Over at CBSSports, Tom Fornelli asks the musical question,
What defines tortured?
Well, it means different things to different people in the context of sports. To come up with this list, I had a few parameters I tried to follow. The biggest thing for me was that you’re a fan of a team that has some success, but only so much to make you crave more, and it never quite comes. Like, if you’re a fan of a team that’s awful year in and year out, you become a bit numb to it over time. But if you’re a fan of a team that just can’t get over the hump, the wound stays real.
Also, I leaned toward schools who don’t have much success in the other revenue sport: college basketball. Like, if you’re a North Carolina football fan, you may be a bit tortured by the fact your program never seems to take that next step, but you also have a bunch of basketball titles to help ease the pain. So you may be tortured, but you’re not tortured enough.
Finally, it has to be a fan base that cares. It has to be passionate about football and it has to keep coming back for more.
And the winner is?
1 Being a Georgia fan encompasses everything I was looking for in a tortured fan base. There was a national title, but it came 37 years ago in 1980. There’s been success on the football field since then, but not too much. There were two SEC titles in 2002 and 2005, and seven SEC East crowns, but that’s as far as it goes. Georgia is the perfect example of a team that’s never bad, but just never as good as it probably should be, and too good for fans to turn their backs. The only choice is torture, and this fanbase keeps coming back for more.
Much to Butts-Mehre’s relief and satisfaction. Glad we could fit the bill so nicely.
Get The Picture 
Seven SEC East “crowns”? I count five – 2002, 2003, 2005, 2011, and 2012.
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Nevermind, he must be including times we tied for best record in the East. That would include 1992 and 2007.
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We tied for first in 1992 and 2007, so we get to claim those.
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I don’t want to claim title using Texas or Alabama standards, it is 5
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I don’t want to claim titles using South Carolina standards, so it is 0. I don’t recognize division “titles”.
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What are you talking about? What’s the 0 represent?
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0 division “titles”
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Take a bow friends. That’s us. Grrrrr.
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That would be funny if it were not so true.
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Hey, we are ranked number 1!
McGarity can spin it…
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I still think it takes a special, twisted mentality to underachieve as much as we do and squander Atlanta’s and Georgia’s talent. We want to have nice coaches who have some secret UGA perspective on things and don’t want to win too badly. We fear above all breaking even the tiniest, most nonsensical of rules. We brag about the least competitive sports and blow off our mediocrity in the most lucrative, major sports, saying UGA isn’t a ___ school. We smugly watch Florida, Clemson, and South Carolina (!) succeed, while we get to remember Herschel Walker. At some point, surely all this silliness will end, (won’t it?), and someone will decide that UGA needs to start competing at the highest level athletically. You know, accountability and all that?
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^^^This^^^
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There is plenty of accountability in play. The Georgia fan base richly rewards BM for the results of the various teams. As long as the fans continue to send in the huge amounts of cash, BM will continue to produce what we see now.
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I feel so naked and isolated! It’s like someone verbally snatched the covers off of us…and I can’t argue. We’ve held the identity so long wonder if we’ll ever break free. The funny thing is…each year, I’m right back believing. What a fool I am.
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UGA is the most bipolar fan base I can thinkof…. coach.____ can’t call a play, we’re under manned at _____. We can win it all next year.
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What really sucks is that I don’t believe anymore.
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Recognition. At last.
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Finally MNC in something
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You know what? I’m not tortured because I can’t do a damn thing about what happens on the field. The closest thing to torture was seeing Dan Marino throw that 4th down pass in the ’82 Sugar Bowl or TJ Moseley tip that pass right into Chris Conley’s hands in the ’12 SECCG.
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The Marino throw to John Brown was torture , Clarence Kay had just given us the lead – ouch !
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The 4th and 14 scramble for a 1st down vs. UT in 1992.
The KO return for a TD vs. Virginia in the Peach Bowl.
The 3rd and 13 conversion vs. UF in 1992.
Losing a double digit halftime lead in Tuscaloosa in 1994.
The roughing the passer that wasn’t negating a TO vs. alabama in 2008 when the score was 0-0.
The PF that wasn’t vs. Vandy in 2013.
The 4th and 18 Hail Mary tip at auburn in 2013.
The missed FG at Vandy in 1991.
The Hail Mary vs. UT in 2016.
The group knee explosions of 2013.
Hershel Walker being the first to skip his senior senior season.
