I’ve been apologizing too much lately. Which is to say I apologized twice yesterday, first for the “STFU” in my last blog, which I’ve edited. Wow, Laura, what a mature, eloquent, and witty way to communicate your thoughts. Then I apologized for my (over)reaction to a simple tweet by Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl in which he stated Megan Rapinoe – allocated to Seattle – “would have preferred” to play in Portland. In my tweets that followed, I basically said players unhappy with their allocation… need to STFU.
Sensing a theme? Thoughtless, kneejerk comebacks like the above examples, the tribble-like spawn of the Interwebs themselves, have no place here at HappyGoSnarky. I can and will do better. Of course Rapinoe would prefer to play in Portland. It’s her home, her alma mater is there, and I hope being not so far away in Seattle helps her stay connected to the things she loves in the Rose City.
Then today I read a spiteful, bombastic attack on Jodie Foster over on Huffington Post (no link; not sharing the hate). The author basically skewers Foster for not coming out of the closet on the author’s timeline. As if a two-time Oscar winner, parent, Yale grad, and Reagan-assassination-attempt-collateral-damage-survivor has to answer to this person, or anyone else.
It was the vitriol in the article, though, that percolated in the back of my brain. Snark is tough, especially if I’m trying to bang it out when I’m wound up or frustrated. I don’t ever want to cross over to the Dark Side and write from anger, and especially toward a specific person. Any FIRST!1! with a keyboard can do that.
(The “Atlanta: You Are Not Fans of Women’s Soccer…” post is an exception. I did write that one from anger, and I take ownership of that.)
I read another couple of tweets about the negative backlash to the NWSL allocations, team staffers lamenting the poor reactions from fans. It caused me to take a look at the motivations behind my own snark – behind most of my soccer-related posts, really. And I narrowed it down to this:
I am afraid.
That, NWSL powers-that-be, is why I write snarky things about your teams and league.
I’m afraid this league will fail before it even gets off the ground. I’m afraid sponsors – the biggies, Apple, Budweiser, Doritos, will look at the efforts thus far (“psst! we made a league, y’all”) and decide it’s not put together and/or operating well enough for them to invest their marketing dollars. I’m afraid there won’t be any marketing dollars.
I’m afraid I’ll watch another woso league implode. And you better believe this time, with Abby and Hope and Alex on top of the women’s sports Q ratings, the shock waves will wipe out the professional women’s soccer landscape. There won’t be a fourth chance. Not for a long, long time.
And so it’s easier for me to push something away, to prepare for the fall, to protect my heart. That M.O. certainly isn’t unique to my interactions with soccer people I’ve never met in person.
But – and I hope I told this story clearly in my last post – I do have optimism and excitement for the new league too. I know that tends to get lost. That’s something else I need to work on.
And so, this post serves as a reaffirmation – to you, my reader(s), and to myself as well – that HappyGoSnarky is just that. Happy. Snarky. Writing about a game. And I’m counting on you guys to call me out if I ever get too far away from that.
Deal?
P.S. Check out some logos I made on the free internets and let me know what you think. Maybe I’ll use one.
Fox. Aardvark. Pig.
Takes a big fox/aardvark/pig to own up to their fear. Kudos for being a stand up human. I look forward to many more Happy, Snarky, entertaining posts.
I feel like I wrote this blog post back in 2010. Wait, I did http://kickingitaround.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/confessions-of-a-womens-soccer-fan/. Inspired by you! How time flies. It’s a whole league later and yet the sentiments are the same.
I was going to quote/link to your blog, but that felt really, really self-serving since I knew I was in it! But you better believe I remembered what you wrote.
On the upside, we have been getting more televised matches lately.
And yet people went ballistic when they didn’t show one game of the FAT on TV. (That’s Fan Appreciation Tour
). Sometimes, I feel for them. They can’t win.
I hear you. As a long time sports fan I want to instantly treat it like I do any of the men’s sports I follow. My Reinsdorf rants are legendary. The gutting of the Bulls bench this year sent me and all of my equally invested fanboys into a twitter and blog rage. Reinsdorf has people like me for breakfast regularly, but I know that he knows that I know. Get me? He’s on notice from some dorky sports fan, but that’s how I roll. Don’t address our three point shooting needs during the off season and I will ride you. No screw up goes unremarked. That’s sports for you. That level of caring is actually the sign of a healthy sport within reason. I ain’t a hooligan or a member of the Riptide after all.
Maybe I need to just take a step back and let the “yes people” have the league. My initial investment level was at NBA levels but no one wants that in WoSo. Just be happy we get anything at all. The thing that bothers me is they are probably right. My dreams of watching WoSo the same way I do my other sports are years off.
Another lesson in sports: The Heat might be hated for one season, but people got over it and only mostly hate them now. Stern f’d with things and screwed the Lakers over and to favor the Clipper in a ballsy, godlike move and, well, ask me next year if I’m over that. Give it a couple years. Portland seems shady? Sure. In a year I’ll probably still side eye it, but does it matter? Probably not. Just a stupid thing to do out of the gate. It’s a lot to ask me to think everything they do is good when it isn’t, but until they are able to take it like Reinsdorf and Stern maybe I’ll just be a casual level fan.
I think it’s scalable. You/me/we can ride the NWSL for their actions, but keep in mind compared to the Big Four sports, they’re working with teeny, tiny assets and budgets and are brand-spankin’ new. One can call them out for dorkiness (:cough:announcement of league:cough:) and also cut them some slack because they’re just starting up. I’m sure MLS took a boatload of crap when they first got up and running too. Eventually it worked out and they’re pretty successful. I hope we can look back on my blog in 12 years and think, “wow, remember when we were worried about a logo?”
Snarkvark FTW! Great post. We can keep them honest and still keep our wits.