I had the opportunity to take in the 49ers debacle at Qwest Field yesterday, which was a rare in person attendance at a 49ers game. I'm a life-long 49ers fan but I generally don't go to many games. One of the reasons I don't get out to many NFL games is that there are some bad fans cheering for NFL teams. When I say "bad fans" I mean fans that ignore certain basic rules of fandom and even common decency. My afternoon at Qwest Field brought some of those geniuses front and center.
Normally I'm not one to complain a whole lot, but I felt this was absolutely necessary. Several years ago Bill Simmons wrote an article titled "Rules for being a true fan," and later an article titled "Bane of the ballpark"(both Insider protected). The general gist of the two articles dealt with everything from sports bigamy (rooting for multiple teams in the same sport) to event attire to behavior at events and when discussing teams.
I'm a bit of a sports snob when it comes to some of these rules but not quite the level of the Sports Guy. For example, I generally am not a fan of wearing apparel of a team to an event in the same sport in which they are not participating. I guess there is some wiggle room, but really this is centered on the random guy in the Larry Fitzgerald jersey who was cheering for the 49ers, and then would cheer for the Cardinals during their highlights. I honestly don't know what his deal was. He was a good 10-15 rows in front of me so I couldn't really ask him, although I think the comedy of it all would have been great. But what were you thinking???
The next guy was the dude cussing at 49ers fans as they left the game, even if they weren't actually speaking to him or looking in his direction. I realize your team is winning, but do you really have to be such a d-bag? He had a trashy look about him so that made me feel better, but have we reached a point where that's really acceptable behavior? He and his buddy may have been incredibly drunk but they appeared fairly sober to me.
The third guy were in fact groups of people. They were the 49ers fans talking smack in the opposing stadium even as our collective team was getting pounded into the ground. I realize the popping of the jersey in spite of the whuppin is a sort of act of defiance, but I'm a believer in taking your loss like a man and moving on. Maybe that's foolish of me. I don't know, but it just seems fairly ridiculous to be talking smack while losing.
I suppose this could also be construed as me being a whiner. And you're more than welcome to call me on it. I certainly understand and do myself enjoy getting swept up in the moment of a big game. If the 49ers had romped over the Seahawks I would have been incredibly excited. There were some 49ers fans behind me and we were slapping high fives after every big 49ers play. It didn't mean I was going to be a d-bag about it.
I'm generally not a huge smack talker in part because if things blow up in your face (as they did after the first quarter yesterday), that smack talk can blow up in your face. I'm certainly not looking down upon smack talk. I guess I'm just not quite as open to gambling that things won't go bad.
I really just wanted to get this off my chest. I just noticed some serious idiots at the game and it left me wondering about some of these things.