The Packer Fan/Media Whore Dance

Last week, the flammable relationship that Packer fans have with certain national "journalists" hit a crescendo when, in order, ESPN's Colin Cowherd refused to say a nice thing about the Packers following their trouncing of the Falcons, and PFT's Mike Florio went on a rant about what a turd Aaron Rodgers was because he apparently didn't approve of cancer victims.  Now, Skip Bayless has thrown his hat into the ring, claiming that Ted Thompson ruined two Super Bowl opportunities by running off Favre, and as a result, karma will bite Aaron Rodgers as they lose to the Bears.

In each and every case, Packer fans have lit up the blogosphere, the twitterverse, the radio show lines, and anything else they can find.  The audacity of Cowherd to be a Packer "Hater", despite the evidence that they just knocked out the #1 seed on the road!  The idiocy of Florio to pass judgement on Rodgers without knowing the whole story, then viciously defending it in the face of the facts!  Now, the pure ignorance of Bayless to claim that the Packers are doomed, still somehow under the Curse of Brett, and that Rodgers is to blame for all that goes wrong.

You're right, Packer fans.  Sic' em.  They do deserve criticism for making such remarks.  Unfortunately, that's what they are counting on.

I've never been a huge fan of the mainstream media when it breaks from doing the job they are supposed to be doing:  reporting the news and letting us draw our own conclusions.  The ESPN-ization of sports media is pretty much parallel with what we're seeing almost all the news media, with FOX News taking the right, MSNBC taking the left, and forcing us to choose sides.

The same folks and Fox and MSNBC know where their bread is buttered.  Rally the troops and make your money off of criticism that you know will draw salvos from the other side.  Heck, I may not agree with either wing, but if you paid me enough money, I sure could make it sound like I do.

The point isn't making sense, and certainly no longer reporting news.  The point is garnering reactions.  The worst thing you can do as an "entertainment journalist" is to be ignored.  So, you must stir the pot in order to keep yourself in the public eye and get people to respond to you.  Heck..journalists were the ones who originated the theory that "there's no such thing as bad publicity"...it's just lately that they decided to apply it to themselves.

So, when you are dealing with a former blogger like Florio, who must demonstrate web traffic in order to justify NBC Sports' investment in him as a legitimate entity, every now and then he has to publish something that garners attention.  And, of course, ESPN has pioneered the art of turning their prognosticators into "personalities" that are marketed.

So, the question is:  who do you rip on to get the most emotional response.  Oh, there's always the big stories like LeBron, Tiger, Brett, etc.  But if you were sitting at your desk, and you had to get a fiery reaction from one NFL fan base, which would be the most logical choice, especially if you don't care if what you're saying is true or not.

Well, personally, I'd pick a fan base that is extremely passionate, and Packer fans certainly fall into this category, along with a lot of others.  I mean, face it:  if you rip on the Lions or the Bills, the fans would quietly agree, and that doesn't get you the attention you need.  So, you rip on the passionate fan bases, like the Eagles, Bears, Cowboys, or Packers.

But it isn't just the passion.  Passion is immensely important, but even passionate Falcon fans seemed to curl up and accept the inevitable right away last week.  Viking fans are famous for turning on their team the second they disappoint.  No, you need a team that is not only passionate, but loyal to a fault.

And I say loyal to a fault because, as Packer fans, we are probably the most loyal fanbase of any team in professional sports...even if it means defending those in the wrong.  Heck, you only need look at the reaction of half the fan base in 2008 when the whole Thompson/Favre fiasco went down.  Some may have backed Thompson, and others may have backed Favre...but there was no backing down by anyone.

Like I said, to a fault.  Eagle fans may be passionate, but they turn on their own second they falter.  Other big city teams always have another option to turn to when controversy hits, too.  Hey, if the Giants fall apart and get a little criticism, you can always turn to the Knicks, the Nets, the Yankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Islanders, Broadway, etc...

So, the media whores like Florio, Cowherd, and Bayless are looking for customers to help them out with their own self-promotion.  Who can they consistently count on to rise to object, so much so that they will do their own journalistic research and contact their bosses?  It's Green Bay Packers fans, gang, and seemingly, we oblige them every time.

Is it wrong?  Should we, as Packer fans, keep responding as we do?  It sure would cut down on the amount of unwarranted criticism and mainstream trolling that these media whores do.  It's like your mom told you when it came to handle the neighborhood bully:  just ignore them and they'll go away.  They're only trying to get you to react to them.

In my younger years (you know, like back in 2009), I would heartily say yes, ignore the clowns.  But in my wizened aging process, I'm understanding the dance.  It would be terrible for the Packers and their small-market to become "ignored" in the mainstream media.  Devastating.  Deadly.  Look at other small-market teams like Buffalo and Carolina, teams that don't make the playoffs and simply disappear from the public eye.  No one cares.

But the Packers have prevailed, prevailed over Florio, prevailed over Cowherd.  Yes, the whores are still employed and will come back to slander another day, but they know where to go when they want a fan base to fight back, and that's right here.  Cowherd could try and tear apart the Raiders and all he'd hear is crickets, even if he stretched the truth in what he said.  Florio could pass moral judgement over Josh Freeman and, other than a couple of reactions locally around Tampa, that would be the end of it.

Gee, no fun there.  Let's go after Green Bay.

POW!

In just a few days, Aaron Rodgers (through no fault of his own) went from national heel to national hero.  That is thanks to the efforts of passionate and loyal Packer fans, but don't doubt for a moment that Florio was hoping for a reaction from us.  Maybe it didn't pan out as well as he would have liked, as demonstrated by his sniveling apology last week, but you can't deny that there are lot more people out there, Packer fans and non-Packer fans alike, who not only know more about Aaron Rodgers than they did before, but also know Florio's name.

It's a dance, one that we play because we are passionately loyal, and that makes us a target of media whores that want to illicit a reaction.  You'll probably notice that the same guys make a point to try and rattle the cages of fans of many other teams, professional and amateur.  Some, like CBS's Gregg Doyel, make a point of it to publish the protests of people who write back into him.  It's a game to him.  It's a game to all of them.

And, in a way, its a game to us, too.  But, as we saw last week, and will see many times over again, Packer fans win in the end.