Sunday, September 25, 2011

Regular Posting Again? Also, Sports

It could happen. You never know. The problem is now compounded beyond what it was when I first started this blog (that of having nothing to write about). Now I just forget that I even have this thing. I might start posting on it though. It'll at least give me something to do.

Anyway, I haven't had a good rant in a while. Let me think for a second here...Oh, I've got the perfect thing. The behavior of fans when their team is losing. Take, for instance, the latest chapter in the BYU-Utah football rivalry. Coming into the game, all the fans were pumped. People expected BYU to come out of that game with a win. I, myself, was one of them. BYU has a good team this year--not excellent, but good. With the intensity of the rivalry game, I honestly believed we should have expected to win that game. The stadium was full of BYU pride. By the end of the game, it was hardly anywhere to be found. Now, I get it that it is difficult to cheer for a losing team, especially one that makes as many stupid mistakes as BYU made that night. However, I also think it can be done a lot better than the BYU population did that night. When you start to turn on your own team, you sow the seeds of it's destruction. I have no problem with the chorus of "Riley Nelson" that came up over the course of the game; Jake Heaps was performing poorly, we weren't going to win by that point, and Riley Nelson might have done a better job. I do have a problem with the general feeling that the team was horrible and we might as well give up on the season--losing 6 fumbles is an aberration, not a sign of things to come. I do have a problem with people asking, even in jest, for a red shirt to wear. And I certainly have a problem with people complaining that they paid to watch the team win. In reality, you paid to watch the team. You might as well cheer for them, and you might as well stay the whole time and get your money's worth. Think about it: Would you ever walk out of a movie theater just because you could tell what the ending was going to be? Do you even walk out just because it's a bad (as in quality, not appropriateness) movie? Most people would answer no. You already paid the money, so you might as well get what you can for it. Stay to the end of a game for crying out loud. Is it any wonder that the team gave up 24 points in the 4th quarter alone? A third of the fans had already left by that point, and more were leaving. I can imagine it would be pretty disheartening as a player to see that. Why even bother trying? No one cares and it's not gonna make a difference. Have a little true team spirit, please. "Loyal, strong, and true/Wear the white and blue" (emphasis added). Let's make that reality, instead of just something we sing when our team is winning.

4 comments:

  1. "You might as well cheer for them, and you might as well stay the whole time and get your money's worth."

    That's a sunk cost fallacy, David dear.

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  2. Elissa, perhaps you better re-read the title of this blog..."Rants and Raves" does not exactly convey an adherence to perfect logic.

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