Fanhood Fued - Favre, the BCS, and Lakers vs Celtics

The Daily Hat Trick has been giving you the breakdown on the different cliques of sports fan all month long. The fanhoods that we will look at today have been around a long time. For most sports fans, there is very little middle ground on these topics. These are values to sports fans. The factions are as much a part of a sports fans' identity as "Democrat" or "Republican" are a part of the identity of a politician. This week, we look at Brett Favre Apologists vs Brett Favre Exhaustees, Pro-BCS vs Pro-Playoffs in college football, and the 1980s Lakers Fan vs 1980s Celtics Fan.

Brett Favre Apologists vs Brett Favre Exhaustees

If you ever want to get a conversation started with a guy at a bar, there is not much lower hanging fruit than all things Brett Favre. Love him or hate him, people will talk about him. The more passionate one is about sports, the closer one will lie to one of the far ends of a pole with a #4 football jersey on one end and a Brett Favre tombstone on the other.

Brett Favre apologists love all things Brett Favre. Rule number one is that the Ol' Gunslinger can do no wrong. Rule number two is that when the O.G. does something wrong, see rule number one. His annual ritual of announcing whether or not he will play the following season, which will be the eighth such edition in the 2011 offseason, is like Groundhog Day or the start of spring; no year is complete without it. The man just loves to have fun playing the game!

• His NFL record for interceptions thrown in a career? He's just a gunslinger; he's thrown the most touchdowns, too! It's a product of experience. 
• His move attempting to muscle the Packers into either sitting starter Aaron Rodgers just days before 2008 training camp or trading him to the arch rival Minnesota Vikings (which ultimately happened via a trade to the New York Jets)? Capitalism....
• Claiming to be "retired" until the day after 2009 training camp broke, then signing with the Minnesota Vikings? The spoils of having paid his dues....
• Having Vikings Head Coach Brad Childress pick him up from the airport? Leverage....The Jenn Sterger controversy? Just a man being a man, a victim of political correctness and a gold digging young woman....
• Brett Favre really DOES wear Wranglers! So do I and SO SHOULD YOU!

Brett: "Hey y'all. Watch this!"
Jenn: "Uhnnn uhmmm!" (that's supposed to be a "no" with an "uh oh" cadence).
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Brett Favre Exhaustees are, as the name implies, exhausted from all things Brett Favre. Many a portable radio has been smashed, many a television has been thrown out of the window, and many a laptop has been broken in two from the never ending flow of inescapable, ubiquitous stock market ticker-like Brett Favre updates. He is careless with the football when the game is on the line and takes foolish, excessive risks that are not worth the rewards. He selfishly put the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers in a precarious, lose-lose position with Packer fans and the media. He is a drama queen with a greater appetite for attention than a teenage girl on MTV's "My Super Sweet 16". On top of that he is a perv, a married, near 40 year old man who was trying to diddle a 25 year old girl.

The Daily Hat Trick is: I love watching Brett Favre play. It reminds me of what is good and fun about the game. Regardless of whether you like him or not, there is no denying that he is a warrior, starting 297 consecutive games in a sport in which some of its biggest stars never play all 16 games in a season. He makes players around him better and he is a leader of men in the trenches. I do believe that it is finally time for Favre to hang it up after 2010, but it will be a sad day for me, personally, as a football fan, when the first season without Brett Favre kicks off.


I'm not saying Brett should have done it, but I UNDERSTAND! 2


Pro-BCS vs Pro-Playoffs in College Football

The BCS is the product of a series of efforts, dating back to 1992, to match up the top two teams in college football in a bowl game. The idea was that by getting the major conferences to agree to place its champions in specified bowl games, college football could produce an indisputable champion. This would eliminate the politics and controversies, such as split national championships, of media polls such as the Associated Press poll.

Nineteen seasons and two split national championships later (1997, 2003), the controversy has only grown. Issues such as the exclusion of schools from non automatic qualifying BCS conferences (or "mid-major" conferences) have only fanned the flames of disagreement among college football fans and journalists. Proponents of a tournament-style playoff system have grown louder and have increasingly gained public support over the years. Recently, billionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA, announced that he would attempt to finance a playoff system in college football, once and for all, to settle the matter and produce one true champion of college football each year.

