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The Hot Corner: Ignore Perpetual Gloom, True Fans Stay Supportive

The Hot Corner

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: November 1, 2009

Updated:

"The Bucs are on a bye! Now they can't lose!"

Some variation of that declaration was virtually unavoidable for fans all last week.

With the 35-7 British Browbeating still fresh and an 0-7 record a numbing reality, sarcastic mockery comes as no surprise.

It's hard not to any time a team is bumbling and fumbling its way through a season with such ineptitude.

But sometimes it gets to a point - like 0-7 - where the day in and day out bashing and tounge lashing needs to ebb and transform into more lighthearted jest - like the bye week jokes. It's bad enough when a favorite team is getting beat down by the opposition every week. Having to hear about why everyone in the organization (with such eloquence) "sucks" from Monday through Saturday is overkill.

Local newspaper columns haven't been so insufferable. Anyone who chooses to listen to local sports radio, though, has been constantly inundated. Not that local sports radio hosts are renowned for their, well...anything, but why incessantly wallow in the misery?

The worst part is the whining and screaming going beyond complaining about players and coaches; when the guys start advising fans to not even bother going to games and being supportive.

Yeah, this season is clearly over in terms of standings. But these are the times where true fans are separated from the frauds.

Stop going to games? Really? Great idea. Encourage television blackouts. Encourage the area's young football fans to pick up an out-of-town franchise. Hell, encourage the NFL to start thinking that maybe another city is a better route.

Bad seasons happen. Bad stretches rear their ugly heads. Roll with the punches and save your skull from all the headbanging against the wall. It can be almost theraputic to take a step back and - gasp - find some positives to redirect your focus toward. Believe it or not, no matter what the jokers in the box are telling you, the entire roster and coaching staff probably doesn't "suck."

For instance, take Josh Freeman. The big, first career start is coming this Sunday against Green Bay. A popular draft pick, he was not. No matter how blue in the face people want to get about labeling Freeman as garbage, remember that they know as much as you and I about him in the NFL - nothing.

It's crazy, I know, but try actually pulling for the kid.

What's pathetic is the sadistic underlying hope for Freeman's failure some of these guys frequently espouse. For his failure means they get to say, "Told you so." And what's that mean? It means more struggling and losing.

Being a lifelong Cleveland fan, I know a thing or two about enduring losing in all its inglorious forms. A little venting here and there is just fine and necessary at times, but keeping the angry face on 24-7 does no good. You have to keep your head up, look for light amid the darkness, and above all else, don't bail out.

Don't follow the lemmings, Bucs fans. It will be that much sweeter when the tide turns.

Eric Horchy can be reached at 727-815-1071 or ehorchy@suncoastnews.com.

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