Pet Peeve Number 1

Okay, so technically this one is not at the top of the list, but it is at the top of the list right now, and in honor of this being a new blog, I figured I'd start the counting at one.

So I am a huge football fan. Everyone I know knows this about me. I also graduated from a very prominent football school...one who has finished in the NCAA top 4 the last seven years (this is not bragging...just background). I make no secret of the fact that I love my alma mater. I wear football jerseys on Saturdays, have the standard issue "alumni" license plate frame, and I have my degrees proudly framed in my school colors along side an artist's rendering of one of the University's more prominent landmarks. What I do not do is run through the hallways every Monday proclaiming victory, and mocking those whose teams were not so fortunate. In fact, I rarely bring it up myself. If someone comes to me to discuss a win, I am happy to oblige, but I never go bragging to them. I never smack talk before or after a game...except maybe on the blog. But that's a different thing entirely. Folks have the option of not reading.

Anyway, here I am, trying to be respectful, not rubbing my teams victories in the faces of my friends and co-workers. So why...WHY do they find it necessary to hail every loss my team suffers with obnoxious glee?

I am not exaggerating. In fact, obnoxious glee might not be strong enough to describe the singular joy they all get from rubbing my nose in the teams messes.

Case in point: a few years ago, my team suffered a loss to their biggest rival that knocked them out of the National Championship game. When I got to work the following Monday, my office was littered with confetti in the rival's team colors. And no one from my workplace even went to that rival school.

This past weekend my team suffered a very public and unexpected loss. Yesterday I had to endure a few comments about it, but I thought I was out of the woods. Today, I get to work to find the sports section from the Wall Street Journal on my desk with the following passage highlighted AND circled in red ink:

"Like the Patriots, ___ is a team that everyone likes to see lose.

It's a BMOC thing, right? The _______ just exude privileged swagger-watching them lose is like seeing a fraternity president's BMW get a flat tire in the student union parking lot."

Then, to top it off, the perpetrator came into my office and asked if I had read it. I smiled graciously as she then proceeded to read it aloud to me, followed by gales of laughter and the comment, "I thought you'd enjoy that."

No...you thought you'd enjoy that. And did you? Did you?

Yes, I get it. We win...a lot. All this derisiveness is part jealously and part boredom. I know. I know. But why do you have to be so mean? Seriously. My team losing is bad enough. But that is only the beginning. I can usually count on the first text message coming in within seconds of the game expiring, then the rest of my family, friends and co-workers just line up for their turn. And I have no choice but to smile and laugh along with them, else be labeled as a poor loser.

I guess I need to develop some of that "privileged swagger" the WSJ spoke of and start laying my smack down with the rest of them. I mean if I'm going to pay the price whether I am gracious or not, I might as well, right?

Fine then. Whatever, Freaks. It's on.