(originally posted January 07, 2004)
After the Packers beat Seattle last Sunday, Cris Collingsworth noted that there were angels floating above Lambeau Field. I love how the media will latch on to a story and beat it into the ground. As if sports announcers weren’t in love with Brett Favre already, this “charmed team” bit has them so far up his ass, he’s gonna have to use Colon Blow to get them out. Listen, I’m sorry that Irvin Favre died. It was a family tragedy. It, however, was not a national tragedy. Yet, everyone is acting like JFK got shot again. I know I’m not the most sensitive person in the world but it seems to me that this very public mourning and the NFL and ESPN latching on to the story cheapens the grief. Maybe it’s just me but I think mourning is something you do in private.
But, it’s a hook. And hooks sell newspapers and advertising. But like Schilling said, Destiny and Mystique? They’re dancers at a nightclub.
Packers Fans Stay Home
A Green Bay newspaper column this week warned Packers fans that going to the game in Philly might be hazardous to their health, calling Philly a mean-spirited football town. Well guess what? It is! Look, there is a very simple rule. You go into an opponent’s house, you act obnoxious, and you will get pummeled worse than Patrick Ramsey this year. I don’t go into the Oakland Colliseum and rile up the natives/criminals. If I attend a game there (which I never will again), I sit quietly rooting on my team. If I’m yelling and hollering every time there’s a great play by my team, I am either drunk and/or asking for trouble.
I’m not as eloquent as Ray Rhodes but having opposing fans coming into your stadium and deriding you as their team makes good plays is like someone breaking into your house and raping your TV and stealing your women. If you have any pride at all, you just don’t allow it to happen. (Unless you’re in Miami, in which case you are the biggest punk fans of all who let 20,000 Eagles fans into a Monday Night game. Pathetic.) I’m not condoning just beating the crap out of people because they root for the opposing team but you can’t let people punk you in your own house! Let me put it this way, going into an opposing stadium and rooting for your team is like letting your kids go have a sleepover with Michael Jackson. Sure, you don’t deserve whatever happens, but you shouldn’t be shocked either when something bad does.
R.I.P Tug
Thanks for providing one of the best Philly sports memories in the past 25 years.
