FAN n. short for fanatic; 1) A supporter marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion 2) A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm 3) A passionate (expressing or characterized by warmth of feeling) enthusiast (showing great excitement for or interest)

Now take that definition and apply it to Utah Ute "fans" this Saturday.  Doesn't quite fit, now does it???  Not saying our Utes don't have true fans, but a disturbingly large portion of Ute fans are fair-weather fans, i.e. poor excuses for fans in name/clothing only.

Being a fan means believing in and supporting your team no matter what the likely outcome of the game.  I'm not talking about being delusional about your teams abilities.  I'm talking about showing great amounts of  intense, unreasoning, uncritical, warm excitement and interest. 

It's like supporting our troops... you may not agree with the politics, tactics, or battles that our soldiers are involved in, but you support our troops without hesitation because they are fighting for us.

Let's break down the definition and see how some supposed Ute "fans" compare.

Warm Devotion - I don't think Booing or calling for a player's head falls anywhere near these words.

Great Excitement and Interest - The silence in Rice-Eccles was near deafening. People walking out before halftime don't really convey interest.

Unreasoning/Uncritical - This is where the majority of supposed fans fail miserably.  Its one thing to be a Monday morning quarterback/coach.  It's far different and far worse, to bad mouth our team, boo them, give up cheering for them and walk out on them mid-game.  It's one thing for your opponent's fans to hate you, it's absolutely undeserved, classless and shameful for your own fans to behave like they hate you.  Yet that is is how many "fans" treated our Utes this past Saturday.  And why?? Because they were losing their first game of the year? 

Stop and think about that.  "Fans" at Rice-Eccles treated their team like the great unwashed, because they were uncompetitive and losing badly for the first time this season.  The first time at Rice-Eccles in 23 games.  The first time at home in over 3 1/2 years.  Can you be more critical and fickle as a fan??

Disgraceful! All these "poser" fans owe our Utes a huge apology!  Especially, the ungrateful brats who call themselves the MUSS.  There is nothing mighty about those spoiled children.

I would offer apologies on their behalf, but I want no association with these fake fans.