort of just
>walk away and have to fend for ourselves," Ebanez said. "It's
>like a final little slap in the face."

the life of a scholarship athlete is pretty rad...being a walk-on is not quite as rad. gee whiz. the life of a CEO is better than being in the mailroom...the world is real fucked up like that.

Had to be some walk on, wasn't going to be Carson York or someone a)recognizable or b) big in stature. Even in a crowd, people are chicken shit towards big dudes.

>I remember walking in from fall camp practice and talking to
>my teammates about how similar our lives were to the TV series
>Spartacus. We were slaves.

no. you really weren't

i really wish that meme would die

is the duality of commoditization vs student responsibility create a rough paradigm? yes

is ther an imbalance in income (what teams/athletes bring in) vs direct benefit (read: payment) to students? debateable

but SLAVES?

no

especially from someone who played at Oregon with their 50-zillion dollar players only facility which is bigger than most DORMS

c'mon man

>especially from someone who played at Oregon with their
>50-zillion dollar players only facility which is bigger than
>most DORMS
>
>c'mon man

This is like saying your job isn't a dead end job because its at walmart

of course he was there for the day-spa like treatment center and academic center, so...