@Escambia94,
@Leakfan12,
SO many cool, thoughtful, interesting and provocative points and starting topics for further discussion above (AND a good laugh to kick it all off, btw)--I am of course tempted to pursue them all (in my inimitable, somewhat verbose way), not surprisingly, but I'll stick to this for the moment:
Gainesville has always been variously viewed as (depending on one's cultural P.OV.-of-the-moment) "a rare island of tolerance", "a liberal oasis", "a bunch o' hippies", and so on--and the underlying truth has always been that it was and is THE University of Florida, its people (students AND staff), their ongoing relationship with the town and place for so long (lifelong relationships and their influence, each upon the other), at the root of all of it. So many different "types" and "scenes"--and ultimately, all "sisters and brothers" somehow in crazy balance.
Of COURSE, as always, the media get it wrong, fasten on the shallowest inaccuracy and proceed to sensationalize it. This sort of thing is by now so typical that I am beyond frustration. I don't give up--I just try and pick moments and opportunities to present an alternative "take"; at the very least (especially in person) make it clear to any "listeners" with unclearly-formed views of their own that there's a WHOLE LOTTA IGNORANT BS floating around, and that simply "accepting and repeating" they risk looking/sounding like fools, instead of searching out FACTS and thinking for themselves.
Oh, and going back to that laugh about "touchdowns"--Interestingly enough, not sure if I actually mentioned this elsewhere, but I MEANT to: I had become so frustrated and disappointed not just with this season, but disenchanted with the direction the program is headed under the direction and leadership of this staff, the time it will take to turn it all around and begin the climb back towards, well HOPE (let alone elite status and the kind of excitement and pride that "SUCCESS" inevitably follows), it was actually affecting my day-to-day emotional health: Frustration, tension without release: I was DEPRESSED! Like a kind of "emotional hangover" that took longer and longer to shake--hours, then DAYS to fade.
That HAD to stop. With the reality of this Coach, staff, and everything that together has set our uneven course for the forseeable, I just had to CARE a little less, it seemed. Maybe a LOT less. I began to consider a healthier, more balanced approach. I have one, I think--with help from (and benefit TO) y'all:
We might do well, at least for rest of THIS season, to go out of our ways to LAUGH at this team, its foolishly frustrating leadership, and the buffoonish results produced from the sidelines and on the field. This is only a theory, for now, one that I admit is new, unpredictable and completely new to ME in this context ("laughing at my Gators"???)...But I GOTTA find a way to keep watching without it HURTING so damn much--and all the while knowing things are BAD AND GETTING WORSE...Hell, I bore MYSELF with my same ranting and raving already--How bad will it get (is already?) for others?
So I don't know exactly what form this would take, or how "funny" or even appropriate this would all take--and I invite your patience, and even better your participation, in any form you imagine, in somehow "lightening it UP" for ourselves over the coming (what I anticipate will be a gathering storm of inconsistency and embarrassment of a) rest of the schedule.
(And now, hopefully with this last in mind, back of it anyway, I will drop a Gameday thread, a short one as starter/setup to what is usually--and "coulda/woulda/shoulda" been something special THIS year--"The Cocktail Party", which at this point seems to have all the elements of a "party" for them, and at our current "best" "a close boredom-fest" we eventually, inevitably lose because our Coach AIMS FOR "coulda/woulda/shoulda"..."The can't fire me for THAT...". What a guy.)
