Football analysis

December 1, 2012 11:28 AM

Just a quick round of applause for everyone that posted in the Fireman Ed thread. Theres a higher level of discourse and thinking on display than this NFL fan is used to seeing almost anywhere. Great stuff.
posted by Keith Talent to MetaFilter-Related at 11:28 AM (52 comments total)

The funny thing is, to me, that it felt like all that was good in that thread came out of some unspoken collective agreement to ignore Fireman Ed. The whole thread is an interesting derail.
posted by StrikeTheViol at 11:56 AM on December 1, 2012 [7 favorites]

Yep, a high level of discourse was achieved by basically ignoring the most annoying thing. There's a lesson there for us all.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:06 PM on December 1, 2012 [12 favorites]

If you're right MCMike, I'm screwed.
posted by Keith Talent at 3:09 PM on December 1, 2012

It helps that there's an entertaining gif to be discussed.
posted by arcticseal at 3:22 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

the man ran into a butt lol
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 4:01 PM on December 1, 2012 [12 favorites]

There has always been a bit of a bad reputation for Metafilter sports threads, outside of a few flaws that show up anywhere else I've always found them to be pleasant and much more free of the juvenile taunting that shows up when fans of different teams talk online. (While still respecting that heated competition and rivalry can be fun)

Honestly though I just feel bad for Ed. Regular guys like that who get a little bit of celebrity have not learned any of the lessons of how hard celebrity can bite back and they don't know how to handle it. An emotional tantrum is generally always the wrong way.

I hear people bad mouthing Shoulderpad Shaun all the time, and besides being recognizable (and being part of that group of jackasses) he hasn't really done anything to deserve it.
posted by Drinky Die at 5:17 PM on December 1, 2012

Sports-related threads are a rare treat on the blue, and from what I've seen of them, they tend to go pretty well. Obviously not every reader is a sports fan (or a fan of the particular sport being discussed) but I find a much better level of discussion here than most other places.
posted by tonycpsu at 5:41 PM on December 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

Tell you what, I bet nobody rags on the recognizable Raiders superfans like Gorilla Rilla and Dr Death and Raider Jerry.
posted by nathancaswell at 5:43 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Shaun's a pretty big dude -- I bet he could take some of those Raider guys in a fair fight (no armor/pads.)

And if not, we Philly fans would just pelt the Raider fans with batteries and snowballs.
posted by tonycpsu at 5:46 PM on December 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

The worst you'll see in Mefi sports thread is some "is this something I'd need a tv to understand" posturing in the form of "lol jocks getting paid to bounce a ball" but what discussion there is is much more cordial and mature than you'll find on ESPN or some shit like that. Best football discussions I've found on the web are on Football Outsiders threads... very mature discussion, lots of pop culture and puns, not overly homerific, tendency to bean plate and argue ad naseuam. Very similar vibe to here actually.
posted by nathancaswell at 5:47 PM on December 1, 2012

I will take the time to lower the discourse and comment that I am truly disappointed that the quarterback's name is Sanchez, he ran into someone's butt, and there hasn't been a Dirty Sanchez joke in the thread.
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:14 PM on December 1, 2012

Sports-related threads are a rare treat on the blue, and from what I've seen of them, they tend to go pretty well.

This may be confirmation bias on my part, but I feel like this is a fairly recent phenomenon. I have a distinct memory of sports-related threads being littered with lol-dumb-jocks -type stuff and lol-sports-fans-care-about-stupid-things-because-sports-are-stupid. I am glad that this seems no longer to be the case.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:27 PM on December 1, 2012 [10 favorites]

I think it's gotten better too shakespherian. I actually think sports in general have gained a lot of popularity in the last 5 years, at least in my social circles. I'm seeing a lot more of my "arty" and "film" friends getting into sports.
posted by nathancaswell at 6:36 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

There has always been a bit of a bad reputation for Metafilter sports threads

Huh. Sports threads are consistently some of the most entertaining and intelligent threads on the blue, I've always found. (I see that you're agreeing with me, but I don't know where this "reputation" would have come from.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:08 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, there's this and this.

I understand sports isn't everyone's thing, but neither are politics, Star Trek, or dubstep adventure games. Not sure what caused all the hullabaloo back in the day.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:17 PM on December 1, 2012

I actually think sports in general have gained a lot of popularity in the last 5 years, at least in my social circles. I'm seeing a lot more of my "arty" and "film" friends getting into sports.

Let me guess, your cohort is approaching 30-35 - that was the age when I realized this was something I could use to relate to friends and family I otherwise had nothing in common with, and could apply my geek instincts to.

