Sunday, September 9, 2007

There's no joy in Mudville

I'm ready for it. On Monday around here, people will be a little more grouchy, a little more irritable and just plain pissed off. Why? It's such a beautiful place to live (they even called it The Garden State), there's farm-fresh food, great entertainment, and taxes are ... oh, well never mind. But it is a nice place most of the time. So what could have people so worked up that their day is ruined?
The Eagles lost. They're an American football team. Fans around here bleed green. I used to think it was a stupid thing to say, then I realized that I'm a Phillies fan and I bleed red. Not so stupid now, huh?
The local sports talk radio station is going to have to run in extra telephone lines or hire more hosts, because it's going to be ugly around there. The newspaper guys that are prone to criticism will need more space and the local cable outlet's sports rant program will probably get big ratings this week.
Sometimes I think that fans around here are in a strange way happier when their teams lose. I'm not sure how it works, but rather than sit and mope, they call the radio station and scream for two minutes. They send e-mail's to the newspaper and rant in the Eagles chat room. Losing, for most of us promotes anguish and sadness and we can become almost catatonic. It makes Eagles fans angry. Mention the game, and their faces will get all scrunched up and they'll start complaining more than they would if their kid got an F on a math test.
I think the fans are more angry than the players, who seem almost catatonic. That's strange, don't you think?

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