I've come to perceive sports fans in general as being:
1) Loyal to their team and/or city.
and/or
2) Batshit crazy.
Now, I've learned that I have to be careful with my words on this topic, as amusingly enough, people who are not batshit crazy don't like to be regarded as such. So to be clear, when I talk about retarded Laker fans, I don't mean that ALL Laker fans are intellectually stunted. I'm talking about just the ones who like to riot after winning. If that is still offensive, that's fine. Idiots will be easily offended; I can't do anything about that.
Anyway, I actually love participating in sports. Back before I was a quarter century years old (and chubby), I was quite an athletic person. I remember those high school wrestling practices anyway (go KHS Dragons!). I completely understand the thrill of competition, and the pride in mastering a talent/skill/game through hard work and discipline.
That said, I've never found myself very interested in following sports. I'm one of the few guys I know who just doesn't care who wins the Super Bowl, or whether or not I can expect aforementioned Laker fans to riot again this year (they probably will). That's not to say though that I don't enjoy watching a game or two. I guess I just need a reason.
Well, today I had one. I had the pleasure of experiencing my first NFL game (Raiders at Chargers). My wonderful girlfriend, a Raider fan, was kind enough to invite me to join the fun with her brothers and her dad, also Raider fans.
That brings me back to the craziness of it all. I'm pretty out of the loop in a lot of ways. Ask me about TV, movies, recent music, professional sports, and well pretty much pop culture in general and I'm going to draw blanks. Even I though, with my sports ignorance, still know that Raider fans have a reputation for fanaticism in a more pure sense of the word. I didn't know though until today, that they have a rivalry with the Chargers.
I found myself in an interesting situation. I've lived in San Diego for about a decade now. I have absolutely no interest in or loyalty to any of our teams. It's not that I don't like them, it's that I just don't care. If the Chargers or Padres moved to another city, I would forget the news as quickly as possible and move on.
So here I am, a San Diegan, purely by coincidence wearing <a href="http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=14072">a blue shirt with lightning bolts on it</a> with my girlfriend and her family, all wearing Raiders colors. One would assume I'm the odd one out. Well, I didn't know if I was or not. If I'm not loyal to the Chargers it would make sense that I would side with my girlfriend's team, right?
And that's where I feel conflicted. If there is one thing I really like about professional sports, its when overzealous fans leave a game disappointed and depressed. I also though, think it's hilarious when the same thing happens to fans at a home game. So when the guy in front of me asks me who I'm rooting for, I don't know how to answer. It's not a question of what team I side with, it's more of a question of which fans would I rather have upset after the game.
I still don't really know. I finally did make the decision that, for this game, I was going to side with the Raiders. When it came down to it, they were just the better performing team today. It was bittersweet when the Raiders won though, because we had some extremely annoying Raider fans behind us doing the whole RAAAIIIIIIDEEEEERRRSSSS thing nonstop. I kind of wanted the Chargers to win just so those guys could go home pissed off.
In the end though, a bunch of my fellow San Diegans had a disappointing day in professional football today. For some twisted reason, I think that is awesome.
Some random bits about my first NFL experience:
* I enjoyed tailgating way more than I thought I would.
* We saw 4 fights break out, one resulting in some guy leaving with a sweater pushed to his head, presumably to stop the bleeding.
* The announcer referred to The Charger Girls as "the hottest dancers in the NFL". I hope that's not true, because they were incredibly boring.
* Faith hill seemed an odd music choice for a football game.
* I overall had a great time, despite my conflicted feelings about who I wanted to lose more. I would definitely go to another game. The sport itself very interesting.
* I still don't care who ends up at the super bowl.
(edited on Dec 06 @ 12:03 am)
1) Loyal to their team and/or city.
and/or
2) Batshit crazy.
Now, I've learned that I have to be careful with my words on this topic, as amusingly enough, people who are not batshit crazy don't like to be regarded as such. So to be clear, when I talk about retarded Laker fans, I don't mean that ALL Laker fans are intellectually stunted. I'm talking about just the ones who like to riot after winning. If that is still offensive, that's fine. Idiots will be easily offended; I can't do anything about that.
Anyway, I actually love participating in sports. Back before I was a quarter century years old (and chubby), I was quite an athletic person. I remember those high school wrestling practices anyway (go KHS Dragons!). I completely understand the thrill of competition, and the pride in mastering a talent/skill/game through hard work and discipline.
That said, I've never found myself very interested in following sports. I'm one of the few guys I know who just doesn't care who wins the Super Bowl, or whether or not I can expect aforementioned Laker fans to riot again this year (they probably will). That's not to say though that I don't enjoy watching a game or two. I guess I just need a reason.
Well, today I had one. I had the pleasure of experiencing my first NFL game (Raiders at Chargers). My wonderful girlfriend, a Raider fan, was kind enough to invite me to join the fun with her brothers and her dad, also Raider fans.
That brings me back to the craziness of it all. I'm pretty out of the loop in a lot of ways. Ask me about TV, movies, recent music, professional sports, and well pretty much pop culture in general and I'm going to draw blanks. Even I though, with my sports ignorance, still know that Raider fans have a reputation for fanaticism in a more pure sense of the word. I didn't know though until today, that they have a rivalry with the Chargers.
I found myself in an interesting situation. I've lived in San Diego for about a decade now. I have absolutely no interest in or loyalty to any of our teams. It's not that I don't like them, it's that I just don't care. If the Chargers or Padres moved to another city, I would forget the news as quickly as possible and move on.
So here I am, a San Diegan, purely by coincidence wearing <a href="http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=14072">a blue shirt with lightning bolts on it</a> with my girlfriend and her family, all wearing Raiders colors. One would assume I'm the odd one out. Well, I didn't know if I was or not. If I'm not loyal to the Chargers it would make sense that I would side with my girlfriend's team, right?
And that's where I feel conflicted. If there is one thing I really like about professional sports, its when overzealous fans leave a game disappointed and depressed. I also though, think it's hilarious when the same thing happens to fans at a home game. So when the guy in front of me asks me who I'm rooting for, I don't know how to answer. It's not a question of what team I side with, it's more of a question of which fans would I rather have upset after the game.
I still don't really know. I finally did make the decision that, for this game, I was going to side with the Raiders. When it came down to it, they were just the better performing team today. It was bittersweet when the Raiders won though, because we had some extremely annoying Raider fans behind us doing the whole RAAAIIIIIIDEEEEERRRSSSS thing nonstop. I kind of wanted the Chargers to win just so those guys could go home pissed off.
In the end though, a bunch of my fellow San Diegans had a disappointing day in professional football today. For some twisted reason, I think that is awesome.
Some random bits about my first NFL experience:
* I enjoyed tailgating way more than I thought I would.
* We saw 4 fights break out, one resulting in some guy leaving with a sweater pushed to his head, presumably to stop the bleeding.
* The announcer referred to The Charger Girls as "the hottest dancers in the NFL". I hope that's not true, because they were incredibly boring.
* Faith hill seemed an odd music choice for a football game.
* I overall had a great time, despite my conflicted feelings about who I wanted to lose more. I would definitely go to another game. The sport itself very interesting.
* I still don't care who ends up at the super bowl.
(edited on Dec 06 @ 12:03 am)
