(Just for the record, this also goes for CBS, SI, Rivals, Scout, and every other news media outlet in existence, past, present, or future.)
This has to stop. Seriously, it has to. It's the most annoying thing that I, as a Mountaineer fan, have to endure on a daily basis. What is it that I am talking about? This:
you see college football live? herbstreit hates us. fuck him.
Or some variation. It happens once a day, whether on the message board or by the water cooler. Sometimes, people will even call me to tell me about such a display on ESPN, etc. They'll e-mail me. They'll send smoke signals, carrier pigeons, morse code, telegraphs, or telepathy. But somehow, someway, they manage to let me know that ESPN "totally hated on us" today.
Here's my response: "Yeah, I saw it." Then I try to look busy. But do you know what I'm really thinking?
I DON'T CARE. SHUT THE FUCK UP.
About 95% of me wants to yell that in their face and kick their ass, too. But the other 5% thinks that the resulting felony conviction just isn't worth it.
Why don't I care? Because it isn't true, and even if it is true, it certainly doesn't matter.
Everytime Herbstreit says something "anti-WVU," the message boards get riled up, a thousand angry e-mails are sent, and then nothing happens. He'll just do the same exact thing in two weeks and the same exact thing will happen. But you know what will happen? People will keep watching ESPN. It's not like Herbstreit calling WVU overrated will take $1 away from either his bank account or ESPN's.
But all those e-mails our fans send just take up our time, our bandwidth, and our self-respect. It makes us look like crybabies. Everyone knows that if they say one bad thing about WVU, they're going to see a deluge of stupid e-mails. At this point, they probably do it on purpose, just to beat their own record from last time.
So that doesn't get us anywhere. Ever. And besides, do these media outlets even really hate WVU?
These people love one thing and one thing only: $$$. They will do, say, and broadcast anything that will bring them more viewers/readers and, in turn, more $$$. If that means bad-mouthing WVU and the Big EAST every once in awhile, then so be it. We can't do anything to change that.
But that also seems to include broadcasting a ton of WVU games. Namely, because, WVU games are incredibly well watched when they're broadcast. WVU vs. a decent opponent on a Thursday night is sure to be ratings gold for ESPN. So they make it happen (see in 2008: Colorado and Auburn).
But outside of those games (and a few selected other Big EAST telecasts), they'll just go right back to "hating" on the conference. By doing so, they'll make fans of every other conference happy. And until this conference does enough top-to-bottom to change that, it's going to keep happening.
So please, for the love of all things Old Gold and Blue, just let it go. Nothing outside of the play on the field is going to get us anywhere. Just sit down, drink your ass off, and enjoy football season.
And if you can't do that, just don't talk to me about it. Thanks.