Awesome Pictures Thread

[Draegan]

I suspect that she meant those fellows who sit in the cheap seats, painted-out and makeup-laden to the extreme. You know the guys; the DawgPound, The Bengals Stormtrooper.  Just anyone who comes up in an image search when you Google <team name> super fan.

It really is the same thing, in the end.

However, I will now mentally apply this term to the 'fitness enthusiasts' with the huge beer bellies and a few hundred dollars worth of gear on them.

Yes, dressing up as a sports fanatic person is in fact the same, and just as likely to get you judged as a lunatic. I seriously question guys who go to games with actual jerseys that have other men's names on the back. You're 45, it's weird that you are repping some 20 year old.

Really, you can't seem to wonder why someone would buy a jersey for the team they support?

[Paelos]

I get why they buy a jersey, just not one for a certain player. I've always found that kind of hero-worship to be weird in older men. Kids, sure.

It's the same feeling I get when I see 30 and 40 year old guys asking players for autographs while being surrounded by children. Also, don't get me started on wearing a jersey to places other than sports bars and stadiums. That is weird too.

[Draegan]

I get why they buy a jersey, just not one for a certain player. I've always found that kind of hero-worship to be weird in older men. Kids, sure.

Also, don't get me started on wearing a jersey to places other than sports bars and stadiums. That is weird too.

Yet you write a sports blog.

[Paelos]

Yeah about the team. I don't write a blog about a specific players. It's not a Lebron blog.

It boils down for me to a team>player thing if you really want to boil it out. I don't follow players, nor do I really care about them personally. A lot of people do though, and I don't really understand the fascination with them off the field. Certainly not enough to prompt me to wear their name across my back.

It's a weird distinction, I realize that.

[lamaros]

I don't think it's odd to admire another individual person, be they younger or older than you.

I'm not exactly sure what the point of an autograph, or wearing a top with their number on it, is, however that basic admiration is perfectly sensible to me.

I don't often find it that strongly in sports players, but that's more a reflection of my interests.

[Rendakor]

Are jerseys with players names/numbers more expensive than ones without? I just assumed if you were buying a jersey, you'd get the one of your favorite player. I'm not much of a sportsball fan myself though, so this is just an outsider's perspective.

[Paelos]

Are jerseys with players names/numbers more expensive than ones without? I just assumed if you were buying a jersey, you'd get the one of your favorite player. I'm not much of a sportsball fan myself though, so this is just an outsider's perspective.

Sometimes. Depends on the sport and the popularity of the player.

[Selby]

Jerseys, face painting, autographs, etc.  Don't care, never bothered me (not my thing but to each their own).  What does get me wondering: people who talk about the players and their performances\team on a first name basis like they're part of a giant family.  I've seen this in a few people I know on social media and it comes off creepy and stalker-ish.

[Typhon]

I'd wear an Isaac Newton, Archimedes or Einstein jersey.  Oh yeah, and Feynman.

[Cyrrex]

Several of my family members speak about different Seahawk players as if they just had them over for dinner last week.  More than one has a tattoo of a player's name/number.  Before they traded Golden Tate to Detroit, they may have found out where he lived.  Needless to say, when I say things like "you sure are all going to be sorry when they one day trade (e.g.) Richard Sherman to the Niners!" outloud, well, it goes over like a lead balloon.  I'm pretty sure at least one Jimmy Graham jersey was purchased within hours of hearing about the trade.

[Draegan]

There are certainly crazy levels of fandom for sure. I only really follow one sport, the NFL. And you can't readily get jerseys with no numbers or no names. There really isn't any demand for them. The majority of people get specific jerseys because they are their favorite player. Doesn't really go beyond that; for most people.

[Threash]

I never thought a dude wearing a Kobe jersey was pretending to be Kobe. It's really not the same thing at all.

[HaemishM]

Jerseys, face painting, autographs, etc.  Don't care, never bothered me (not my thing but to each their own).  What does get me wondering: people who talk about the players and their performances\team on a first name basis like they're part of a giant family.  I've seen this in a few people I know on social media and it comes off creepy and stalker-ish.

I put that in the same category as talking about your favorite team's performance as in "we" or "our secondary is balls." Sports fandom is a sense of belonging to a greater collective. While there are certainly members of the public who take that WAY farther than they should but I think for most part, that sort of association can be positive.

[01101010]

I put that in the same category as talking about your favorite team's performance as in "we" or "our secondary is balls." Sports fandom is a sense of belonging to a greater collective. While there are certainly members of the public who take that WAY farther than they should but I think for most part, that sort of association can be positive.

Can I show you around Pittsburgh kind sir?  

Seriously, this city has a fetish with the Steelers... it is a sickness in fact. I have lived in a lot of places and this one is the only one with this amount of fandom to this extreme. I'd be willing to bet that in Allegheny county, over 50% of the population owns a Steeler's jersey. And of those, 90% wear them on game day.

edit: stupid autocorrect...

[IainC]

You guys don't know what unhealthy obsession with a sports team even is. It's kind of adorable hearing you talk about it. Wait until you see British football fans and the rivalries between teams in the same city.

[Trippy]

Or Rangers vs Celtic.

Edit: my bad please don't hunt me down Celtic fans

[apocrypha]

Or Rangers vs Celtics.

That's never really been about sport though.

