Why It Is Hard to Be a Clemson Fan: A Choke Artist Manifesto

Clemson chokes...again.

How many times have we all seen this headline? Too many. On too many occasions have Clemson athletics let the fan base down and let anyone that believed in them down.

As someone who bleeds Burnt Orange and Northwestern Purple this is a hard article to write. But they say the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one.

We have one.

Tate George in the tourney. Calvin Johnson in the breakout freshman game. Being the only team to not make the tournament, after being the last undefeated team. The choke job in the second half of the 2006 season. NEVER beating UNC in Chapel Hill. And the latest, turning a pre-season top 10 team into a 7-6, suicide-inducing dumpster fire.

That is just a few of the lowlights.  

Is Clemson the only choke job athletic program in America? No. But, I think that we are the most visible.

I heard a national radio personality say the other day, "The Cubs are gonna win the Central every year, and Duke is gonna is gonna go the the Final Four, and Clemson is going to win the National Championship every year.  I not buying it anymore."

That is what we have been relegated to—a national joke.

I'm not saying that I have the answers, or that I won't pull for the Tigers. I'm saying it is embarrassing and it makes me crazy.

There are a lot of fans in every fan base that will never admit weaknesses, and Clemson doesn't have any shortage of those. We need to start getting honest with each other and expect more.

The newest national embarrassment (not including losing in the first round of the tournament...again) is our hiring of Dabo Swinney.

I like Dabo. I don't know what he will do with the football program, but hope he succeeds, because I want Tiger football to succeed. But, nationally, I think that people scratched their heads at us hiring a guy with a funny name and no experience. 

(I would like any non-Clemson fans reading this to leave a comment about your thoughts on us hiring Dabo).

Clemson fans talk a lot about the 1981 National Championship. As someone who was two weeks old when that happened, we need to get over the past and look towards the future.

We are no longer a power like the Danny Ford days, we are now the team that has more talent than everyone we play and still can't beat them, except the Gamecocks.

If the football team played with the heart of the basketball team, we would be undefeated every year.

Which brings me to what is happening in Littlejohn. I would say our deficiencies in basketball, have less to do with coaching and more to do with not having elite players, and having crooked ACC refs.

I don't believe in Dabo yet, but I DO believe in Oliver Purnell! He has the only program on campus that overachieves. But that doesn't make the inevitable chokes hurt any less.

I have met Clemson fans that would rather be completely irrelevant (like the University of South Carolina) as opposed to what we are, choke artists. I don't know about that, but I'm damn sure not happy with where we are.

I love Clemson, I love the Rock, the Hill, Tillman, and the Paw. Which is why it hurts so much ever year.