There was a brief spat between Stones and Beatles fans in some dark corner of the web where nerds go to feed on the inferiority of the people who disagree with them. You know, that dark corner that makes up 95% of the internet.
Anyhow, one brave soul, clearly wishing to be called nasty names until everyone crashed from their Mountain Dew sugar rush, decided he'd had enough of two legit arguments and decided to add an incorrect third one: that The Kinks were better than both!
That person is stupid, but this is not about him. He got enough abuse from the suddenly united rock fans.
By any measurement of quality, The Kinks are a great band. There is no disputing this and anyone who tries deserves the wrath of a million angry nerds.
But things change when you raise the bar.
Ask if The Kinks are a good band, and they clear that hurdle easily. Ask if they are the best ever, and you are looking at a totally different group. They don't have the string of hits that the other two had. They don't have the complete albums or the runs of quality. They haven't created or defined a genre. But when the standard is the best, good isn't good enough.
We are the Kinks. Lola was 2004. This Time Tomorrow was 2005. UK Jive was 2006.
This editorial site has begun to develop the dreaded 'hater' label. I don't deny this, as I can state with no uncertainty that at least 80% of the 4,510 bloggers here do, in fact, chug the Haterade. The purple flavor. And they do so out of a chalice with "h8r" spelled out in cubic zirconium.
The thing is, though, that with only one exception, none of us are actually happy about where we are. We don't want to complain. It doesn't come from a hateful place. 4th and 5 was one of the top 3 moments of my life. The other two were my first sexual experience at 24 (a lady hobo flashed me), and the time G-Dub fell off that Segway.
I remember watching the 2004 Arkansas game with HJ, Scipio, and a bunch of other guys I don't remember or know. When Larry Dibbles forced that crucial fumble in the final quarter, I believe I was on my knees pounding the floor, and everyone else was standing and shouting. I stood up and gave someone a high five. We were all thrilled to beat an average team by 2. Then I went home and showered for 15 hours.
Point is that we all, to a man, want Texas to be the best. We love to see them win. But the other point is, we all think Texas should be the best. This is where perception comes in.
If you take into account none of the factors that go into being a successful football program, then Texas ranks extremely high in terms of accomplishments in the past decade or so. We're easily the top 0.5%. There is no disputing this and anyone who tries deserves the wrath of a million angry nerds.
But thing change when you raise the bar. Stop me if you've heard this one.
Texas has advantages that no other school has. We are among the biggest alumni bases, fan bases, endowments for a public school, donors, etc. We are the only nice city in the most talent rich state, and there is no competition within 350 miles of us. We have the tradition, the infrastructure, and the circumstance to be among the best 4 programs at any given time.
This is why fielding two of your worst defenses ever in back to back seasons is so frustrating. This is why playing certain players over younger, seemingly more talented players, is so maddening. This is why the continued employment of a high school level coach as our OC is so reprehensible.
We all recognize the difficulty of winning every game every year. It can't be done, unless you run the Run 'n Shoot. But it's not that we are losing games, it's why we're losing games. We are holding ourselves back by being blind to the problems. Whether it's willfully or not I don't know, but either way there are simple fixes to our 2 biggest issues, yet nothing happens. Our media-conscious coaches praise the worst starting LB crew in modern school history and throws them out there for every game. Greg Davis gets a raise every year, despite being directly responsible for not winning the conference (2006 vs. A&M). We send Joe Iliboye away to take Blake Gideon. Is he a good player? Yeah. Is another ten win season a good thing? Yes.
But when the standard is the best, good isn't good enough.