I will give my all for Tennessee today

by dmiles on Oct 10, 2011 2:41 PM EDT

I am a fan. I cheer and root for my team each game day. If you cut me, I bleed orange. That means that every week I make a huge emotional investment in a game of which I have zero control over the outcome. I don't have the ability to go down on the field and play. I can't coach the players or create schemes and draw up plays to outmaneuver the opposing team. I don't have the athletic ability or the knowledge or experience to do any of those things. Every time they take the field, I entrust my emotional well-being to a group of 80 college students and their teachers.

Except when I am there in person in the stadium. At that moment, I have the ability to make my presence known. I realize that this is usually a very negligible effect. Many times the teams are used to the noise and hostility that comes with playing in a large stadium on the road. But we've all been there when the team we are playing gets affected by the noise and gets confused and loses a play or a series. Or when our teams gets energized by a big play and the fans screaming. Whatever small power I have on those days, its the most control I have.

This Saturday the team ranked #1 in the nation comes to Neyland Stadium to play and I have a ticket. There is every reason to think the game might not be close. Our starting quarterback is out. Our top wide receiver is out. Our starting running back is injured. We have issues on offense, defense, and special teams. But no matter what happens, win or lose, ahead or behind, I will do everything I can to make that visiting team as unwelcome and uncomfortable in that stadium as I possibly can. Whatever power or control I may have, I will use it. I will scream and stomp. I will clap and cheer. I will sing. I will boo the opposing team. I will not walk out of that stadium until the clock says 0:00 (and sometimes not even then as I learned at the Music City Bowl last year). I don't care if the score is within one point or one hundred. I have never left a UT football game with my voice intact.

Even worse than losing, I hate the feeling when it is perceived that the players or the coaches quit. I will not quit on them. I will not leave or stop yelling. I will give my all for Tennessee.

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Big Orange Fan

I couldn’t agree with you more! I have been a big orange fan since dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I’m not about to give up on this team. Dust yourselves off Big Orange Fans- The Tigers are coming into town- a game that we sorta/kinda won last year- and this team needs you- I live far away but will be watching on TV- Go VOLS!!!

by orangegal on Oct 10, 2011 4:30 PM EDT reply actions

Poetry dude

Absolutely poetry!

BloodSpite
"Gentlemen, it is better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football." -John Heisman

"Nobody despises to lose more than I do. That's got me into trouble over the years, but it also made a man of mediocre ability into a pretty good coach". -Woody Hayes

by Joseph Stanley on Oct 10, 2011 4:35 PM EDT reply actions

Rec'd!

Awesome.

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti

by sddbaker on Oct 10, 2011 5:20 PM EDT reply actions

All of these things go for me as well

Except that I don’t boo the other team, and I cheer the other team’s fight song (because it’s OUR band playing it). But I’ll be as loud as I can when they’re on offense and facing a third down. Or any other down.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Oct 10, 2011 5:24 PM EDT reply actions

Worth thinking about:

We stand tall, and we’ll never be seated
and we’ll never ever quit, so well never be defeated
if we lose, so what, cuz we goin down swingin
but you better be the best, cuz the best what we bringin

______________________________________________
Pat Summitt is already a legend, and will always be a Hero.

by bobothevol on Oct 10, 2011 6:01 PM EDT reply actions

like it...

What’s it from?

by sddbaker on Oct 14, 2011 11:45 AM EDT up reply actions

duh...

just realized there was a link!

You go, Swipa!

by sddbaker on Oct 14, 2011 11:47 AM EDT up reply actions

At least we are not Georgia....

The essence of a Volunteer is to fight until the your last breath in my opinion. It’s in our history, it’s in our blood. While we may have lost Saturday, not only by the measure of the scoreboard but by the count of our starting personnel, we are still not Georgia. A montage of fair weather fans I was relegated to sitting inside for this game. A speck of orange in a slum of Dawgs. The poor display of tact and class could only have been matched by the ‘94 Gator fans. I left thinking, thank God I did not attend my home state’s school. Their fans made such an impression on me, I will never look at them the same as I currently live in Dooleyland (Much like Dollywood but without the fake boobs) as my permanent residence. This place would be perfect if it weren’t for the red and black stains that leave a foul stench in the air. Sad but true.

Go Big Orange! Keep Swinging!

R.I.P. Atlanta Thrashers 1999-2011

by Rocky Top on Oct 10, 2011 11:02 PM EDT reply actions