It's been a week since Cal suffered a 23-20 loss to Oregon State at Memorial Stadium. So I thought I should send out a few messages before the Bears play their next football game tonight at home against Washington State. To that forty-something woman dressed in Cal gear who screamed "You (expletive) stink!" at Bears quarterback Joe Ayoob as he left the field after last week's game: Get a grip! Better yet, stay home tonight and scream obscenities at your television while you watch the game, if you must. To that fifty-something man who called Ayoob a word we can't print in a family newspaper: As former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown once said about Elvis Grbac, you're an embarrassment to humankind.
To that whack job with a computer, waging an Internet campaign to pressure coach Jeff Tedford into benching Ayoob: Get a life. Better yet, get some perspective. I've never understood sports fans who boo their own team or demean their own players, especially when those players are amateurs, not millionaire pros. Did Ayoob have a terrible game against Oregon State? Of course he did. He knows that. We all do. He completed just 13 of 39 passes for 219 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions. Ayoob, though, could throw 40 straight interceptions and it wouldn't justify the foul-mouthed abuse he took from a few fans at Memorial or the cyber attacks he's endured. Ayoob's a college kid. So are his teammates. They're teenagers and twenty-somethings. Imagine your son or brother walking off a football field and hearing that type of verbal abuse from people old enough to know better. Cal has a long-standing tradition of keeping athletics in perspective. Old Blues typically support their football team but realize that football is just part of their world-class university's fabric. This isn't Norman, Okla., Lincoln, Neb., or Tallahassee, Fla. It's Berkeley. It's different. Most of us who live in the area believe that's a good thing. The overwhelming majority of Cal football fans haven't lost their minds. They're enjoying this great ride they've been on since Tedford took over in 2002. But we're starting to detect a "lunatic fringe" at Memorial, borrowing a line from Giants general manager Brian Sabean. What's going on? Here's my theory.
The Bears became so good so quickly after Tedford took over that some fans have become A) spoiled by success and B) obsessed with Cal football. So when the Bears lose back-to-back games, as they have, and Ayoob struggles, as he has, those fans lash out at the most obvious target. Maybe these F-bomb-dropping fans have been on Cal's football bandwagon only a few years. Maybe they didn't experience the Tom Holmoe era and his 1-10 finale in 2001. Maybe they didn't suffer through Keith Gilbertson's reign in Berkeley, which ended with a 3-8 mark in 1995. Maybe they just spent too much time before last week's game discussing zone blitzes with Jack Daniels and Captain Morgan and couldn't control their emotions.
For Cal fans who endured so many losing seasons, a 5-2 record this year isn't exactly like a kick in the groin. The Bears are just one win shy of becoming bowl eligible again, for the third straight year. Yes, the Bears are struggling, after back-to-back losses. Yes, they're battered and bruised, missing some key players. That's why Ayoob and his teammates need the support of Cal's fans more now than ever. Fans are supposed to lift their team up in tough times, not kick it when it's down. If anything good has come out of the gauntlet of insults Ayoob endured after last week's game, it's that his teammates and coaches have rallied around him. "Joe took the game pretty hard," Tedford said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. "He just needs to know we're behind him 100 percent." Shortly after last week's loss, Tedford pointed out that former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers, like Ayoob a junior college product, went 9-for-34 in a 35-21 loss to Oregon State two years ago at Memorial. Rodgers and the Bears won five of their next seven games and beat Virginia Tech 52-49 in the Insight Bowl. The next year, Rodgers led Cal to a 10-2 record before leaving for the NFL as a first-round draft pick.
There's no guarantee Ayoob will become another Rodgers. It's not that easy going from junior college to Cal to the NFL's first round. Ayoob might keep struggling. If he does, save the F-bombs for the next time you get a notice from the IRS.
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