So I had been meaning to write this one for the last couple of weeks. Originally started thinking about it around the AFC championship game. Then I really wanted to go into it when the lovely and talented beststephi posted about women liking football I decided I definitely wanted to weigh in on this.
So there are some people out there who don’t like football. I get that. I know some relatively cool people who don’t care about football. People like jameel. I mean granted, he’s a wussy little loser boy who only so barely qualifies as a man, but other than that, he’s pretty much ok. What I don’t get is why people who don’t like football feel the need to exclaim it so much, as though there is something wrong with the rest of us. Let me just settle this once and for all. If you don’t like football, guess what? There’s something wrong with you. There just is. Face it. It’s cool really. It’s okay. There’s plenty of things wrong with me. I’ve got tons of faults like… uh… well… ummm… I guess my penis is waaaay too large. Ok, maybe there’s nothing wrong with me. But there’s totally plenty wrong with lots of other people. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Just accept it.
Yeah, I get it. You may not be into football. You may not care about the Steelers (Go Stillers!) So maybe its kinda annoying that all the news in this town for the last two weeks has been devoted to covering the team. You know why? Because whether you like it or not, right now, the team is the only fucking thing that matters in this city. Suck it up. Deal with it. Them’s the breaks, yo! The Superbowl is the most popular event of the year. It has been for the last 40 years. It will be for the next 40. That’s the simple truth. And in this particular case, the favorites to win are the team that has been the single most important segment of our city’s culture for the last 30-some-odd years, even when they totally sucked. You might think that’s stupid. Maybe it even is stupid. But that’s how it is. Being all holier-than-thou doesn’t make you cool. It doesn’t help your cause. It just makes you look both pretentious and ignorant.
It’s the same with people who hate reality television shows and feel the need to point out how stupid they are constantly. They are stupid. It doesn’t matter. They’re popular. And popular makes you important. You don’t have to be popular. Not being popular doesn’t make you a bad person. But it doesn’t make you special either.
It just makes you a nerd.
So while you’re griping about us unwashed masses enjoying our barbaric sports ritual, the rest of us will be piled into my TV room, getting wasted on beer and shouting our lungs out. Because we’re so much cooler than you. Now get me another beer, four-eyes.
Go Stillers!!!
Note: If you’re interested in dropping by to watch the game, let me know. Also, I apparently never had the forethought to do a sexy photoshoot of any hotties in steeler jerseys. I was forced to just steal one from MySpace. (Found by world famous poonhound anukul)So if you’re a hot girl interested in being all sexy and supporting the team and giving me yet more cheesecakey photos to post in these little diatribes (and replacing “random hottie” with someone I actually know) feel free to hook a brotha up.
Bah. Feetballl is boorrrring. It puts me to sleep.
It’s not as torturing as golf or baseball, though.
actually, it’s not the disliking football that bothers me. It’s the active disdain for people who do like it (or something else popular). I ranted about football because the Superbowl is coming up and it tends to draw a lot of that due to its popularity. But I actually feel the same about people who dislike reality shows (as I said), or pop music, or pro-wrestling, or Monty Python (which by the way, I pretty much hate)
Damn it, you’re the second person who’s made the mistake of assuming that I actively disdain football fans just because I don’t like football. I have no problem with other people liking football. Hell, I don’t even actively dislike football; it just doesn’t interest me at all.
heard that.. unless it’s soccer, football just doesn’t do it for me. I don’t mind hearing it over the radio, though I also have been known to leave ‘the Word’ on for an hour or so.. I don’t like watching it on TV, but I don’t like watching anything on TV.
It’s .. well, it’s football. It’s that other sport. I could say similar things about competitive weight lifting, or hot-dog eating contests.
again… that’s fine. It’s not so much the people who don’t care about football who I am complaining about. Its people who act like there is something wrong with all of us who do.
actually, I never said you dislike football fans… I specifically said you were a wussy little loser boy but more or less okay.
Your LJ post to that effect was actually quite reasonable.
Oh. Well, that’s all right, then. Carry on!
no problem…. and best of all, now we can add “whiny little bitch” to the list.
Who’s scruffy looking?
eh…. scruffy looking would at least be kinda manly.
Shit, I’m all man.
you’re all mens…
Don’t hate.
I’m not… I have nothing but the utmost respect for “your people.”
*looks at the International Males link at the side of the page*
See, that’s all I’m sayin’.
you mean the one that points out right at the top of the page that I am totally not gay.
Hey, just cuz I am so much prettier than you, ain’t no reason to be jealous. Don’t hate the playa’, hate the game.
