The backlash towards Jimmie Johnson’s fifth Championship is disappointing but not unprecedented

Everyone hates a winner and Jimmie Johnson is a winner - a five-time winner at that.

The backlash that has permeated the Internet since Johnson’s Championship win has been a bit disappointing but not unexpected, at least not by me. This is certainly not the first time this sort of thing has happened to a winning driver.

Dale Earnhardt had a similar fan backlash when he was on his Championship winning spree twenty years ago. Earnhardt won six of his seven Championships between 1986 and 1994. Earnhardt nearly won five in a row between 1990 and 1994 - the only other person to win a Championship in that time period was Alan Kulwicki.

You know how many times I heard “Anyone but Earnhardt” during those years? Too many to count.

Oh and there were a ton of the same anti-NASCAR sentiments too like; “NASCAR gave him the Championship”, “I’ve stopped watching NASCAR”, “I’m tired of this, I’m never going to another race”, and so on. Those are just the ones that I can print here too.

I'm sure Richard Petty heard the same type of cat-calls when he was driving in his prime too. Richard won seven Championships too, but he did it trying to win races, not Championships because the payout for winning the Championship wasn't as big as it is now. Back then you made your money by winning races, not Championships because winning the Championship essentially gave you a nice looking trophy and a small payout.

Richard probably would have won more Championships if they were point racing. Could you imagine what kind of backlash there would have been if Richard had been running for Championships instead of the wins?

There would have been a lot but maybe not as much as Jimmie Johnson is getting now.

Why do I think that?

Is it because Richard was more liked than Jimmie is now?

No.

Is it because Jimmie is more polished than Richard was than?

No.

It is because of the Internet.

It is the Internet that makes the backlash towards Jimmie more noticeable and more disappointing in my opinion.

In this day and age it seems that anyone with an opinion has a forum in which to voice it - yours truly is an example of this electronic soapbox of which I speak of.

The Internet has made it easy for anyone to get their thoughts/ideas out there for anyone to read, back in the day we had to buy the newspaper and then debate the editorial with our friends down at the local garage, now that garage consists of anyone from anywhere in the world.

So when you see this immense backlash towards an athlete like Jimmie Johnson on the Internet take it with a grain of salt, don't be so quick to jump on the bandwagon and think about the source of these comments - are they really ones that count, that are unbiased, and are based on fact?