[Trippy]

True.

[Ironwood]

Celtic

[Segoris]

Can I show you around Pittsburgh kind sir?  

Seriously, this city has a fetish with the Steelers... it is a sickness in fact. I have lived in a lot of places and this one is the only one with this amount of fandom to this extreme. I'd be willing to bet that in Allegheny county, over 50% of the population owns a Steeler's jersey. And of those, 90% wear them on game day.

edit: stupid autocorrect...

ITT a Browns fan says another team's fanbase is sick And this is coming from a Bears fan. You know, the fanbase where it is permanently 1985-86 in all of our heads

Also, from what I've seen, I agree with Ianc that Brits are even crazier fans. I live on the IL/WI border and the rivalry between GB and Chi is one of the main rivalries in the NFl and it still seems tame in comparison.t

[HaemishM]

Non-US Soccer fans are a whole other level of WTFuckery.

[01101010]

Can I show you around Pittsburgh kind sir?  

Seriously, this city has a fetish with the Steelers... it is a sickness in fact. I have lived in a lot of places and this one is the only one with this amount of fandom to this extreme. I'd be willing to bet that in Allegheny county, over 50% of the population owns a Steeler's jersey. And of those, 90% wear them on game day.

edit: stupid autocorrect...

ITT a Browns fan says another team's fanbase is sick And this is coming from a Bears fan. You know, the fanbase where it is permanently 1985-86 in all of our heads

Also, from what I've seen, I agree with Ianc that Brits are even crazier fans. I live on the IL/WI border and the rivalry between GB and Chi is one of the main rivalries in the NFl and it still seems tame in comparison.t

Yeah... exactly. San Fran, Maryland, Miami, Louisiana, NE Ohio, Carolinas, no where have I seen the mass population of a city turn out weekly in home team gear in large numbers like this town. It's like a Friday uniform from August to February - which then changes over to Pens gear, then waivers over to Pirates gear to a lesser extent.

[Phildo]

Baltimore.  Philadelphia.  Austin when the Longhorns are playing?

[Rendakor]

Being in Baltimore for an anime convention while an Orioles game was going on was pretty amusing. Everyone was in costume, one way or the other.

[kaid]

Can I show you around Pittsburgh kind sir?  

Seriously, this city has a fetish with the Steelers... it is a sickness in fact. I have lived in a lot of places and this one is the only one with this amount of fandom to this extreme. I'd be willing to bet that in Allegheny county, over 50% of the population owns a Steeler's jersey. And of those, 90% wear them on game day.

edit: stupid autocorrect...

ITT a Browns fan says another team's fanbase is sick And this is coming from a Bears fan. You know, the fanbase where it is permanently 1985-86 in all of our heads

Also, from what I've seen, I agree with Ianc that Brits are even crazier fans. I live on the IL/WI border and the rivalry between GB and Chi is one of the main rivalries in the NFl and it still seems tame in comparison.t

Hehe try living in green bay. Our stadium can fit probably half the population of the city in it and its sold out solid for the next couple decades at least. We refer to the stadium as the cathedral because it is where people go to pray on sunday.

[Segoris]

I'm close enough where it's about a 50/50 split of Chi/GB fans....it's bad enough as it is that I'll stay out of GB and take your word for it

[Teleku]

You guys don't know what unhealthy obsession with a sports team even is. It's kind of adorable hearing you talk about it. Wait until you see British football fans and the rivalries between teams in the same city.

Yeah..... I'd already known that, but it was hammered into me pretty effectively one night in Vilnius.  Was there with a friend, and we decided to pop into a Brittish Pub we saw for a beer.  Turns out it was filled to the brim with Bristol City fans, there because England was playing a friendly with Lithuania.  Several of them heard us speaking American, and it was all over.  

It was over two hours before we could escape.  They trapped us and talked to us endlessly about everything (but mostly the Bristol team).  They would not let us physically get away.  They were falling over drunk, talking about having already been wasted when they got on the plane to fly in at 8 this morning (it was around 10 Pm currently).  They had stickers which were a mashup of the field of poppies ww1 rememberance with the Bristol logo.  Which they stuck all over me as a gift.  They were so intense about the team, and after 2 hours of endless, drunk, pure heart felt talk, I think love of that sports team is the only thing carrying them on through life.  The only damn thing.  Everything else about it sounds horrible the way they make it sound.

Since I'm American and thus don't follow soccer, they begged that I just tell people I'm a Bristol fan when ever asked, since I don't have a team anyways.  That I promise to support them.  They were so deadly serious I feel as though I have to now.  Is being a Bristol fan ok?  Will bad things happen to me if I claim to like Bristol?

[HaemishM]

Which Bristol? City or Rovers? It can't be Rovers because if it was, love of that team is more like love of getting kicked in the balls.

[Teleku]

City.

[Yegolev]

OK, I'm in.  Grove Street Bristol City 4 lyfe !

[HaemishM]

To my limited knowledge, rooting for Bristol City is ok. One day they may actually make it back into the top tier of English football (Premier League). They are currently 21st out of 24 teams in the 2nd tier, the League Championship but that League is pretty topsy turvy so anyone could win it from year to year.

[pxib]

[Lantyssa]

That is both AWESOME and AMAZING.

[Paelos]

It's Sky's birthday cake obviously.

[Samprimary]

welp