Detoxifying the rivalry

[rfischer94]

Indulge me in a thought experiment....suppose the cats won 16 brawls in a row. (Never mind that this is very unlikely....it's a thought experiment!) Would that make the rivalry more toxic, less toxic, or make no change whatsoever? I've heard that the streak made the rivalry more toxic, so I wonder what would happen if the tables turned? Same question about what would happen if we caught up on the overall record

[MrGoodKat]

More toxic

[nutman]

It doesn’t seem to matter the number of wins. The human nature is one display pointedly for whichever team is on top and which one is on the bottom.

This year, multiple people from Jizzou were posting about postgame antics of our #8. “Lewd, gestures, mocking, dancing on their logo, etc.”. I remember, every year during the streak, that many folks in Bozeman would talk about the Griz players this way. Then, all the sudden it didn’t matter anymore. Why?

The funniest part of this year for me was watching the documentary about the beat rivalries in the country. It was super entertaining and well done. But at the end of it, here comes number 8 and starts dancing in the end zone alone. The guy on camera is saying things like, “I just love this passion” and “this is what college football is all about”. It just showed that pearl clutches were offended and then exaggerated the story to smear the Bobcat Nation. Just silly…but it is absolutely human nature!

[OldGriz]

It doesn’t seem to matter the number of wins. The human nature is one display pointedly for whichever team is on top and which one is on the bottom.

This year, multiple people from Jizzou were posting about postgame antics of our #8. “Lewd, gestures, mocking, dancing on their logo, etc.”. I remember, every year during the streak, that many folks in Bozeman would talk about the Griz players this way. Then, all the sudden it didn’t matter anymore. Why?

The funniest part of this year for me was watching the documentary about the beat rivalries in the country. It was super entertaining and well done. But at the end of it, here comes number 8 and starts dancing in the end zone alone. The guy on camera is saying things like, “I just love this passion” and “this is what college football is all about”. It just showed that pearl clutches were offended and then exaggerated the story to smear the Bobcat Nation. Just silly…but it is absolutely human nature!

I agree. I also believe some more human nature would become apparent if there could be an experiment among a few fans who firmly believe that their football rival’s fans (and their rival’s home stadium environments) are extra rude or obnoxious. I think any such fan would get a rude awakening about his home stadium’s experience if he switched colors for the day and cheered for the visiting team at a Cat-Griz contest. There are jerks on both sides. Fortunately, it seems like it’s less than 1%.

[GoldstoneCat]

It doesn’t seem to matter the number of wins. The human nature is one display pointedly for whichever team is on top and which one is on the bottom.

This year, multiple people from Jizzou were posting about postgame antics of our #8. “Lewd, gestures, mocking, dancing on their logo, etc.”. I remember, every year during the streak, that many folks in Bozeman would talk about the Griz players this way. Then, all the sudden it didn’t matter anymore. Why?

The funniest part of this year for me was watching the documentary about the beat rivalries in the country. It was super entertaining and well done. But at the end of it, here comes number 8 and starts dancing in the end zone alone. The guy on camera is saying things like, “I just love this passion” and “this is what college football is all about”. It just showed that pearl clutches were offended and then exaggerated the story to smear the Bobcat Nation. Just silly…but it is absolutely human nature!

I agree. I also believe some more human nature would become apparent if there could be an experiment among a few fans who firmly believe that their football rival’s fans (and their rival’s home stadium environments) are extra rude or obnoxious. I think any such fan would get a rude awakening about his home stadium’s experience if he switched colors for the day and cheered for the visiting team at a Cat-Griz contest. There are jerks on both sides. Fortunately, it seems like it’s less than 1%.

[MrGoodKat]

I think that the rise of digital media is a lot more to blame for the rivalry becoming more toxic than the streak.

[SLC_Cat]

I think that the rise of digital media is a lot more to blame for the rivalry becoming more toxic than the streak.

All digital media did was capture more of this toxicity and allow more people to see it. As someone who was at MSU in the early 2000s I can guarantee you there were awful things happening then... there's just no evidence of it.