Thursday, November 18, 2010

You Just Have To

Rob Parker, of ESPN New York on the tackling of the Jets fan:
You hate to paint an entire city with a broad brush. But in this case, you just have to. This might be the meanest, dirtiest thing to happen in sports.
Excellent point. Sure, you don't want to use one individual to pass judgement on an entire city and fan base but this time it's OK. Because... well, you just have to.  Hooray logic!

The Cleveland Frowns have much more on this story, including eyewitness accounts and many questions including: how does a grown man attack a child in front of a crowd of people without starting a fight or  someone taking a cell phone video or calling the police? The reason we even know about this story is because the mom (who wasn't there) told the Plain Dealer after the fact. 

But sure, blame the whole city of Cleveland because one asshole acted like an asshole. Someone from New York and/or ESPN shitting on Cleveland? Unpossible!

And speaking of assholes acting like assholes, Clevelanders aren't going to be rallying around Scot Raab for getting himself banned from Miami's American Airlines Arena, are we?

Raab (who I've written about previously) is a writer for Esquire (we also both had articles in the Cavs Zine) and was denied a press pass for Miami's home games mostly because he spends his time on Twitter creating #WhoreofAkron hashtags and tweeting nasty things to LeBron James

I certainly understand being pissed at LeBron and all that jazz.  But you lose me when you use childish nicknames (LeQuit, LeDouche, Whore of Akron, etc) in your pieces or take time out of your day to tweet nasty things to LeBron. If LeBron is such an asshole and liar and quitter and blah blah blah blah, why waste your time on him?

I mean, I'm sympathetic with the "us against the world" view of Cleveland sports as much as anyone, but I have a hard time working up my righteous indignation over this situation.  Raab is a great writer and a passionate Clevelander but I can certainly understand the Heat not giving him a press credential.  Can you really blame 'em for not credentialing the Whore Of Akron guy? 

Basically, if our choice is James (the athlete who stabbed the city in the back) or Raab (the national writer who tweets nasty, childish things all day), I choose neither.

6 comments:

Geoffrey said...

This came from a guy who writes for a city who has fans to harass the wife of the prized free agent they hope to sign in the near future.

Assholes are in every city, and every fan base.

Did you see what Windhorst said on some radio show from cleveland.com? Pretty interesting stuff. That he thinks Lebron choked in the Boston series, and that Lebron won't even look at him anymore.

Erik said...

Sad that the Muni Lot crowd becomes our reputation as a fan base. I'm sure a lot of law-abiding citizens tailgate at Muni before home games, but a lot of the lowest common denominator goes there, too. And those are the turds who do things that make outsiders think your average Clevelander is an unemployed alcoholic with at least one felony conviction.

I'm a Browns fan through and through. But of the three major pro sports teams in this town, the Browns provide the least enjoyable gameday experience. There is a disproportionately high number of drunks, ne'er-do-wells, mouth-breathers and obnoxious fuckwads who go to Browns games.

And I know their reaction to the complaints is, "NFL games are R-rated events, so if you don't like it, stay away." Yeah, there will always be some hooliganism at a football game. I get that.

But the idea that a game shouldn't be family-friendly, that game-goers should expect to be subjected to encountering obnoxious drunks because that's FOOTBALL!!, that's the attitude that contributes to the national perception that everything Braylon Edwards and Joakim Noah have to say about Cleveland is right on.

Anonymous said...

There's a difference between tackling a 6 year old kid and shouting some obscenities. Yes, NFL football games are R-rated events, but that shouldn't keep people in fear of going to them.

As a Browns fan, I've been to games vs Pittsburgh in Cleveland and in Pittsburgh. There wasn't a moment while I was in Pittsburgh, decked out in Browns gear, that i felt like i was in danger of getting my ass kicked (possibly because we sucked ass). But as a Browns fan watching Steelers fans walk around Browns stadium, I feared for myself being thrown into an all out brawl for being in a close proximity to them.

I don't expect us as a city to act with class and not shout out "Braylon Sucks," (because I was guilty of it) but I expect us to not become complete assholes feeding the fire of such people that talk down about the city and it's fans.

Nick

LargeBill said...

I've been to a lot of games in Cleveland and in Cincinnati. People especially when drunk can get pretty stupid. I've seen more than a few folks wearing Steelers jerseys covered in beer, nachos/cheese, etc. Occasionally, some fists are thrown after words are exchanged. However, I have to call BS on the story of a little kid getting tackled. In the bustle of leaving the stadium and heading to the car could a kid get knocked down by someone? Sure. However, there is no way an adult "tackled" a kid in a crowd and no one responded. I don't care what jersey was worn Cleveland folks wouldn't let a kid get tackled like that.

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