Sports Stupidity from this Weekend
Every now and then the news makes me wonder (more than usual) what the hell is wrong with people. There’s the daily insanity that we all have gotten far too used to. But there are still those moments that are able to jar us and make us realize just how far beyond acting civilized we’ve gone.
My moment came in about two minutes on Sunday morning. A radio was on in another room, and I just happened to focus in on what the news broadcaster was saying at the right time to hear about the guy who was shot after a 49ers – Raiders preseason game because he was wearing an “F--- the Niners” T-shirt. A second later I was watching some idiot crew member of a NASCAR team pull the hair of a driver from another team.
The worst part about these incidents may be that most of us probably heard them in one ear and let them slide out the other. If I didn’t hear about them in such a unique sequence, I likely would have done the same thing.
Maybe the shooting still stops us for a second or two, but idiotic fan behavior is nothing new. It should be completely ludicrous, yet it barely gets a raised eyebrow.
The attack on the driver practically qualifies for sports follies shows. It’s just part of the phony machismo in sports these days.
Then we all shake our heads when we see the highlight of the kid in the Little League World Series stand at home plate and admire his home run.
Those damn kids, we think, then keep watching SportsCenter in the hopes of watching Ryan Howard or Alex Rodriguez do the same thing.
I know one more blog post decrying the behavior of professional sports figures (forgive me for calling NASCAR a professional sport) and fans isn’t going to change anything. Call it therapeutic or sweeping back the ocean with a broom, but I just think it’s still worth it to mention every now and then that there’s something very wrong with shooting a fan of another team or attacking a driver of another car.
When it stops becoming worth it, we’ll be even more screwed up. But probably just a little.
My moment came in about two minutes on Sunday morning. A radio was on in another room, and I just happened to focus in on what the news broadcaster was saying at the right time to hear about the guy who was shot after a 49ers – Raiders preseason game because he was wearing an “F--- the Niners” T-shirt. A second later I was watching some idiot crew member of a NASCAR team pull the hair of a driver from another team.
The worst part about these incidents may be that most of us probably heard them in one ear and let them slide out the other. If I didn’t hear about them in such a unique sequence, I likely would have done the same thing.
Maybe the shooting still stops us for a second or two, but idiotic fan behavior is nothing new. It should be completely ludicrous, yet it barely gets a raised eyebrow.
The attack on the driver practically qualifies for sports follies shows. It’s just part of the phony machismo in sports these days.
Then we all shake our heads when we see the highlight of the kid in the Little League World Series stand at home plate and admire his home run.
Those damn kids, we think, then keep watching SportsCenter in the hopes of watching Ryan Howard or Alex Rodriguez do the same thing.
I know one more blog post decrying the behavior of professional sports figures (forgive me for calling NASCAR a professional sport) and fans isn’t going to change anything. Call it therapeutic or sweeping back the ocean with a broom, but I just think it’s still worth it to mention every now and then that there’s something very wrong with shooting a fan of another team or attacking a driver of another car.
When it stops becoming worth it, we’ll be even more screwed up. But probably just a little.
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