Boomer Bashes Birds' Fans
Dear Chris “Boomer” Berman:
Sorry to interrupt your love affair with Tom Jackson, but this will just take a minute. Last week it was apparently your turn as a member of the national media to trot out the tired, exaggerated, and just plain inaccurate “examples” of those nasty Philadelphia fans.
As a guy whose not exactly enamored with my brethren in fandom, I may be the wrong guy to offer even a semi-defense of the Philly fans. But as I watch you and your network, ESPN, become a caricature of once great sport entities, I can’t resist adding to the many voices that have tried to correct the misconceptions sports “reporters” too lazy to actually do any reporting love to harp on while bashing Philly fans. You went 0-for-4 on Sunday Countdown:
They booed Santa: At the end of another dreadful Eagles season most of us (including me) don’t remember or weren’t even alive for, a snowstorm kept the guy who was supposed to play the jolly old guy away from Franklin Field. From what I’ve read, a slovenly, drunk, fat guy who happened to fit the suit was plucked from the stands and paraded around at halftime. Media members too stupid to figure out that fans were booing the franchise, and not legend of ol’ St. Nick, need to hang it up.
They booed Donovan McNabb on draft day: A misguided radio personality, Angelo Cataldi, who ESPN loves to talk to whenever they do Philly fan stories, orchestrated this mess with 30 listeners dying to be his butt-munch. They were booing the fact that Ricky Williams wasn’t drafted, and were the only 31 people in Philly blind to the way their idiotic display would look and live forever in the rest of the media.
They celebrated when Michael Irvin was injured. Dead wrong. Fans were reacting to the hypocrisy and absurdity of Deion Sanders prancing around as if praying over Irvin. Sanders got rich exuding every ounce of clichéd machismo he could, including running around with every groupie that offered herself to him, then claimed he found God. Fans clapped in support as Irvin was carted off.
They pelted Jimmy Johnson with snowballs. Damn straight.
Do us all a favor, “Boom,” and pass this along to your cronies. If you could stop kissing the ass of your co-hosts for two hours every Sunday morning, that’d be good, too.
Picks. After two pushes and another loss, plus the fact that posting on Thursday nights wasn’t garnering any bump in hits, I figured it was time to move back to Fridays and focus on picking one game a week. Of course, I decided to do this on Friday the 13th, the week the game I like makes me look like a homer, and the home team is set-up for a let down. But I’m 5-5-3 so what the hell? Take the Eagles –3. The streak starts here . . . I hope.
Eagles. Speaking of the Birds, why is everyone so excited after last week? They probably should have been headed to overtime in a game that was tight all day. Brian Westbrook’s knee seems destined to ruin the season. Donte' Stallworth can’t get on the damn field. And McNabb’s 18-33 passing for 354 yards included plays of 87, 40, and 60 yards. Yes, it’s great he throws the deep ball well, but that’s an inflated stat if there ever was one. I’m not looking to bash the guy. I just don’t get why this is the week people are genuflecting over him.
Week in Review:
· The coverage of Corey Lidle’s death, which of course was sad, once again illustrates the perverse interest in sports figures we have. Certainly, the circumstances of his flying into a building in New York grabbed everyone’s attention. But once the fear of terrorism was gone, the story continued because an active athlete had died. There was even talk of not playing the playoff games scheduled for the night he died. People die every day, yet when a sports figure dies we want the world to stop. Just a curious thing, I think.
· The collapse of the Yankees makes me wonder why the fifth pitcher in a rotation isn’t paid more than the best position player.
· Todd Jones is the closer on the soon-to-be World Series bound Detroit Tigers. Jones was once on the Phillies, who now rely on Tom Gordon. One more reason to thank Ed Wade.
Sorry to interrupt your love affair with Tom Jackson, but this will just take a minute. Last week it was apparently your turn as a member of the national media to trot out the tired, exaggerated, and just plain inaccurate “examples” of those nasty Philadelphia fans.
As a guy whose not exactly enamored with my brethren in fandom, I may be the wrong guy to offer even a semi-defense of the Philly fans. But as I watch you and your network, ESPN, become a caricature of once great sport entities, I can’t resist adding to the many voices that have tried to correct the misconceptions sports “reporters” too lazy to actually do any reporting love to harp on while bashing Philly fans. You went 0-for-4 on Sunday Countdown:
They booed Santa: At the end of another dreadful Eagles season most of us (including me) don’t remember or weren’t even alive for, a snowstorm kept the guy who was supposed to play the jolly old guy away from Franklin Field. From what I’ve read, a slovenly, drunk, fat guy who happened to fit the suit was plucked from the stands and paraded around at halftime. Media members too stupid to figure out that fans were booing the franchise, and not legend of ol’ St. Nick, need to hang it up.
They booed Donovan McNabb on draft day: A misguided radio personality, Angelo Cataldi, who ESPN loves to talk to whenever they do Philly fan stories, orchestrated this mess with 30 listeners dying to be his butt-munch. They were booing the fact that Ricky Williams wasn’t drafted, and were the only 31 people in Philly blind to the way their idiotic display would look and live forever in the rest of the media.
They celebrated when Michael Irvin was injured. Dead wrong. Fans were reacting to the hypocrisy and absurdity of Deion Sanders prancing around as if praying over Irvin. Sanders got rich exuding every ounce of clichéd machismo he could, including running around with every groupie that offered herself to him, then claimed he found God. Fans clapped in support as Irvin was carted off.
They pelted Jimmy Johnson with snowballs. Damn straight.
Do us all a favor, “Boom,” and pass this along to your cronies. If you could stop kissing the ass of your co-hosts for two hours every Sunday morning, that’d be good, too.
Picks. After two pushes and another loss, plus the fact that posting on Thursday nights wasn’t garnering any bump in hits, I figured it was time to move back to Fridays and focus on picking one game a week. Of course, I decided to do this on Friday the 13th, the week the game I like makes me look like a homer, and the home team is set-up for a let down. But I’m 5-5-3 so what the hell? Take the Eagles –3. The streak starts here . . . I hope.
Eagles. Speaking of the Birds, why is everyone so excited after last week? They probably should have been headed to overtime in a game that was tight all day. Brian Westbrook’s knee seems destined to ruin the season. Donte' Stallworth can’t get on the damn field. And McNabb’s 18-33 passing for 354 yards included plays of 87, 40, and 60 yards. Yes, it’s great he throws the deep ball well, but that’s an inflated stat if there ever was one. I’m not looking to bash the guy. I just don’t get why this is the week people are genuflecting over him.
Week in Review:
· The coverage of Corey Lidle’s death, which of course was sad, once again illustrates the perverse interest in sports figures we have. Certainly, the circumstances of his flying into a building in New York grabbed everyone’s attention. But once the fear of terrorism was gone, the story continued because an active athlete had died. There was even talk of not playing the playoff games scheduled for the night he died. People die every day, yet when a sports figure dies we want the world to stop. Just a curious thing, I think.
· The collapse of the Yankees makes me wonder why the fifth pitcher in a rotation isn’t paid more than the best position player.
· Todd Jones is the closer on the soon-to-be World Series bound Detroit Tigers. Jones was once on the Phillies, who now rely on Tom Gordon. One more reason to thank Ed Wade.
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