Fans can and do vent on message boards and comment sections of news articles. And it doesn't matter. Fan attendance, boosters, donations, all of that matters deeply. Whining on the internet tho? It does nothing.
You know most fans are football morons, right? Myself definitely included. If anyone is listing to a bunch of accountants, sales guys, lawyers, etc instead of the coaches and team then they are doing it wrong.
Look at Stevenson's tweet again. He's joking around and illustrating the point that the guy screaming "Come on Chow!" when we ran a draw on 3rd and 20 in 1997 didn't affect the actual game. There isn't someone tugging on the coaches shirt saying "Did you hear that guy? We need to throw more or they are going to get madder..". Here is what Derik said:
"Once I was on the field and we were losing and I heard this @BYUfootball fan yell about all the things we were doing wrong and what we could be doing to fix the problems. We changed our entire strategy based on his wisdom. Won the game. In fact, he turned our whole season around."
No one is saying that fans can't be fans, or that people can't be frustrated. He's not muzzling anyone or cancelling anyone. You say that my "recipe" will lead to apathy and lower donations. But it's not SILVER's recipe. It's just what it is. Nick Howell is still a P5 DC despite CB's anger.