16
Sep
2011
Broncos Fans Planning Pro-Tebow Billboards = Foolishness
Yeah, this is really going to work (ESPN rendering via Patheos.com)
This story has been making the rounds for a couple of days now, and we’ve mainly ignored it because we don’t want to encourage these clowns. But it’s become painfully clear that the whole pro-Tebow quarterback controversy in Denver isn’t going away any time soon, so we might as well adress it now.
As you may have heard, a group of Broncos fans are planning to buy two billboards in downtown Denver, calling for the team to bench QB Kyle Orton and start Tim Tebow instead. The campaign is being spearheaded by Jesse Oaks, a Broncos fan from Independence, Kentucky of all places, who says that he and his friends devised the plan after watching Denver lose their season opener 23-20 to the Oakland Raiders on Monday night. During the 4th quarter of the loss, it became clear that at least some of the Broncos faithful had seen enough of Orton, and even as the QB was trying to rally his team to victory in a winnable game, a handful of liquored up fans started the chants for Tebow, which seemed to gain momentum as the game wound down.
Oaks and his friends had been saving up for a trip to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, but after watching Orton go a middling 24-of-46 for 305 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 fumble and 5 sacks, determined that their money would be better spent on a message to the Broncos and Head Coach John Fox:
“We believe in Coach Fox. We’re just tired of Kyle Orton,” Oaks said. “We were sitting around after Fox said he didn’t hear the chants for (Tim) Tebow and we figured if he’s deaf, we hope he’s not blind.”
“It just feels like we’re a team that’s settling for mediocrity,” Oaks said. “We’re not blind. We know when we see good football … We see other teams making good plays and we don’t see that from our team. We can sink or swim with Tim Tebow. Why wait a few more years?”
3
Dec
2009
Raiders fans implore Al Davis to hire a GM … via billboard
Following the successful example set by Buffalo Bills fans earlier this season, a group of Oakland Raiders fans have taken the next logical step in trying to appeal to Al Davis’ sense of reason: billboards. The guys at MessageToAl.com spent $5,500 on this billboard (pictured above) near Oakland Alameda County Stadium, begging Davis to hire a General Manager to run the Raiders.
But wait, there’s more! They’ve also started a petition that goes along with the billboard, asking 4 things from Davis:
- Step down as General Manager
- Hire a new GM
- Hire a Super Bowl caliber coach
- Agree to refrain from intervention in personnel or football operational matter
The petition has over 25,000 signatures so far, with donations for the billboard being collected via their website. 22-year-old Jared Staszewski of Erie, Pennsylvania – who must have suffered immeasurably lo those many years – is leading the effort on behalf of Raiders fans everywhere.
16
Oct
2009
Bills Fans expressing their displeasure via Billboards
(Photo: unathleticmag.com)
It seems that trashing your favorite team’s front office and coaching staff has become the “cool thing to do” among NFL supporters in 2009. And with their beloved Bills off to a 1-4 start, Buffalo-area fans have just about as much right as anyone to demand a mid-season overhaul of the franchise. I mean, those things usually work out pretty well for everyone, right?
So that’s what one industrious Bills fan is doing. He’s taking his message public via billboards, and has created a website to raise money from other Bills fans who share his frustration. From TheSportingNews:
In a little more than a week, Abshagen, an unemployed 18-year-old from New Freedom, Pa., raised enough money – $1,402 and counting as of Wednesday – through an Internet campaign to rent a billboard and advertise a message of discontent for everyone in Buffalo to see.
“I honestly never thought it would ever be this big,” Abshagen said. “Fans are disgruntled. It’s out there. It’s big. People are going to hear about it.”
Starting early Monday and running for a week, the message will be flashed up to 3,000 times a day on a digital billboard overlooking Interstate 190 on the south side of the city, said Abshagen after signing a contract with an advertising company.
The actual billboard will feature the following artwork, imploring Bills owner Ralph Wilson to make changes to his staff (the much better banner pic above is an awesome mock-up from UnathleticMag.com):
We all know about Dick Jauron. Things don’t look so hot for him right now. The other jobs these fans are calling for belong to the team’s vice president of pro personnel John Guy, and chief college scout Tom Modrak.
I like the enthusiasm. I really do. But like I said, I’m not so sure that dismantling the entire coaching staff and front office less than 1/3 of the way into the season is the best way to go. As bad as things might seem, you need to at least give a team some time to try and right the ship. It’s a long season, and we’ve seen many a club turn around their fortunes after a bad start. But it’s clear that these fans are charter members of the “I’m unemployed & know more about football than the highly paid professionals” camp, and have already given up on the season.
As such, there is now a part of me that is cheering to see the Bills turn it around, just to make these guys feel like jerks.
