Where has all the sense gone?

Posted by john tosney on Mar 30, 2012 in Telegram Past News

A common observation of mine I have been noticing lately, is that I can’t tell a real sports fan from a fake one. By “fake” I mean those who use sports apparel as an accessory, rather than a statement of enthusiasm. People who wear team names as a fashion statement are nothing but posers.

Last week during my fifth period class, I saw a kid sitting behind me wearing a Miami Heat flat billed hat. Feeling bored, I commented on it and asked if that team was his favorite. What he said in response was just pitiful. He said “No, I don’t even watch basketball. I just wear this cause it matches my shirt.” I was bewildered. How could he say that? To be misleading in such a way is shameful. Is he the majority now-a-days, or is he just a big jerk?

Yesterday while in class, my friend and I asked two students talking to each other who were the teams on their hats. This was a test to see if they were legit fans or legit phonies. Tragically, both had to check. We went on to ask them if they liked sports at all. One of them, who at the time was wearing a San Jose Sharks hat, told me “You don’t have to know anything about the team to wear it. It just has to look good.” We both choked back laughter at his response.

After talking to a lot of people about the subject I realized about half agreed it was dumb. The other half insisted it was wrong to judge them too harshly and that it would be wise just to ignore them. Abigail Robinson, a student at DHS suggested a more tolerant approach, “Maybe it’s a gift from their family… But you people shouldn’t judge them to harshly because it might be from their dead dad or something.” I understand her viewpoint and agreed. Maybe it’s wise to dig a little and find the reasoning before you decide to call them out, otherwise the tables might be turned and you could be the one who ends up looking like an idiot.

Bottom line: I believe this injustice needs to be addressed. To think people aren’t ashamed for such ultimate commonality with no sense of identity or knowledge for what they’re representing is plain disgraceful. It’s not just sports either. Now-a-days people hold others passions as a superficial type of style. I don’t understand how someone can deliberately present themselves in one way just for fashionable ease, absolutely ignorant of whether they might appear to others as genuine fans. Maybe because they figure no one will care. But I do, and that should be enough.