The pro-BCS faction loves the tradition of bowl games. The holidays are not the same without getting comfortable on the couch or in the recliner with a stiff cocktail or a cold beer, tuning out the chatter of children and family, and watching bowl game after (meaningless) bowl game. There cannot be enough college football on television in December and early January. They also believe in tradition. Fix the BCS system, but do not scrap the beloved bowls. Otherwise, many men may actually have to listen to what their visiting relatives have to say.

The BCS: At least it is responsible for the "FUSC" fad. 4

The pro-Playoff faction is sick of the politics of the BCS and its predecessors and the media polls deciding a game that is played by athletes on the field. There is an NCAA tournament in basketball and a College World Series. Football Championship Subdivision (smaller, less competitive) schools have a playoff system. How can the NCAA fail to provide a fitting conclusion for its most popular sport? If we can put a man on the moon, then we can find a more fair and equitable way to crown a champion in college football. Too many individual entities with too much to lose are ruining college football for everyone.

The Daily Hat Trick is: C'mon man! Show me one person, not a broker of power in the current college football system, who does not want some type of playoff system and I will show you a contrary person or someone who would have resisted the transitions from leather helmets with no face mask and someone who thinks the use of instant replay is a bad idea. I am probably describing someone who would like to bring "tear away" half-cut jerseys from the 1980s back to the college game. The lack of a playoff system in college football causes my level of interest to plummet drastically after my school, Louisiana State University, is eliminated from the hunt. Like most schools, the end is usually apparent in November, creating a 6 to 8 week "lame duck" period of sorts for most college football fans.

Pro-BCS people probably think college football should return to the look of "The Boz" 3

Lakers Fan vs Celtics Fan - Circa 1980s

In my opinion, this was the greatest rivalry in sports during the 1980s. The intensity, theater, and sportsmanship of this (what felt like almost an) annual clash of all time greats for supremacy on the hardwood is largely responsible for the soaring popularity of the National Basketball Association today. Larry Bird versus Magic Johnson...Kareem Abdul-Jabbar posting up Robert Parish...Kevin McHale and James Worthy playing the role of "X factor"...this was what symbolized the true golden age of NBA basketball.

Magic vs Bird in the 1979 NCAA Championship Game: Timeless 6

Lakers Fan came in two varieties - the glamor fan and the urban fan. The glamor fan either lived the glitzy, decadent L.A. lifestyle associated with the excesses of the 1980s or wanted to live as such. The urban fan looked at Magic and company as new era basketball players who played the game the way they did at the playground...and won! Either way, this fan set the early weeks in June for Showtime in the NBA Finals. They loved the fast-break, no look passes from Magic. They never ceased to be amazed by Kareem's sky hooks. Jack Nicholson's place, on game nights, was courtside.

Timeless 5

Celtics Fan was or closely related to the blue-collar middle American. This fan group spoke often of (lame and boring) "fundamentals" and "team play" (I am sure you know where my fanhood is already). Larry Bird's face could be Photoshopped in place over that of Jesus and many a Celtics fan would be none the wiser. They hi-fived every time Larry Bird hit one of his (then) team record 71 consecutive free throws. The sharpshooting, fundamentally sound dribbling and passing style of Bird and his teammates endeared Celtics fans all around the country.

The Daily Hat Trick is: Lakers all the way. Football is my favorite sport, but basketball was my first love and the Bird-Magic rivalry is reason number one why I loved basketball as a small child and love following the sport today. I was a Lakers fan. Magic was eye-popping and Kareem's consistency and quiet dominance was inspirational. Growing up, I hated Bird and the Celtics, but, upon reflection years later, no contest is as fun as it can be without a villain. Bird and his era of Celtics are as much a part of the fabric of my personal enjoyment of sports at this time as the Lakers were. The game became premium sporting entertainment because of them. The Lakers and Celtics of the 1980s are missed. 

Timeless 7

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