Cliff Notes - City government trying to pass a bill to get all fans at the game a refund, due to the fact the coach pulled the starters....
http://www.620wtmj.com/sports/billmi.../80270417.html
Classless Colts Fans Don't Deserve Their Team
By Bill Michaels
Colts fans boo and leave Lucas Oil StadiumYour teams reels off 23 regular season wins in a row, they’ve locked up everything they set out to accomplish in the regular season and with 5:36 left in the 3rd quarter of a game that they are winning Jim Caldwell, the Colts head coach, decides to rest a few of his starters and focus on a run towards the championship….and you BOO! I understand that you, as fans, desire that shot at immortality, to claim that your team won every game and the Super Bowl…that’s a heck of a claim to fame, no doubt. BUT, the ultimate goal is to win the championship and, as a head coach, have your team as prepared for competition as they possibly could be. The back-up’s, such as Curtis Painter, got valuable game time experience. That experience is fresh and it was against a team, the New York Jets, who had everything to play for so it wasn’t as if they were merely getting mop up duty. Some of these guys are a little more prepared now as the Colts head in to the post-season. If injury besets itself upon the Colts in the coming weeks, the Colts depth now has a little more experience, something to draw from. That’s important!
We hold records in high regard but ultimately it’s Championships by which you are judged. Granted, the Colts, namely Mike Caldwell, have placed an enormous amount of pressure on his team to win it all. With pulling his stars, Caldwell’s made the statement, “We’re resting these guys to win a championship”….so he’d better win it all or he’ll be second guessed as long as he slips a headset on sidelines all over the country.
Believe it or not, now the Indianapolis City Council is trying to pass a resolution asking that those fans who were in attendance, at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday, get their money back. Again, shyster politicians playing on the emotions of the voting public. Get real. Those who support this should be voted out of office immediately.
After watching the defeat on television, Beurt SerVaas, a Republican who served on the council for 41 years, drafted the resolution that asked the council to demand that the NFL refund the money paid for tickets. SerVaas and others cited that the Colts organization didn’t care about what the fans wanted.
In the era of fast food, fans really don’t know what the hell they want from minute to minute. Most fans are reactionary. I’m sure there were Colts fans who called for the firing of Caldwell immediately because they felt cheated in some way. If fans would get their way after every defeat there would be new regimes in every franchise on almost a weekly basis. Hey, Colts fans, your team’s 14 and 1.
What fans are paying for is the right to be one of however many a stadium will hold and witness, live and in person, a game. PERIOD! Your ticket doesn’t guarantee you that you’re going to see the starters for a certain period of time or a win or a certain score. If you’re a Raiders fan and you’re paying year after year to see bad personnel moves, a stubborn owner and pathetic football, you have a right to bitch but NOT when you’ve have extended success in a league built upon mediocrity and the supposed ebb and flow of franchise success.
Let’s realize that a football team has a 53 man roster and in no way can you sit every starter, it simply can’t be done. So, that said, you did see many of the starters for the entire game, you just didn’t get the outcome YOU wanted and thus, you Boo. Maybe Bill Polian will load the trucks in the middle of the night and waltz his team to a new destination. Then you’ll have something to boo about, until then, support your team and try to regain some of the class that you lost this past weekend.