Alienated fans use Johnson as their NASCAR scapegoat (cont'd)

And yet Johnson, the most dominant driver NASCAR has seen in three decades, still struggles for acceptance, an almost embarrassing fact given all he's accomplished and the manner in which he's done it. His one misstep is one of timing, that he happens to be a three-time champion in this era when so many changes have taken effect. Oh sure, it's all "back to basics" now, but the Chase and the new car and schedule realignment and new television packages can't be undone. To many alienated die-hards, and through no fault of his own, Johnson has become the poster child for NASCAR's recent wave of change. Who wins the Chase? Jimmie. Who wins in the new car? Jimmie. Who's good on the new tracks? Jimmie. Who are the new TV partners always showing? Jimmie. Of course, that's bound to happen, given that the guy's won 40 races and three titles since 2002. But it also makes him a target of scorn.

It's reached the point where now they're attacking something that's virtually unassailable, his ability, criticizing him as little more than a product of the Chase, as if all those race victories somehow materialized out of thin air. Yes, if we're going by the traditional points system, Gordon would have won the title by 353 in 2007, and Carl Edwards by 16 this year. But guess what? They don't race under that system anymore. Had Major League Baseball never adopted the wild card, the Boston Red Sox wouldn't have won the World Series in 2004. Does that make their victory any less valid than those won by the Yankees in 1956, or the Mets in 1969, or the Twins in 1987 -- under three different playoff formats, no less? Of course not. Johnson, though, is repeatedly subject to some old-boy litmus test that should have been thrown out long ago.

In every sport, championship formats are occasionally altered. The Green Bay Packers didn't win the NFL title in 1997 (when 12 teams made the playoffs) the same way they did in 1967 (when just four got in), yet those two accomplishments are weighted identically. The NBA playoffs have been revised 15 times since the league was founded in 1950, yet all 17 Boston Celtics championships count the same. Good luck finding a hockey fan who doesn't see Montreal's 1924 Stanley Cup title (when one playoff round was just a two-game series) as equal to the Canadiens' 20-game odyssey to the 1993 crown. Yet in NASCAR, if you didn't follow in the exact tire tracks of men like Yarborough, Allison and Earnhardt, then somehow you're not as worthy? Please. Athletes don't make the rules, they just play by them. Johnson is no different.

But of course, that won't be good enough, either. Somehow, Jimmie Johnson will continue to do wrong by doing everything right. Maybe those die-hards will come around one day, take the blinders off and finally see what they're missing. And maybe Johnson can take comfort in knowing there's another multiple champion who fought a not too dissimilar battle, who for a time was discounted and derided because he had a whiz-bang crew chief and he had sponsor money and he had cars that were better than anyone else's. Yes, even in that era, there were die-hards who thought he had it too easy, didn't deserve all that he had accomplished. Wonder what they think of Richard Petty now?

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Jimmie Johnson: Alienated fans' scapegoat?
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