I think it's been more of a way to express people's displeasure with other results than anything. Things aren't going as well as people like so they find a finger to point to say "Look! They are stupid for doing this." It's an easy target.
That's not to marginalize the tradition, but I think it's way more of a deal outside the stadium than inside. I don't follow the logic of how making it harder to obtain is decreasing the value. That's pretty much counter-intuitive with the rest of human history. Obviously the players haven't felt that way as they did it on their own on several occasions (awaits brainwashing rebuttal).
As a counter-example, a couple years ago people were complaining that we didn't have season-long captains. Rotating captains was somehow creating a leadership void that was hurting the program. Well, now the last two years we had season-long captains. Did it improve play at all? Not so much. But at least people had to find something else to complain about because now it was done just like it always was.
Similar crowd-think goes into going for it on fourth down. Despite mountains of data saying that going for it on fourth down is a statistical advantage - even in your own territory - coaches are loathe to do it because the "easy" thing to do is to punt because that's what's expected. Going for it is a "gamble."
That's not to marginalize the tradition, but I think it's way more of a deal outside the stadium than inside. I don't follow the logic of how making it harder to obtain is decreasing the value. That's pretty much counter-intuitive with the rest of human history. Obviously the players haven't felt that way as they did it on their own on several occasions (awaits brainwashing rebuttal).
As a counter-example, a couple years ago people were complaining that we didn't have season-long captains. Rotating captains was somehow creating a leadership void that was hurting the program. Well, now the last two years we had season-long captains. Did it improve play at all? Not so much. But at least people had to find something else to complain about because now it was done just like it always was.
Similar crowd-think goes into going for it on fourth down. Despite mountains of data saying that going for it on fourth down is a statistical advantage - even in your own territory - coaches are loathe to do it because the "easy" thing to do is to punt because that's what's expected. Going for it is a "gamble."
