Kentucky Athletics: What Do Fans Really Know?

What do fans really know?

As sports fans, we think we know a lot. We study statistics. We watch games over and over. We listen to talking heads, well, talk, on and on about sports. We analyze every little detail of every player and of every coach. And after all that, we assume that we know as much or more than the people being paid to coach and the players actually playing the games. SPOILER ALERT: we don’t.

Thanks to the famous Madden football game, there are a generation of fans that believe that real life is that easy. They believe that there are plays that will magically work every time. That all the running back needs to do is juke one way or the other to bust a big run. Unfortunately, real football isn’t exactly like that. When an offensive coordinator is calling plays, it not as easy as pressing the “X” button. There are going to be times when a play is called to soften the defense up for a play later in the game. It’s a bit more nuanced than just picking random plays to

a video game.

Another thing fans fail to realize is that coaches and players, particularly at the collegiate

, are people. They have off the court/field issues like everyone else. Simply because you can run real fast or jump real high doesn’t somehow exempt you from the same stuff that effects us all. And simply because a players plays for our favorite team doesn’t give us the right to demand to know what any of these issues are. Fans simply do not have the right to know

details of players’ lives, medical or not. The only thing a ticket buys you is the chance to watch a sporting

. Speculating about someone’s personal life is unfair. These are real people, not gladiators that do battle for our amusement.

Coaches coach to

. Players play to win. To think somehow that fans want to win more than the people actually

in the game is insane. Do people in the Big Blue Nation really think John Calipari doesn’t want to win the national championship every year? Does Mark Stoops not want to convert every third down? Of course they do. Their jobs, their livelihoods depend on their teams winning. And for the players, if the general public knew and understood how much those athletes sacrifice to play, I’m not so sure we’d be so quick to say they don’t care either.

This isn’t to say that coaches and players are above questioning or even criticism. I understand that’s the nature of the business. I want to know and understand why a coach would make a certain call in a certain situation. I think that’s more than fair. But the assumption that fans are somehow more invested than the players or more knowledgeable than the coaches is false. If I knew more than Mark Stoops or John Calipari did, Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart would have

me. He didn’t, so all I can do is root those guys on and trust they know what they’re doing. Chances are, they know more than I do.