Prettier than me? Negro, please.
Oh, remember that spray that came in the black can with the pick on the front that smelled like raspberries? They still make that shit. I bought some Saturday.
I’m fast, I’m pretty, I’m a bad man!
Oooh… I need to get some of that stuff…
I’m disappointed in the hotness of Random Myspace Girl. She looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Get photographing! Or send noted poonhound Anukul back to the internets…
actually, I agree… provide me with a hottie in a jersey and I’ll get to snapping…
That is pretty disappointing. Especially since he’s had multiple hot girls in Hines Ward jerseys at his house every Sunday for the past month.
Hmm. I’m having trouble finding work-safe Steelers hotties.
There’s this, which is just adorable, not hot. And interestingly enough, this person has a picture of Anukul. I’ll leave it to others to debate the hotness of Anukul.
How’s this?
I was hoping Mick Jagger would say the wrong thing and Joey would fly off the handle again, but maybe it’s not to be.
eh, I don’t really find her any hotter than the other girl. Not that either of them are ugly, certainly, but I don’t think she’s exceptionally hot either. *shrug*
You found non-work-safe steeler hotties? Cuz I didn’t see any of those either.
Not Work Safe
you know, actually I think I might have run past that one and quickly rejected it too… I had forgotten. As much as I love the steelers and the boobies that pic was entirely forgettable…
so sad… so very sad…
Oh, yeah. That’s craig. He’s cool. His Steeler project seems to be coming along nicely.
you got a mark up error up in there… that said, yeah, that guys stuff is pretty cool.
For the record, here is the context I had and the guidance I gave (fairly quickly I might add):
[17:51] mav: how is it possible that the internets could fail to provide me with a picture of a hot chick in a steeler jersey?
[17:52] me: go to the myspace page of the band that does the polamalu song
[17:52] me: i remember vaguely pseudo-hot girl pics there. not mega-hot though.
[17:53] mav: well I just need hot enough for a pic in a blog posty
[17:53] mav: err post
[17:53] mav: do you know the bands name?
[17:53] me: hmm. this is what i rememberd:
[17:53] me: (Link: http://myspace-041.vo.llnwd.net/00390/14/04/390294041_s.jpg)http://myspace-041.vo.llnwd.net/00390/14/04/390294041_s.jpg
[17:54] me: eh
yep… two minutes in and out…. you’re totally a poonhound…
google image search for “steelers hot jersey” revealed this, which is kinda meh.
http://www.alwayspamela.com/hosted/fb100.jpg
that’s a little better. At least its a better picture anyway.
Who the hell is saying this? No, seriously? I don’t care about football and I don’t live in Pittsburgh any more and I still think it’s pretty damn cool that the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl and I still plan to watch it.
it actually hasn’t been as bad on LJ this year as it was last year. But I have seen it a bit… and there has been a little bit of whining in comments in the community. Plus I’ve just heard a few (very few, but noticable) people complaining around town too. Including the DJ at the bowling alley we were at the other day.
Simply disgraceful…
So, I actually do have a problem with your argument, in that accepting something because it’s popular is essentially slavery to the status quo. If you’re perfectly and universally happy with the status quo, I guess that’s a fine attitude to have, but if you’re not, it ain’t. As a degree holder in cultural studies, you should be aware that the cultural status quo does change dramatically over time. If the winners of history are to be believed, it all starts with whining.
That said, it is rather insensitive to express distain for the Stillers and teir fans in pgh now. It’s like telling a bodybuilder that muscles are stupid, or a designer that design is useless, and function is all that matters. I mean, really, football and hockey are all that pgh really has.
gross simplification on my part and yours… change starts with whining with a point. Not just whining. And real change happens when more people whine than don’t. And the people have to want the change. Case in point, you can’t force democracy on a people who don’t want it. If you do, they’ll just vote in a similar regime to what they already had. In this case, the Steelers really are the culture. Whining that “football is stupid” and “where is the real news” does nothing because 99% of this town loves football. And since that’s the case, coverage of our third string QB filming guys in the locker room with his hand held camera is just more important than some new right wing judge being elected to some court of something or other in washington. Who cares about Washington. They didn’t even make the conference championships. Whatever the deal is with that judge thingee, it’ll be there next week.
by the way… I wasn’t even really saying “accept it” like “thou shalt go forward and like football”
my point was more that pretending you’re better because you don’t like the popular thing is akin to foolishness. Like it or don’t. But come to understand it. Rather than simply rejecting it out of sorts and pretending it isn’t really important.
Well, that’s fair. Haughtiness and ignorance are not a combo that I’m really fond of.