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December 5, 2006

VALVANO: When did sports fans get so mean

BY BOB VALVANO

When I was younger I had so many answers. Now, I find it difficult to simply categorize all the questions.

For example (and credit to this pet peeve goes to my broadcast partner Paul Rogers, who pointed out the absurdity of the whole thing to me), a team works its whole year to achieve the right to play in the big game, perhaps against a ranked team, maybe one in the top 10 or even top five.

They have planned, drilled, worked, brainstormed, everyone working toward that one goal — to topple the mighty opponent.

The day comes, a game the fans have waited for all season…and it is a dream. The home team plays great, all the hard work and effort paying off, and minutes from the payoff, when all should be celebrating the home team’s great fortune, the chant begins: ”Overrated!”.

Think about that for a minute…the way to celebrate your team’s stunning victory is to tell the entire world at the top of your lungs, “Nah, we’re not really that good. We didn’t really beat anyone special. They’re just ordinary.”

As Paul always asks, if they are that terrible, what does that make you? Just “less terrible”?

Wouldn’t the more correct (and I am not talking politically correct) celebration be, “they are very good and we are even better”?

But this situation seems, to me, to speak to a bigger issue, one that sports just reflects (or perhaps helped create? See, more questions.)

When did it become important not just to win (and be happy) but to have to try to make sure everyone else is miserable?

I really do worry that sports is no longer about the competition designed to bring out the best in all of us. Rather it is an opportunity to — maybe if we are lucky — see someone made miserable, or better, humiliated!

Think about reality game shows. Game shows used to be, by and large, ways to compete, crown a winner, with the audience vicariously sharing the winner’s happiness as he or she got showered with gifts or money.

Now, each week we pick a “loser,” finding one person we can make miserable, perhaps embarrass (and maybe see some fits of anger or foul language; goody, goody).

While the others don’t really “win” anything, they just get to come back and we find another victim until we run out. Then we give that person a prize.

These games are by and large the only ones being played on TV now, so we can assume it is “giving the people what they want”. Which leads to the question (it does not “beg the question, “another pet peeve of mine for another column perhaps): Why do people seemingly want this now? Are we more miserable, and we want to see someone else suffer? Has the sports mentality of “Overrated!” permeated all the way through every form of competition?

See, lots of questions.

I wonder about something else…when I was a kid, it was a big deal if a major league baseball team drew a million fans in a season…two millions was cause for massive celebration.

This with ticket prices comparatively far cheaper than today. Now, everyone does way more than a million. Many attract more than two million. Three million is not uncommon and a handful of teams go over four million.

Can there be that many more baseball fans today than there were then? I think it is just that baseball is attracting many people who aren’t really sports fans… all sports are.

Why are these people going in record numbers? Did THEY bring the “let’s watch someone suffer” mindset? Or were they attracted by the fact that sports has that mindset now, and that makes it appealing to them?

Or do teams just market better and it all does not go hand in hand? With high school basketball kicking into high gear, I am sure we will hear that mystifying “Overrated” chant soon, and all those questions will pop into my head again.

One thing I do know: It is better for all concerned when the opponent is respected and held in high regard. After all, we are all judged by the com

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