An anecdote:
Tonight, I went to my mmmf's (math-major man friend) intramural soccer game.
They are in the playoffs and I do lurve watching soccer so I went and sat in the stands like usual.
However, something was different about this game. The opposing team, "Team Awesome" started trash-talking the team I was watching and continued through the whole game. If you can't already tell from their team name, these guys were more like "Team Arse-hole"
I ignored it because it began mostly harmless and I assumed that since they saw me talking to players on the other team that they would not want me to hear anything bad.
Wrong.
As the end of the first half neared, they started throwing out insults about my darling, amazing and respectful "mmmf". He is one of the best players out there so naturally, he was an easy target. The comments ranged from making fun of his cleats, his legs and his overall demeanor, all of which are inoffensive. I mean, the kid wears bright orange cleats, has strong legs for soccer and knows what he is doing which, apparently, is grounds to make fun of him.
I don't take stuff like that well, hearing mean comments about someone I care for feels just as bad as if they were talking about me instead. They continued to make fun of other members of the team, calling the girls "manly" etc. I kept quiet, knowing that any sort of reaction would just make them feel accomplished but, they were well aware that I was in ear-shot. Their insults continued and they even made fun of him to one of the refs, who also laughed. Needless to say, me along with the other people watching mmmf's team were growing annoyed.
The amazing thing was, no one tried to do anything back. No one on the team I was rooting for gave in to Team Arse-holes bullying and I bit my tongue because I knew that it all stemmed from some insecurity. The teams ended the game with a tie and went straight into penalty kicks, mmmf's favorite. He was aware of the taunting going on which only fueled his teams fire. During every penalty kick, the trash talking continued, but my team didn't say a word and gracefully won the game.
I love when stories like this happen because the team I was there for could have easily been sucked into the mouthing off but they didn't, won the game and sent the other team home. Even after the game, math-man-friend said "good game" to one of the guys who was being rude but the guy wouldn't look at him and just walked away.
It amazes me that people can be so low, obviously, I'm a sensitive theatre geek and not an athlete who is used to people talking like that but from the outside, everyone knows how silly they are being. To be so confident and then lose must feel worse then losing after playing a fair game.
I don't really have a moral to this story other than, there is a funny mix of people in the world and I saw a perfect example of that tonight. If you read this whole thing then you are a dear person.
And to team "Awesome"; its intramural soccer, not the World Cup.
