Packer Hater? Not Even Close
John addresses his new nicknames.
By JohnRehor
Over the past few weeks, I've developed a few new nicknames.
Packer Hater.
Mr. Crabby Pants
Negative Nancy.
And my particular favorite, “Chick”.
If no one minds I’d like to address the new names some have decided to bestow upon me.
First of all, I am the furthest thing from a Packer hater that there is. Anyone who honestly thinks that is a moron. I am one of the most die hard Packer fans there is on the entire planet. If you were to ask my wife, she’d say I’m obsessed with them, and I’d agree. Anyone who knows me a little bit knows that this is true. I live and die by this team, and have since I was a child. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
The difference between myself and many others is I express what is on my mind fairly liberally about the Packers. When they play well, I cheer louder than anyone else I know. And when they play poorly, I get pissed off and say what’s on my mind. Having an opinion is something that I value as a human being, and I am not afraid to express it at any time.
Having an opinion does not make me a hater. Just because my opinion does not match your opinion is no reason to suddenly question my being a fan, or start calling me a hater. People are allowed to disagree. It’s ok. Just because I don’t see this team through green and gold colored glasses is no reason to question whether I am a fan.
Case in point: this post about Dom Capers. I cannot begin to tell you the amount of grief I caught for writing this, simply because I had the audacity to say that I was done with him, his gameplans which sometimes worked great, and sometimes absolutely sucked, and poor performance from the defense. Then others jumped on the bandwagon as well, saying the exact same thing I was. But I’m a hater, because I dared to say it first.
Or this one here, where I had the nerve to say that I was done with Jermichael Finely and his non stop diarrhea of the mouth, coupled with his continued under performing on the field. Oh, the humanity! Yep, I’m a hater.
As for Twitter, it’s reached a point where I cannot ask a simple question like “If the Packers win Sunday, will you think they're back on track, or still have reserved optimism?” or “if the Packers lose Sunday, what will your feeling be about this team?” without being dubbed a hater. How dare I ask a question to try and start a discussion.
I’m not a hater. In fact I’m the furthest thing from a hater. I have passion for the Green Bay Packers the same as everyone else who reads this. The difference between me and many who will read this is I am not shy about expressing my opinions, whether here on a blog, or on social media. It’s ok to disagree with me, but to jump to the conclusion that I hate the Packers is wrong. Actually, it’s downright stupid.
Go Pack Go!
Comments (15)
October 13, 2012 at 07:08 am
Agree completely. If I had time to write, most would be the same as yours, just not as well written lol
JohnRehor
October 13, 2012 at 07:14 am
Thank you, appreciate that. (Non) haters unite!
October 13, 2012 at 07:50 am
"I'm not a Hater" and shouldn't be 'Called orACCUSED' of being one....this coming from one who says "your not a Packer fan period,if you don't wear something Packers everyday whether it's football season or not.
Alrighty then!
JohnRehor
October 13, 2012 at 08:01 am
Apparently you didn't get my message on that post.
Go ahead Taryn, keep posting comments. Every blog needs a troll. Congrats, you're Eat More Cheese's. How does it feel?
October 13, 2012 at 08:36 am
Why is everyone a 'Troll' that calls you out or disagrees with you?
Doing that is the same as you being called a hater by those disagreeing with you...which you just wrote about.
I called you 'out there' on your must wear packer item every day no matter what and many agreed and you backed off by deleting it and then saying another a-hole statement that you "ruffled sensitive feelings".Yet here you are writing a post defending your apparent sensitive feelings being hurt not two days later.
As to being this sites 'Troll' seriously...your shit isn't worth reading it's so pathetically predictable..I simply replied to a totally assinine statement that I was made aware of via a tweet before/during a 'Railbird show' and knew before I read this one,you were crying over the very thing you said/say about others.
Get a hold on your presumed esteem in the blog-post arena..you really aren't much except in the 'clique'.
October 13, 2012 at 08:50 am
PS,
You assumed I follow you on twitter,if you took the time to look at your list you would have seen I have NEVER followed you and NEVER will..take this personal as Bearmeat concluded on your behalf on the other post in question..I don't attack anyone unless I'm bit first.
Have a nice day!!
October 13, 2012 at 12:05 pm
I'm confused. I've never seen John ever say you "have to wear something Packer-related everyday or you're not a real fan". Now, IF he did say that, I'd agree that would be pretty stupid. But since I've never found John to be stupid, I tend to think this accusation is made-up bullshit.
Jayme Snowden
October 14, 2012 at 12:22 pm
I took John's statement of (paraphrasing) that you're only a real packers fan if you wear packers gear everyday as a metaphor and not a black and white statement.