(I was ushered in by a co-worker who was massive, 500lbs or more, and was the first man of his lineage who ventured south of the Maine border when there wasn't a war on. He was a connoisseur of statistics, and could explain to you the difference between Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield the way a museum curator could explain the difference between Manet, Monet, Van Gough and Picasso. He was a really cool dude with a sadly common name - haven't been able to find him since he left that gig.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:38 PM on December 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'm glad, too, to see that sports are an okay topic. There used to be a good deal of threadshitting in sports posts. One of the things I like about this place is the conversation and the atmosphere. Being able to talk about sports, online, like grown ups just makes it all better.

For those who've never ventured into the wilds, there are very few places where the comments aren't mostly anti-gay slurs or saying how stupid the writer is. Like I said, it's nice that we can talk about sports here now.

Also, I had managed to miss that gif. Even Mrs. Ghidorah, who doesn't give a shit about football laughed when she saw that, and asked if that was a college game. Made my day.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:20 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am truly disappointed that the quarterback's name is Sanchez,he ran into someone's butt,and there hasn't been a Dirty Sanchez joke in the thread.

Not as disappointed as I am in myself for not making that joke sometime between when it happened and now. I feel like the Tim Tebow of gay Internet football liking assholes.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:27 PM on December 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

The internet in general is a blessing for sports fandom these days. I enjoy sports, the NBA in particular, but there's so much dumb on the tv broadcasts ("yay troops!," idiot announcers, "man-code" beer ads) that it can get really alienating.

But these days I watch games along with twitter friends, and it's so much fun. "Basketball twitter" has become a distinct sub-culture, complete with insider lingo ("btb," "how u.") If you like the NBA at all, I highly recommend you seek it out.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:34 AM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, geekdom as a whole has changed, hasn't it, as computers and the internet have mainstreamed it and the old need to define yourself against the mainstream, jock dominated culture has melted away and actually, sport can be interesting on its own.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:47 AM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Gay Internet Football

I always wondered what Gif stood for.
posted by marienbad at 5:41 AM on December 2, 2012 [6 favorites]

I'll chalk up the overall sportsfriendliness to the mods, who have spent a decent amount of effort since I've been here (geez, four years?) policing the "LOL sports are dumb" threadshitting. But the same goes for many, many other topics, too -- this place is blessedly free (comparatively) of "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS TOPIC AND I DEMAND THAT PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I AM A BETTER HUMAN BEING BECAUSE OF IT."
posted by Etrigan at 5:44 AM on December 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

A lot of the geekiest people I know are big sports fans. Hockey especially seems to have the geekiest fans.
posted by octothorpe at 6:15 AM on December 2, 2012

I am truly disappointed that the quarterback's name is Sanchez,he ran into someone's butt,and there hasn't been a Dirty Sanchez joke in the thread.

Really? Because I think that joke would be pretty racist.
posted by sweetkid at 7:10 AM on December 2, 2012

I'd always read "dirty Sanchez" in the sexual euphemism context as just "ew, poop is gross and also mustaches" rather than "ew, poop is gross specifically because of Mexicans", but maybe there is a charged racial underbelly to that one that I'd never encountered?
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:11 AM on December 2, 2012

There's a higher level of discourse and thinking on display than this NFL fan is used to seeing almost anywhere.

This is probably on your radar, Keith Talent, but I feel the same way about Sportsfilter.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 8:38 AM on December 2, 2012

Irrespective of the specifics of the racist stereotype of Mexicans being dirty, any combination of poop and ethnic reference is going to be dubious.
posted by Kattullus at 8:39 AM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

How do we know Sanchez is Mexican?
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 8:42 AM on December 2, 2012

"Dirty Sanchez" always makes me a little uncomfortable cause I think it's playing on the "sombrero guy" image, which in racist caricatures a lot of times has a ridiculous mustache.
posted by nathancaswell at 8:44 AM on December 2, 2012

How do we know Sanchez is Mexican?

Because he is a high profile athlete and his ancestry is well known?
posted by nathancaswell at 8:45 AM on December 2, 2012

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant the dirty one.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 8:47 AM on December 2, 2012

I feel pretty confident in assuming that, to the types of people that come up with such hilarious things as "Dirty Sanchez" and "Donkey Punch", Sanchez = Mexican.
posted by nathancaswell at 8:49 AM on December 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

I wasn't sure of the etymology. For example, if the phrase was originally from England, Sanchez might well be Spanish. And if it's a North American thing, "Mexican" itself is questionable shorthand to use in such a critique.

For the record, I think it's a bigoted and ugly term, no matter where Sanchez comes from.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 8:54 AM on December 2, 2012

I remember when it used to be common that someone would actually click into a thread, and comment in it, just to express proud disinterest in the topic. It wasn't just sports that got that treatment, nor just celebrity news (mumble mumble "own a TV" mumble mumble) and other "things nerds hate" type stuff. Niche appeal topics would get it too, and pretty much any sort of hobby or thing-that-has-fans.

I'm tempted to say it was probably fave-scumming, but really, I have to assume the motivations were rather more complex than that.
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 8:32 PM on December 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oh that still happens; open any thread that mentions Facebook.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:35 PM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Right after I read that comment, I got an email from Facebook begging me to log back in because I've missed so much stuff! Eerie.