Robert Edwards’ broken foot after 7 TDs in less than 4 quarters.
The late timeout vs. UF that eliminated a TD.
Quincy Carter.
Tortured may not be strong enough.
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Dang bro , that is a painful list .
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Excellent list of the most Georgia things ever…Don’t forget the excessive celebrating penalty that wasn’t…And ESPN lobbying Georgia out of the NC game because we didn’t win the conference (a one time standard) and..ah, shit..the list could go on and on. While every programs get this stulff, Georgia seems especially jinxed.
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Let’s not forget the following knives to the heart:
A. 2005 vs Auburn – 4th down and Brandon Cox completes to a bomb to Aromashodu to the UGA3, where he fumbles and Auburn recovers at the 1 yard before kicking a GW FG with 6 seconds on the clock; or
2. The Sugar Bowl in Atlanta against West Virginia where we mount a great comeback only to give up a fake punt conversion at the end of the game; or
3. 1985 vs Alabama where we block a punt for a TD to take the lead with 1 minute left and then let Mike Shula drive the field for the GW TD pass with 10 seconds left
I’m sure there are others that hurt, but Derek did a great job of listing many of them.
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1985 vs Alabama where we block a punt for a TD to take the lead with 1 minute left and then let Mike Shula drive the field for the GW TD pass with 10 seconds left
My first season here.
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I have so many- the 2004 LSU game there where Tyson Browining runs a screen “a million yards”, only to watch a stifling defense give up a painful touchdown- ANY Auburn loss in the last 40 years and what it has cost us- the Jasper Sanks “fumble” against the NATS- Joe Hamilton’s missed fumble the year before- not spiking the ball in the 2012 SECCG- Todd “f-ing” Blackledge- Clemson kicker Donald Iguebuike- squib kicks galore!!!- AJ Green and Todd Gurley autographs- Penn Wagers being the official in the 2008 Florida game after we embarrassed him in the same game in 2007- not scoring an offensive touchdown at home against South Carolina in 2007- a sure handed Terrance Edwards dropping a wide open TD against USC in 2001- and then against Florida the year after- and that’s just off the top of my head
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George Foster dry humping a UF o-lineman in 02.
Terrence Edwards playing tip drill with a sure TD in that same game.
Watching UGA lose to a UT team with a true frosh QB a week after dismantling Nick Saban and LSU on national TV in 2004.
Enduring the 1997 Auburn game that followed a historic win against Florida and an off date.
Verily a buffet of misery.
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You guys may feel badly, but I enjoy being a Dawg fan….every single day. Torture would be knowing we could never compete, nor be in the conversation. UGA football is pretty damned good, some of our fans’ behavior and attitudes aren’t. In the past fifteen years, there are few schools who have been in the hunt more often than we have. It has been a truly unusual Saturday that I don’t see a reasonable path to winning, some fans wake up on most Saturdays and just hope the beating won’t be too bad. That would make me wish for something else to do. Be thankful.
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I agree, Mac..but still all that crap happened and it wasn’t pleasant. But the cool aide is always in the refrigerator and it never goes to waste around here. I’m thankful…I’d rather be “close but no cigar” as a Dawg fan than win a NC every other year wearing orange.
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Yep, I get the wanting to be recognized when other fans taunt about a title, but I don’t need their blessing to know being a Dawg is better than their life….to me. And especially if they wear, or even own, anything orange. Do people really think any title overcomes the way AU, FU, or TN fans act? Not even close. Proud, happy, and look forward to more “torture”.
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I’d rather be the most tortured Bulldog fan in America than the happiest, most smug AU/UT/Clemson/GTU/FL/whatever fan in America. I like to win, I hate to lose, but football is just a piece of the whole UGA puzzle, and an even smaller piece of the whole puzzle of my life. UGA losing today sucks, but it doesn’t diminish any of the wins from the past, just like winning today doesn’t diminish the pain of any of the losses from the past. Football is Kirby’s whole life, maybe his players’ whole life, but it ain’t my whole life.
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We’re number 1! We’re number 1! We’re number 1!
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I read that article this morning and immediately thought about this blog haha.
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Truer words have never been spoken. It is the plight of the UGA fan.
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This article could also have been about the Falcons, the Braves, and maybe even the Hawks. There is something about us Georgians that brings it out of our teams.
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Try being an Illini fan along with being a Dawg!
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The journey is the reward.
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