As usual, you fail to grasp the fact that this really and truly is not ultimately about winning and losing per se. When Tennessee was on the short end of an 11-game losing streak to Alabama, I most certainly did not like bama but I definitely respected them. I did so in part because Bear Bryant had a talent for complimenting his opponent (even if he had just beaten them 66-3) and belittling his own teams strengths. There was no deliberate attempt to rub your vanquished opponents nose in his defeat. I found old-school Alabama fans to be of a similar mindset; they took victory in stride. They didnt like Tennessee but they most certainly respected the history and tradition of that rivalry, not to mention the intensity with which that war was fought.
As great a coach as Spurrier was at Florida, he always struck me as a snide weasel, one who never wasted any opportunity to belittle a rival. Southern gentility seemed to have been lost on him, just as it seems to be utterly foreign to the behavioral repertoire of many, if not most, Florida fans. If Tennessee defeats rival X 45-7, I am not going to criticize, taunt or belittle their fans. I dont think it is too much to ask that the favor be returned, even in the SEC which, as an anthropologist, I consider to be the last bastion of legalized intertribal warfare.
You state that I don't go to UF road games to be liked by our opponent's fans. Thats fine and I doubt very seriously that you have anything to be worried about in that respect. If, however, you or your Reptilian brethren choose to conduct yourselves with the same self-absorbed, narcissistic, egocentric behavior which seems to epitomize Florida fans, a behavioral pattern that seems to be punctuated by the complete absence of even a shred of humility or grace, you will have demonstrated before God and all of humanity why your legions have earned the universal contempt of just about anybody who plays you with any degree of regularity. Any fan or analyst with even a modicum of objectivity has to respect what Florida has achieved on the football field. It is your attitude, your behavior, and your collective personality which we despise.