I also remember a thread about Twitter where someone commented "I don't use Twitter" with a link to a Twitter account with the same name as they had here, with just one tweet, months (or years) old, that said "I don't use Twitter." Not very helpful to the discussion, but I had to admit that was pretty funny. I can't seem to find it now so I may not be remembering it right.

But anyway, yeah, the War on Threadshit is not yet over. We must remain ever vigilant.
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 8:50 PM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

The one that irritates me more than is probably rational is the 'news at eleven' comments. It's like you picked the absolute laziest way to 'cleverly' state that the post is beneath your consideration. Keeee-rist.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:56 PM on December 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

Especially because who watches the local nightly news anymore.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:40 PM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

(Actually, we do at my house but under protest from me.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:42 PM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Just to clarify, Ice Cream Socialist, I was referring to the specificity of Mark Sanchez being Mexican-American, which is part of his public image.
posted by Kattullus at 11:02 PM on December 2, 2012

(Actually, we do at my house but under protest from me.)

Sometimes we catch the first minute of the local news because the DVR is being "clever" and I'm pretty sure if I had to watch more then that one minute I would vomit all over the screen.
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:07 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

But how am I going to know how dangerous my neighborhood is if I don't watch Action New At 11?
posted by octothorpe at 5:42 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

[NOT KEEE-RIST]
posted by SpiffyRob at 6:23 AM on December 3, 2012

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, Katullus. I made a bit of a mess of things up there, and I wish I hadn't done it. My comments didn't really further the conversation and weren't particularly useful. I don't think they did anything but confuse the issue, and I regret having made them.

I don't, however, regret mentioning Sportsfilter. It's my favorite Meffy spinoff site.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 6:42 AM on December 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

But how am I going to know how dangerous my neighborhood is if I don't watch Action New At 11?


Well, you could always use EveryBlock.

(A neat service, but I'm sorry, neighbors, but every time a firework goes off or car backfires, you don't need to post "Gunfire?")
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:13 AM on December 3, 2012

Just wait until I make my Ndamukong Suh post. It should quickly bring all of this nice happy football camaraderie to an end.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 12:34 PM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

WinnipegDragon:
"Just wait until I make my Ndamukong Suh post. It should quickly bring all of this nice happy football camaraderie to an end."

You have added GRAR to my day just by uttering his name. I look forward to venting not just my regular spleen but also my second vestigial one.
posted by charred husk at 12:54 PM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, you could always use EveryBlock.

Ugh. One guy in our neighborhood has made it his mission to get us all on Nextdoor.com. I don't even bother arguing against it - minimizing an already existing neighborhood email list in favor of a privately-owned data-mining company (seriously, what's the business model here again? oh, right: selling information about you and your neighbors) doesn't seem like an improvement to me. Nextdoor sure is good at getting press for its "hyper-local" data collection but the business plan is pure exploitation of details about your neighborhood's private lives. I'm guessing EveryBlock is the same.

Lots of neighbors seem to love it, though. More power to 'em.
posted by mediareport at 1:41 PM on December 3, 2012

Nextdoor's business model, from last year:

As for the business model, Tolia said, "It's really important to get the user experience right. Nextdoor is well capitalized, we're not seeking more funding." Over time, though, Nextdoor plans to work with local businesses and offer specialized deals for neighborhoods, said Benchmark's Bill Gurley. "Benchmark is a pretty patient investor. I'm in no hurry. I'm much more interested in making a huge impact."

This "Oh we don't need a business model" shit again? It never ends, does it?

Seriously, all they have is the promise of future data to sell, at what they see as important street-number granularity. I don't see them lasting more than a couple of years.
posted by mediareport at 1:50 PM on December 3, 2012

I've been pleased with the quality of patch.com for not quite hyper-local news, but certainly finer-grained locality than you get from the local newspaper. Since the content is public, I haven't bothered to register, so I don't know anything about their data collection / retention / resale policies, though.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:04 PM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, Nextdoor's "improvement" over Patch's local news and, I gather, Everyblock is that Nextdoor makes you confirm your real name and address before letting you sign on. Here's a more recent article about Nextdoor's founder, who in his spare time apparently "runs a supper club for Silicon Valley luminaries":

Nextdoor isn’t making money, but Tolia believes it could become a more merchant-friendly version of Groupon (GRPN), a way for businesses to reach locals without Yellow Pages or junk mail. “If you’re the Chinese restaurant owner paying someone to put menus on 5,000 porches, you know there has to be a better way,” says Tolia. “People want to support their local businesses.”

I figured a Groupon-like ripoff of local business was in there somewhere.
posted by mediareport at 2:09 PM on December 3, 2012

And the Led Zeppelin thread has become a complete fuckfest. I really don't know what else to say about it.
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 2:46 PM on December 3, 2012