I know that many fans of college football enjoy it because of the purity of the game. This isn’t to say that College football is without its problems…it seems like every day some player is being booted from this or that team for stealing, violence, grades, drugs or other thuggery, but for the MOST part College football is one of the more pure forms of the game. Offenses are high scoring, tradition runs deep and the fans have more of a stake in “their” teams than other sports enthusiasts. Now, I don’t know if college football fans can still realistically say “we” when referring to their team, but I believe they have more ownership than do professional sports fans—after all, our tuition and tax dollars fund the players scholarships and equipment, we attend classes with, and are often friends with a lot of the players, and we feel that other alumni and students are all part of a greater school family. All these things make college football great, but there is one thing that we as fans do not have the right to do…criticize and put down our players and coaches.

Now, I can be as big of an armchair quarterback as the next guy…and often get frustrated, flabbergasted and downright upset when things on the field aren’t going “our” way. The emotion that the players AND the fans show during game time, however, should be tempered and gone away by the time the game is over and we head to our homes, classes, jobs and internet message boards. What right do we have, as fans, to criticize and belittle the teenagers and twenty-somethings that pour out their hearts and souls on the turf every week during football season? These young men and coaches put in countless hours trying to accomplish something for themselves and the alma mater that we all share. Booing our own team and players makes us no better than those drunken Little League dad’s that curse out their 6-year old for missing a pop fly. People have said it before, but, “how would you like it if these guys came to your work and heckled you?”

When I was in high school and playing football myself…I made some bonehead plays. I once absentmindedly touched a punt that I was fielding as it lay on the turf…resulting in a turnover. I felt pretty stupid….and why not? I had let myself and the team down, but all I could do was go out the next series and try to redeem myself. This is all our favorite players can do as well…Jared Zabransky ultimately made up for his mistakes by engineering one of the best final drives in football history…Drisan James made up for his drops for himself and the team by making catches when it REALLY mattered…that was all they could do. And after doing all they can do, where do we, the fans come off by criticizing and putting down the same players that give us all reason to cheer?

In less than one hundred days, our Broncos will take the field once again. They may not have all the bugs worked out in that first game against Weber State. There will be interceptions, fumbles and yes, maybe even a few losses…but I urge all of us in Bronco Nation to get behind our boys in the good and bad times and always support what these young men are doing on and off the field. If things don’t go great, it is okay to be bummed…but let’s all remember what it was like to play the game—any game…and the purity of the sport.