Quote:
Originally Posted by SNR
It's more about his detraction against cases of homerism where the homerism is denied by the homers.
For example, earlier in the thread I talked about a possible solution around the Eric Fisher pick and paying Branden Albert that involved starting Stephenson at LT. People apparently thought it was pretty funny that I and a few others asserted that Stephenson would make a better starting LT in 2014 than Eric Fisher. While not out of the question that Fisher will be better than Stephenson could, at this point the evidence tells us that Stephenson has stepped in at both LT and RT throughout last season, and the offensive line hasn't really been any worse off. And that's a line from people who supported Branden Albert leaving the team. Meanwhile, Eric Fisher hasn't done anything at RT to prove that he'd be a good NFL LT, and to top it off, he's been recovering from surgery all offseason, meaning he hasn't gotten in any valuable time with the offseason strength and conditioning program.
Looking at the situation objectively, one would say without any other information such as training camp or preseason reps that Stephenson is the better option for 2014. But instead, that idea is met with, "Hope Alex likes running for his life" and "Can't do that. Stephenson sucks." If Stephenson is this awful LT, then what does that make Eric Fisher?
Those beliefs that Fisher is way better than Stephenson are based on faith and hope that he's not a bust, and that his 1.1 status actually means something. They're seeing stuff in the player that just isn't there, or at least isn't evident at the moment.
And that's the essence of homerism.
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There's also the flip side of homerism where people choose a target to criticize and exaggerate how bad the guy is. Fisher turned into a respectable right tackle toward the end of the year. And there are lots of good excuses for why he would underperform his rookie year. I don't see any reason why he can't be a solid left tackle.
On the flip side, was it a terrible pick? Yes. Will he be an elite left tackle? Probably not. Should we have taken someone else? **** yeah.
Critics blame homers. Homers blame critics. The problem is nobody seems to see middle ground. You're either awesome or you're terrible. I think Fisher will end up somewhere in between.