So I lied - this post won't have random nail polish swatches. Instead, I'm going to give my perspective on trash-talking/smack-talking when it comes to sports; particularly in hockey. With my Flames out of the playoffs, I'm cheering for the Bruins but I'm also keeping tabs on the Western Conference. I don't like the Canucks; in fact, you can say that I hate them...even more than the Oilers and Leafs. It's not the actual team that I dislike but it's the fans - a good chunk of them are bandwagoners, rowdy, obnoxious, and just plain classless. So naturally, I've cheered for the teams playing against them in the playoffs. The Kings didn't get the job done in round 1 so I cheered for the Blackhawks. Now I'm a huge hockey fan and I trash-talk...in fact, I probably trash-talk quite a bit. Rivalries are pretty much non-existent if there isn't any healthy trash-talking going around, but I keep it at the trash-talking. Fans who get violent and riot take things too far - rivalry is one thing, but getting violent over someone's personal choice in sports teams is totally uncalled for.
Anyways, I sure as heck trash-talk among my friends and coworkers who are fans of other teams and I take it to my Twitter and periodically, Facebook as well. It's all fun and games and we are still friends at the end of the day. Unfortunately, one of my followers on Twitter started to take MY smack-talking about the Canucks pretty damn personally. Since she didn't have any balls (hehehe, get it? Balls?) to tweet me directly, she decided to periodically post on her Twitter about my "negativity" towards the Canucks. First, you're following someone who's made it clear that she loathes the Canucks, what do you expect? I am not going to praise Luongo on a great save or Kesler on a great blocked shot - if I did, I wouldn't dislike the Canucks to begin with. Second, "negativity"? Really? Trash-talking is supposed to be positive? Are you kidding me? Whatever. I ignored her because she seemed to be a pretty decent person outside of being a Canucks fan.
Fast forward to yesterday - May 11, 2010. I am so pumped for the Blackhawks to finally eliminate the Canucks in front of all 19000-something fans at GM Place. I notice that Sami Salo is playing. If you follow hockey religiously, you'll know that Salo sustained a sensitive groin injury a few nights back. It was originally thought to be a ruptured testicle (ouch?) but it wasn't; nevertheless, he sustained a pretty damn painful injury. He was definitely in no condition to play and you could tell that by the way he skated and took shots - the guy was better off to have sat out and had someone like Nolan Baumgartner take his place. Now Salo playing despite the extent of his injury is pretty valiant and maybe admirable, but this is game 6...an ELIMINATION GAME. If you can't play nowhere near as "good" as you normally play, you are better off to sit out and have someone fill your place - someone who can at least try to match the pace of a young Blackhawks team who want to win pretty badly. To still play despite the seriousness of your injury is therefore, arguably selfish. Yes, I tweeted that...and Ms. Canucks fan got her panties in a bunch and decided to hide behind her computer screen and tweet her thoughts. Blah blah blah, I'm a hater, blah blah blah, Salo isn't playing with a "broken ball", blah blah blah, get educated. Really, a Canucks fans telling ME to get educated? Too funny. Enough is enough, so I tweet back (in the same way she's been "attacking" me) and tell her to quit being so damn whiny - it's smack-talk, deal with it. Now I get told that I should stop whining because my team didn't make the playoffs - a very typical Canucks fan response. Excuse me, where am I whining? Why would I? The Flames at least have a Cup and if you don't factor in this season, they made the playoffs all of the last 5 years; the Canucks only made it 3 out of 5 times in the same time span. Ms. Canucks fan is getting pretty upset with each of her tweets and says she doesn't care about how many Cups the Flames have and again, emphasizes that I am negative. Good lord, this is stupid and this is trash-talk - stop taking MY dislike for YOUR team personally. It becomes so stupid to the point that I finally blocked the idiot. NA NA NA NA NA NA HEY HEY GOODBYE to the idiot and the Canucks; I won't have to see the plethora of retweets by her ilk anymore.
What is the moral of this story? Anyone who takes trash-talking personally needs to watch more sports and suck it up. It's existent in all sports and is a part of rivalries. Friendships shouldn't end because of trash-talking and if they do, you or the person is plain dumb. Some of my very good friends and coworkers are Oilers, Leafs, and even Canucks fans, and trash-talking is all fun and games and it stays within sports. It's understandable to get upset when trash-talking evolves into personal attacks that have absolutely no relevance to sports; but anything else is fair game. I remember getting a death threat via Facebook from a Canucks fan years ago - it was hilarious but made me wonder how effed up some peoples' mentalities are. Sports are a form of entertainment - we have our favourite actors and actresses like we have our favourite teams. No one deserves to die, get beat up, get spat on, get thrown beer at, etc., because of their choice in teams; people shouldn't have to be silent to not offend other fans if they feel like taking jabs (within reason) either. Canucks fans: Take note.
No comments:
Post a Comment