The home crowd always play a vital role in sports. It is usually difficult to walk into an opponent’s stadium into an atmosphere of loud, raging fans and leave with an effortless win, even if the team has been struggling.
Do you know what they call crowd participation in football? They call it the “12th man.”
The 12th man’s role is to give the team an extra boost of energy, life you might say. Sometimes the 12th man isn’t a big factor in the game, but they are always, there.
As of late, Grambling State University’s football team has been lacking its 12th man.
In the midst of this losing era, the morale of the fans has been down. The fans have ridiculed the team and they haven’t been supportive.
Football has always been the identity of GSU. Although it is unfortunate that we are temporarily in a downfall, we #GramFam should not write the team off this season.
True, the G-Men are 0-4 to start the season for the second straight year, but the negative energy around campus isn’t helping the cause Just because the team is losing, GSU football still has done tremendous things for this university, in terms of funding and enrollment. Our team spirit should be high, and we should be the backbone of the team.
Are people forgetting the G-Men were once considered a powerhouse in the Southwestern Athletic Conference? Are people forgetting that the G-Men have the most conference titles? Are people forgetting that the SWAC trophy is named after the late Eddie Robinson, NCAA Division I’s all-time winningest coach, who was a Grambling Tiger?
True, we are currently on a four-game losing streak, but do you remember the last time we won a SWAC championship in 2011-2012?
We were on a four-game losing streak, and we fought back to win the last seven games on the schedule.
The losses we suffered this season are all really irrelevant. For one, the University of Louisiana at Monroe server for monetary purposes.
The loss to Lincoln was a non conference game, and the two conference games that we did lose to – Alabama A&M and Alabama State- are teams in the SWAC East. Grambling is in the SWAC West and only games played against our division influence standings for the championship game.
Hope for a SWAC title is still alive, the team just needs its 12th man, us.
This Saturday, as our G-Men battle the Lamar University Cardinals (2-2), all 23,200 seats in the Eddie Robinson Stadium needs to be filled as if we were undefeated. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.
Sports editor Kevin Keise is a senior mass communication major from Houston.