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Originally Posted by anticipation
That's probably almost as fun for them as it is for you when you're sitting in a restaurant eating a salad and the family next to you orders six veal cutlets and a suckling pig. Great lesson for the kids; if you don't like/understand something, ridicule it and all those who are trying to enjoy it.
Idiotic comments aside, going to the University of Iowa, Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern, Illinois, or Indiana to watch a football game is always one hell of a good time. Plenty of beer and food to go around, coupled with a large amount of knowledgeable, blue collar fans who are more than willing to treat complete strangers like family.
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It's true, I don't understand why people care who wins in American football or any team sport, since usually people don't know the players personally. Also, the players often don't even come from the city or state that the team represents, so "rooting for the home team" is generally an empty statement; there is little "home" in the team at all! And I find it strange that people get so riled up about...a game.
Cheering for an opposing team (when no one knows if I actually like the team or not) is a little different than a family coming into a restaurant and taking out their desire to mock vegetarians by eating calves and piglets: in my scenario, no one dies.
Also, showing a child that you can stand up and be different from the majority is a fine lesson, especially when there is something undesirable about what the majority is doing...which in the case of American football is supporting a sport in which many players end up with concussions and permanent brain damage:
Quote:
Concussions and Head Injuries in Football - The New York Times
Concussions and Head Injuries in FootballRecommend
New York Times, Oct. 19. 2010
A 2007 study conducted by the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of Retired Athletes found that of the 595 retired N.F.L. players who recalled sustaining three or more concussions on the football field, 20.2 percent said they had been found to have depression. That is three times the rate of players who have not sustained concussions.
In September 2009, a study commissioned by the N.F.L. reported that Alzheimer's disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league's former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.
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The NFL League officials have fought efforts to make the sport safer for the players...because, of course, that would cut into how much money team owners, etc., can make. Such a noble game! (Yes, I am
mocking the NFL League leadership for having refused for so long to make the game safer for players.)
So, anticipation, do the fans care at all about the football players and their health, their future? Or do the fans care mostly about whether "their team" wins, and whether they get to get drunk with their buddies and experience camradery in the stands as players get sacked and perhaps permanently injured on the field? Hmmm.
I agree with you, though, that mocking something one disagrees with may not be the best method to show dissent, although it makes for good comedy sketches and political cartoons.
I like the idea of fans being more than willing to treat complete strangers like family. That is a nice feeling, when strangers join together in a positive way. My last experience with a tailgating party was when I happened to be driving on a road that cut through a tailgating party, and some college students spashed beer through the open window of my car. (And no, they weren't the same people I sat next to in the stands years earlier...and if they *were*, their reaction would be yet another reason to despise footfall.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by right-track
Your mother told me, just last night.
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Alright, Mom!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
Football makes me sleepy.
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I usually just watched the band and the mascot running around doing goofy stuff. I liked halftime shows. I woke up for those. I think marching bands are infinitely more interesting than football! But I'm biased: I was a band rat in high school.
