Growing up way back when (the 70's) in good ol' Houghs Neck, we use to have a term when one side picked for kick ball or street/floor hockey was better than the other: smuck. As in, "those are smuck teams." Haven't heard it in decades, probably anotherBoston English term going the way of hosie. But while we may have complained about unfair teams, I never heard anyone whining about "running up the score" even if the team were smuck, let alone evenly matched. Maybe we were different around Boston, but maybe times were different.
Because today, whining about "running up the score" in pro sports is all the rage. Players do it, coaches do it and even fans in what you would think to be tough towns like New York and Chicago do it. It seems to have become prominent in the last decade. Maybe its all the Gen Y and Millenial kids who received trophies for just showing up in order to protect them from any possible self-esteem boo-boo and exposure to the reality of failure in life.Who knows, but its getting pretty annoying. Last week the Patriots destroyed the Jets, answering a week of New York's trash talking on the field. Today they manhandled Da Bears in Chi-town. After both games a furious whine began on the intertubes about how the Pats have "no class" and "run up the score"
WTF people. These are professional athletes getting paid millions. They're supposed to play to win and not let up simply to protect the fans po' widdle feelings. I remember many a shellacking of Boston teams and I blamed them for the debacle, not the other team for scoring, and that includes the '86 Super Bowl, Bears 46, Pats 10 (no one whined about Da Bears running up the score).
Maybe people should worry instead about those with plenty of money screwing over everyone else rather than paying a penny more in tax, or people killing each other (literally) over Black Friday "deals" on some piece of crap they don't really need.
2 comments:
I feel similarly on this. If "running up the score" is such a terrible thing, how come the mercy rule only exists for the under-12 set? Isn't the point for both teams to try to score, and keep the opponent from scoring? Why on earth should I watch a game where the team stops trying to score?
Considering that I've seen the Sox blow 11 and 9 run leads, why wouldn't you try to score as much as the other team allows.
It really irked me to hear the whine from New York Jets fans. First, New Yorkers and foorball fans consider themselves tough guys, but then you whine? Second, the Rex Ryan and the Jets palyers ran their mouth for a week and the pats answered them were it counts - on the field, without a word of trash talk.
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