Bill Parcells had a comment on fans' opinions when he was the head coach of the New York Giants.
"What fans don't see is what makes them fans."
Brutal, humorous and clever. Sounds like Parcells. Knowing his forthright nature and general stubbornness, he won't admit the two-way street on which that statement is paved.
Post-Gazette reporter Ed Bouchette quipped recently the Steelers essentially didn't collectively know James Harrison was entering the game against the Jets as a fullback. That's not difficult for fans to figure out on their own. As Bouchette wrote, though, "Someone shouted for Harrison to go into the game. If it was Tomlin who sent Harrison in, you could understand the confusion if Haley called a play that was designed to have Johnson at fullback."
Situations like this happen frequently. The organization of that many players spanning that many situations is difficult, if not impossible, to control. But for Harrison to enter the game without injury or without seemingly a known reason (the flare pattern he ran on the incompletion in the end zone is one Will Johnson has run thousands of times) is more than just a slight oversight.
If neither Mike Tomlin nor Todd Haley called for Harrison to enter the game, it's troubling to think about who did.
Maybe it was the fans.
This isn't the reason the Steelers lost to the Jets, but it's indicative of the precise level of detail needed to execute positively and consistently in the NFL. Sometimes planning for too many things increases the odds of error. It's reason to assume Harrison wouldn't be involved in more than two or three plays on offense. He would also reasonably be expected to perform simple tasks on the play.
Without being said and before any of that, the coaches would be expected to provide him with notice he was going in to run the play. When that play isn't what he ends up running, and the Steelers end up running a red-zone play without the appropriate personnel, fans are left to wonder how often this happens.
And that, according to Parcells, is what makes them fans. But it certainly doesn't absolve the coaching staff of all sins either.