Ever felt unsafe in an "enemy" team's stadium?
- Thread starter Mr. Laser Beam
- Start date
That looks really interesting; I'll have to watch it later when I have time. It looks like the Frontline report's mostly focused on the health and safety aspect. Friday Night Lights is more focused on the cultural side of high school football in one particular location - the racism, the rampant academic corruption, the effects of making high school boys kings for a couple years, and the way it serves to bind a community together, and the reasons how all this came to be and keeps going.
Yeah, that's right.
But I was just totally struck by the professionalism they apply in those high school sports with specialised coaches and stadiums and staff and all that, incredible. In my school we had a sports teacher who did everything with us from track&field, gymnastics, table tennis, soccer, basketball, etc, one small indoor field, one small outdoor field and that was it. The contrast to how at least some schools in the US handle sports couldn't be bigger.
But I was just totally struck by the professionalism they apply in those high school sports with specialised coaches and stadiums and staff and all that, incredible. In my school we had a sports teacher who did everything with us from track&field, gymnastics, table tennis, soccer, basketball, etc, one small indoor field, one small outdoor field and that was it. The contrast to how at least some schools in the US handle sports couldn't be bigger.
Teenage kids (16, 17 & 18) play professional football in the English Premier League week-in, week-out, and our top stadiums hold a hell of a lot more than 20,000. Manchester United's ground, Old Trafford, holds over 75,000 people, and is full to capacity for pretty much every competetive home game they play.
I think we do a better job of training and motivating young players without putting so much pressure on them. United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, is a master as bringing kids up through the ranks from the academy and the youth team, and preparing them for the kind of media and fan attention that comes with playing for a top-flight club.
The point is that teenagers are perfectly capable of handling the pressures and expectations of being part of a top-flight professional sports team as long as the situation is handled properly. Americans seem to have a unique penchant for thrusting huge amounts of pressure and expectations on their youngsters, at least when it comes to competetive sports, and then wondering what went wrong when said youngsters fail or can't handle it.
^It doesn't even take until high school here. I played little league baseball and basketball as a kid. You'd get parents berating the 8 year old kids for being two steps out of place to catch that grounder. It took the fun out of it for everyone.
I don't have an ounce of natural athletic ability, so there were no delusions of grandeur that I was gonna be the starting quarterback of the Packers or anything like that. My parents just encouraged me to do my best.
I don't have an ounce of natural athletic ability, so there were no delusions of grandeur that I was gonna be the starting quarterback of the Packers or anything like that. My parents just encouraged me to do my best.
That's the thing I don't get, because surely that's counter-productive and ultimately self-defeating.
Kids join football academies over here at a similar age (8-10 years old), and yet the way it's handled over here, they're instilled with the discipline and self-motivation that's needed to set them on the path to becoming a professional footballer, while still keeping it fun and interesting for them, so they don't get overwhelmed or lose interest.
Well, I probably should have rephrased that. It's the 20,000 people watching non-professional academic sports that weirds me out. I mean, 16-year old kids can play professional junior hockey here in front of thousands of people, but the difference is that they're paid and that's part of the job. It's way too much pressure for a high school situation, is my basic point.
There were some pretty classless fans when I caught a Canucks game at the Saddledome a few years back, but generally I just laugh at people like that. You could tell they were too chickenshit to do anything. All talk and no backup, just like their awful team.
Also, speaking of classless fans, it would probably suck to go see a Montreal game in Boston:
Link
Also, speaking of classless fans, it would probably suck to go see a Montreal game in Boston:
Link
Picking on a 17-year-old kid...real mature. 
Then again, shooting video inside a men's room is not much of an improvement...
Then again, shooting video inside a men's room is not much of an improvement...
^Though I did enjoy the sex tape at Cowboy Stadium of the 2 people porking in a stall.
Gives a new meaning to 88 Split Wide.
What's the point in having an Internet connection if you're not using it to look up weird, fucked-up pictures of dirty sex you'll never have yourself?
Gives a new meaning to 88 Split Wide.
What's the point in having an Internet connection if you're not using it to look up weird, fucked-up pictures of dirty sex you'll never have yourself?
I hope you're not trying to compare it to the popularity of football.
If you look at the most viewed programs every year, the Superbowl wins out time and again. Football is very, very popular.
I said "football". Not American Football.
My point was that football (soccer) is a whole lot more popular than baseball (which really is nothing here) and even American Football has a niche appeal in most parts of the world compared to football.
Do people watch the superbowl once a year? Sure, many do (although I personally don't know anybody who does) for the show aspect but do they play it? It has a very limited player base outside the US.
I couldn't even tell you if any of our TV stations regularly shows NFL games. There isn't even a national american football league in my country that gets any attention (at least I never heard of one) and I think the NFL Europe folded a couple of years ago?
Its true, they're not that popular across the world but they don't have to be...the USA is the entertainment capital of the world, and if those sports entertain Americans, then that's all they care about (remember the USA has roughly 3/5ths of the population of Europe in one country) . Baseball is still popular (it sets records in attendance almost every year) and Football is wildly popular here. In the USA soccer is something kids play and don't take into adulthood...generally I think its because kids run around a lot and their parents expect it.
RAMA
At old Pitt stadium, Panther fans used to pelt us with whatever they had handy - trays, cups, ice, garbage.
College Park in Maryland is even worse. The fans seem to come to the game to spend the whole time screaming profanity-laced tirades against the visiting team instead of watching the game (and with the way the Terrapins have been in football for the last several years I can't say I blame them.)
Virginia Tech fans aren't quite as bad as Maryland's, but they are still assholes. Thankfully the Hokies fled the Big East when they could no longer handle the level of competition there. That means I'll probably never have to go back to the hellhole that is Blacksburg ever again.
College Park in Maryland is even worse. The fans seem to come to the game to spend the whole time screaming profanity-laced tirades against the visiting team instead of watching the game (and with the way the Terrapins have been in football for the last several years I can't say I blame them.)
Virginia Tech fans aren't quite as bad as Maryland's, but they are still assholes. Thankfully the Hokies fled the Big East when they could no longer handle the level of competition there. That means I'll probably never have to go back to the hellhole that is Blacksburg ever again.
Because if you let fear keep you away from a game, the bad guys (i.e. Enemy fans) have won.
If you overcome your fears and go anyway, you've shown that they have no power over you. And more often than not, you'll find that it's really not that bad.
^ True dat. And sometimes it's not even a game; I found that out at Citi today where everyone in my section was paying sole attention to the drunk couple fighting ten rows below us. We even had our own play-by-play going ("She finished her second beer...now she connects with a slap to the jaw..."). 
I am from San Francisco and moved down here to the L.A. area to be with my girlfriend who is a Dodgers fan. She wants to take me to a Dodgers game and I always tease her that I am going to sit there in my Giants cap and sweatshirt and big foam finger. Lately I have been reconsidering that strategy though.
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