Becoming Irrelevant

How does something become irrelevant?  There are probably many ways to answer this question. It happens when you gimmick gets old, your competition catches up with you, when you are resistant to change, or your perception is much higher than what reality reveals to you.

How do people react to you when you are truly irrelevant?  They may poke fun at you for a minute, but it is mostly an act of actually being polite.  Two seconds later, its as if they never knew you existed. When you become irrelevant, people just don't care, unless they just absolutely hated you in the first place.  The casual person either feels sorry for you or they never knew you were there.

Why as this talk?  Because I think I saw something become irrelevant right before my eyes and it started last Saturday night.  Ark. State 18 aTm 14.  Quite possibly the worst loss in Texas A&M football history.  How could this be the worst loss ever?  Didn't you watch 77-0?  I did.  While that loss was embarrassing, it never made me feel the way this loss made me feel this week.   5 years ago right after the 77-0 blowout to OU, my phone rang consistently for an hour.  My whole office was more than happy to post pictures of the scoreboard, send me email of news articles, and harass me well into March of 2004.   It took all of my Aggieness to be strong and endure. 

Fast forward to 2008. Things changed dramatically.  I did receive phone calls.  Two to be exact.  One from J.P. telling me I was right not to attend the game and another from a friend (t.u. fan) who talked about it for a grand total of two minutes.  The rest of our normally rival related talked shifted to talk of the Food Network and how I now like living in an apartment again.  Work was not the same either.  Normally over energetic co workers ready to pounce on any aTm loss seemed subdued.  I got one appropriate dose of ridicule followed by a few people acknowledging the loss with as much enthusiasm as one might have when watching paint dry on a wall. 

Which now confirms in my mind how this is the worst loss in aTm football history.  On August 30th, 2008, a loss to Ark. State on Kyle Field deemed this era of aTm football irrelevant.  Our gimmick got old (3-4, The Wrecking Crew), our competition caught up with us (have you seen recruiting lately?), we were resistant to change (1950 called, it wants its playbook back), and our perception of this program is higher than the rest of the world tells us it is (we think that we are a step away from Texas or OU, when we may be instep with Ok. State and a step ahead of Baylor).

Does that make me insane to continue to buy tickets year after year?  God help us all!!