Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer 11y

Dolphins superfan bashes Fireman Ed

Fireman Ed's decision to walk away from his self-appointed role as the Jets' most visible fan apparently has created quite a stir in Fan-dom. His Miami counterpart, Big Papa Pump, unloaded on Fireman Ed for abandoning his fan base.

BPP, a Dolphins season-ticket holder for 17 years, ripped his fellow superfan Tuesday on a South Florida radio station. He called Fireman Ed a "wuss" and a "disgrace." There apparently isn't a code of conduct among the superfan fraternity.

"If you're stepping down because of what you see, getting your butt whupped week-in and week-out and you haven't been to the Super Bowl since Super Bowl III, that is a wuss. That is a wuss," BPP said on "Hochman and Zaslow" on Sports Talk: The Ticket.

"You don't back out of your team like that. That's something you don't do. You don't step down from being a superfan. You don't do that. Fireman Ed, you're a disgrace, man."

BPP was on a roll.

"This team is looking up to him and this is what he's telling them? You quit? You just give up? If you're winning and you quit, it's another thing. But you're losing and you quit, that's even worse."

From BPP's perspective, Fireman Ed is done. He said there's no way to return with his integrity in tact; it violates the super-fan doctrine.

"You can't come back. You have to come back as somebody else," he said. "Maybe he can be Nurse Ed. He can't come back as Fireman Ed, there's no way. You can't welcome him back. How can you trust him?"

The irony here is that Ed Anzalone -- aka Fireman Ed -- actually was a Dolphins fan before switching his allegiance to the Jets in the mid-1970s. Maybe he'll do what a lot of New Yorkers do -- move to Florida and re-connect with his first love.

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