Readers chime in about football ticketing and Brett Favre.
I have found season tickets to be an extremely important issue to fellow yellow jacket fans. We’re worried that while game-by-game tickets will be easy to get for smaller games, the big ones, like UGA and Virginia Tech, will sell out to fans that only want to be there for the big name games.
Many fans want to pay for season tickets (which means they’ll be there for all the games), but will be stuck fighting for tickets with the less invested fans. I’d like to see you stand up for the students who don’t have a voice to cry out with.
I am quite underwhelmed by new system for season tickets. If the system really did run out of tickets mere hours after opening up registration to freshmen, as it seemed as though it did, then why did we close off the rest of the student tickets to game-by-game status?
I get the feeling that half of them will sit empty at smaller games, like Jacksonville State, and will be sold out for big games, like UGA or Virginia Tech.
Why not allow the rest of the die-hard fans get guaranteed seating and leave the rest of the tickets to those who don’t care as much about being at every game.
Matthew Kazmier
Third-year MGT
Last week one of your editors, Hahnming Lee, wrote an opinion piece on why Brett Favre should stay retired. Though he made several fair points, I think he was too smugly full of himself.
There are legitimate reasons to be upset with Favre. Packers fans are upset because Favre’s signing with the Vikings is thinly-veiled spitefulness. Then there’s the lying. He’s coming back, he’s not coming back, he’s coming back, etc. Why are NFL teams enabling his behavior?
Economics: there’s a short supply of good quarterbacks. Of course Favre is not the quarterback he once was. Hahn writes he’s only “3/10” the player he once was, about on par with “Gus Frerotte.” According to Wikipedia, Frerotte was released by the Vikings while Favre just signed a 25 million dollar contract with them. I’m sure some football fan with an access to a keyboard is more knowledgeable than the coaches and managers of a franchise who just won their division and seems to be a quarterback removed from a Super Bowl run.
What of missing training camp though? Having Favre handing the ball off to Adrian Peterson 25 times a game won’t exactly be a daunting task for him. Peterson’s more than capable of carrying the offense until Favre gets acclimated to the offense.
But let’s assume Lee is right and that Favre is now feeble. If he wants to play and there’s a team willing to pay him and you’re not a fan of said team, why get hysterical? Granted, he should’ve been more decisive about his retirement and not outright lied, but that’s not the issue.
Statistically, most people, including those reading this, will not become passionate about their job. You aren’t willing persevere in it, regardless of the cost. There’s nothing wrong with that, why expend the extra effort when the marginal utility is so little? Consequently, you see Favre’s situation through your own lenses.
But just because you aren’t willing to ignore the disdain of the public doesn’t mean others shouldn’t. Just because you aren’t willing to suffer through old age, injury and setbacks doesn’t mean others won’t.
If you are going to criticize Favre, criticize his dishonesty; criticize teams that are enabling his comebacks, but to criticize his desire to play? Maybe instead of complaining about how people don’t know when to quit, you should look at those who never know when to begin.
Zimu Yang
Third-year ISyE