I assumed he meant it more: a real fan carries the team with them, in some way, everyday. Be it tweeting "go pack go" every morning, be it smiling at a poster of Aaron Rodgers, be it anything. Pretty sure everyday I think of the Packers in some way. Obviously if a loved one was in the hospital or my best friend was getting married, the Packers would probably not be in the forefront of my mind, but like I said, I don't think John meant it as a black and white statement.
Maybe I'm completely wrong in my assumption. Or maybe as someone who has worked with John for a while now, I get how he explains things, uses examples and makes statements like that to make you think.
I feel, for the most part anyone who reads Eat More Cheese, and a larger part, CheeseheadTV is a "fan". I mean, anyone who's stayed with John and I through droughts, drama, wins, losses, and reads, what I call it "the ramblings of two intense fans" is pretty dedicated to the Packers and to this site.
I disagree with John a lot. Which I like. The times when John and I post the same stuff, or when all five Cheesehead Radio hosts agree are boring and bring about only shallow discussions of the Packers.
But I also respect John a lot. Everything he says regarding the Packers comes from a place of love, of obsession, of wanting the Packers to be as good as he knows they can be.
I feel this way about a lot of Packer fans that I have recently disagreed with. With the team going through rough times, I feel like the fans have been very 'segregated'.
Some see the outcomes of the games and see potential, some see the play on the field and need to yell, some want to pack it in and look to 2013.
I don't agree with them all. But, for the most part, they all want the same thing. A Great Packers team.
What I'm over, what I see daily in my twitter timeline, in blog posts and in discussions is this "I'm a better fan" "You're a hater" "You ignore ways to make this team better" etc.
John is not a hater.
But I am not less of a fan because I don't want to fire Dom Capers.
After a loss, there is no normal way to process it. And with as many small things going wrong with this team, I stand by that there's not one thing anyone can point to as being THE problem.
I think we all need to step back a little. People who disagree with you are okay. But you know what, so are people who say "Don't be a hater to my team." Namecalling is childish, but this entire discussion is also taking away from our time focused on the team.
Can't we all just hate the Texans right now?
:)
Thanks for letting me hijack the comments.
October 13, 2012 at 05:47 pm
No, honey, you're just being a troll. Off with you now.
October 13, 2012 at 08:06 am
We need an age verification system for commenters. Smh.
October 13, 2012 at 08:22 am
In my upcoming "NFL Week 6 as told in Tweets", I have a bit of an editorial on this very subject.
Being a Packer fan is like being in a marriage. Marriage is not black and white. Marriage is a give and take. You can be deeply in love with someone and still be irritated with things they do. Yes, you can voice your displeasure with the level of play or with someone's off the field behavior, just as you can voice your displeasure when your spouse leaves their beard hair trimmings in the sink or puts the toilet paper roll on the wrong way. However, at the end of the day, you still love them, in spite of this.
I believe that those who cry "hater" are the Johnny-come-lately bandwagon jumpers who became fans after the Packers began winning again. It's easy to hitch your car to the train when a team wins the Super Bowl. The true test is whether you can stay hitched to it for the long haul.
I sometimes wonder if those of us old enough to remember Mossy Cade and his off the field antics would be called "Packer haters" for criticizing what he did. Because plenty of people had definite opinions on that and those opinions weren't too kind. (Google it, kids.)
There is a difference between constructive criticism and flat-out hater. People need to learn the difference because they are not the same thing.
JohnRehor
October 13, 2012 at 08:33 am
Thanks Kathy. Appreciate your reading.
Love the marriage discussion. So true in so many ways.
It's great that you brought up Mossy Cade and the nonsense that surrounded him. We hated him for the stigma he brought to the team. But criticizing the team is not hating. Big difference.
October 13, 2012 at 11:05 am
Speaking of Cade...
Growing up in Green Bay, word on the street always was Cade got railroaded so that Lofton and his sexual antics in the elevator of the Top Shelf could walk.
Lofton was well loved nationally. Cade wasn't a household name until what went down with his aunt.
October 14, 2012 at 10:20 am
You know I agree with you 100%.
October 17, 2012 at 10:05 am
Having been a Packer fan most of my life, (and for age verification, I was born in '56), I'm always amazed at the people who use the word hater to describe those fans than choose to view the team in the reality of how they are playing. Voicing the opinion that they played below expectations, is an evaluation, nothing more or less. I have come to expect a level of performance from my team, I know it when I see it. I, for one, will continue to voice my concern for poor play, and my joy when they meet my expectations.