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Utah Fan Goggles B)
Posted by: Rain Man on February 26th, 2013
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.I am relatively new to utah but wanted to emerge myself into the local sports landscape. I started following the Jazz, Utes, and Cougars as well as keeping up with my teams in Toronto and Indiana. After some time I started to notice things about the fans that are strange and quirky but also some very good qualities as well.
Fans in Utah are very passionate. Something I respect. Where I used to live its a little embarrassing sometimes with the unloyalty. The Jazz home arena is louder than any other I have been to. Its better than the warriors and kings but I have yet to visit the thunder, which all three often get that credit. BYU and Utah football also have great fanbases. Very hardcore and will almost draw blood while arguing against each other. Its really the most underrated fan rivalry in sports in my opinion. I have noticed that those three teams really are the complete focus of Utah society in the fall and winter. Its incredible. I love it.
There is one thing that repeatedly makes me laugh the first few times until its pretty obnoxious. I call it the Utah Fan Goggles. Its a phenomenon that doesnt happen as severely in the other cities I have lived in. Its an abandonment of all logic and reason when the topic of one of these three teams come up. Many times the thoughts become status quo in society. I have had some of the most laughable arguments with many fans. Including Harvey Unga as a heisman candidate a few years ago. Bronco Mendenhall as the best coach of the 2012 college football season. Alex Smith as an Elite NFL quarterback. Utes deserving the national championship in 2009. Anything ever said about Jimmer being a great NBA player in the future. All good ones. And dont think that its a only a few fans either. Its good sized amount. Maybe even half.
Now for the Jazz it can be a little out there sometimes too. For instance, I thought it was funny the instant attachment to Gordan Hayward. Clean cut white kids tend to thrive in this market. I think its amusing yet understandable because of the demographic. I heard an argument on the radio the other day that Hayward is a better player than Paul George. I have also had many people refer to him as the next Larry Bird. As a Jazz fan its hard not to love hayward, I own his jersey and wear it frequently. I just thought those things are a little silly. There are some more but I will not go into them now.
On the positive note. I respect the fans here more than in Indy or Toronto. I think they are better fans. I hope a little roast wasnt too much. Think of it as a late night comedy central special haha. I am just trying to help yall so you dont embarrass yourselves infront of visitors from out of state. Keep up the positives fellow Utah fans but chill on the weird stuff.
Rainman
Replies: 7
Views: 449
7 Responses
This is a great post. I have lived in Utah for most of my life and I think this assessment is spot on. We have great football and basketball fans here. But I agree that, at times, we overvalue accomplishments and individual players on our teams. Look at trade proposals that are constantly posted on this site. Some are quite good and well thought out, while others show that we clearly overvalue Jazz players. But as you hint at in your post rainman, I’d rather have it that way than a negative, disloyal fan base. Keep it up Jazz fans!
I would argue that Hayward is pretty comparable to Paul George. George puts up better numbers I believe, but I think Hayward is a more rounded player and I would prefer him over Paul. Everything else you said I agree with.
I follow both the Jazz and the Pacers closely as they are my two favorite teams. I would like to ask you how often you watch Paul George play. He is a much better defender (an elite wing defender), better rebounder and is more capable to take over a game. I am not trying to diss on my man from Butler but George takes the cake. He is an All-Star, the Face of a franchise, and an emerging star in the League. Hayward isnt there on any of the three.
I would disagree…
You might be right for the most part, but I do not nor have ever lived in Utah, but I freaking love Hayward! So I can’t comment on the Utah part of your theory.
But Hayward does play 10 minutes less than George a game and takes 5 less shots, yet Hayward only scores 3 less points. Id argue, that until Hayward gets serious minutes, not UTah Jazz Corbin minutes, and until he is the go-to-guy on the team (like George once Granger went down), its hard to measure how much better George is.
I pray to God, Satan, whomever will listen, that Al is not resigned, then will see just how good Hayard (and C4 for that matter) in an offense center around Hayward and not Al (even Favors is forced to run Al iso plays, when really I think he should be used more like Chandler P&R heavy). Anyway, not from Utah, still love Hayward.
Haha i love this .. great post!
I dont think its limited to people living in utah either. people that frequent jazz, utes, or cougar sites and emerge themselves with the fanbase fall victim to wearing the goggles too. I would love to compare our fan goggles to certain football fanbases in South.
Some of us need a good dose of realiy, thank you for this post Rain Man haha
@shane, i shouldve read your post before i wrote mine because i agree completely with what you said as well. Thats the “good dose of reality” i talked about.
But this is exactly why i love being a Jazz and Ute fan, and respect Cougar fans… because we live hard and die hard as fans. The highs are high and lows are low. I would much rather have it like that than to have a flatlined fanbase!