Every week, PowerMizzou.com publisher Gabe DeArmond answers questions from Tiger fans in the mailbag. This format allows for a more expansive answer than a message board post. Keep your eye out each week to submit your question for the mailbag or send them to powermizzou@gmail.com. On to this week's inquiries.
wehrli_22 asks: If there is an alternate universe and it consists of the same things that are present here except for the 'natural order' as we are accustomed to ... Rutgers has numerous national football championships, Missouri is a football powerhouse and Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas and Oklahoma constantly finish last in their conferences ... would the national discussion be any different? Wouldn't the downtrodden Crimson Tide and their fans complain how unfair it is that Rutgers gets all the best players and coaches? It's all a matter of perspective.
GD: Sure, it would be completely different. You don't inherently hate Texas or Alabama because they are Texas or Alabama. You hate them because they're good, they've mostly always been good and they mostly probably always will be good. I've got two very simple examples: Missouri fans of my age grew up absolutely hating Nebraska. They were the best team in college football in the 1990s and one of the five best programs in the country for the better part of 30 years. But since about 2007, they haven't really been all that good. And the hatred for them is much less widespread than it used to be. If you grew up hating them you probably still do, but honestly you mostly just don't think about them that much. Very few people really hate a 6-6 team. Everybody hates a 12-1 team.
The New England Patriots went to the Super Bowl when I was eight. It was the first Super Bowl in franchise history and it was somewhat of a surprise. For most of my formative years as a sports fan, they were irrelevant. You just didn't really think about them. Now? Anybody who's become a football fan outside of New England in the last 20 years hates them. Why? Because they're good.
It's not about the name on the jersey or the logo on the helmet (outside of probably one chief rival for each team). It's mostly about how good the other team is. If opposing fans really hate your team, that's good. You matter. They don't invest time in hating irrelevant teams.
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