Honesty Time
Honesty Time
I admit to doing this. These days if I'm in a situation where I don't want to create static (like with a supervisor at work), I just nod my head and hope they get the hint that the conversation needs to move on. Anyway, submitted for your approval, I'd like to know how many of us have done this, even if some of us have long since lost our tolerance for it.
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Earl
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Re: Honesty Time
I just voted "Never." But I have to say that since I'm retired, I don't come into contact with many sports fans; so, I'm not as likely to encounter those sports fans who are unreasonable and disagreeable. Some sports fans are not intolerant. I will say a lot more about fans later when I have time.
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -- Oscar Wilde
Go, Montana State Bobcats!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRq4_uxM ... re=related
Go, Montana State Bobcats!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRq4_uxM ... re=related
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Earl
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Re: Honesty Time
Millhouseâ??s poll brings to my remembrance a relatively recent incident in my life that I must share with the Forum. Even though itâ??s personal and trivial, it still relates to the subject of the poll. Iâ??m not raising a subject of debate in this post; Iâ??m simply expressing my feelings about a particular situation. Unfortunately, sport bores donâ??t seem to know the difference between a debating society and a ranting board. Actually, theyâ??re just intolerant of anyone who doesnâ??t make a god out of sports. Anyway, last year our congregation had a guest preacher who occasionally let us know in a sermon he delivered that Sunday morning how much of a high-school football fan he was, enthusing several times about â??Friday night lights, Friday night lights.â? 
(Iâ??m writing from Texas, where King Football reigns supreme. Need I say more?) Following that Sunday morning assembly, we had a potluck lunch at a local senior citizensâ?? center. I chatted with the guest preacher for a few minutes. Since he had played in his high schoolâ??s marching band, the subject of my daughterâ??s own participation as a marching band student in half-time shows came up. To this day I wish that I had had the nerve to tell him that aside from watching a video recording on a DVD of one of her marching bandâ??s half-time performances, I had not seen a single one from inside a football stadium. I was afraid to tell him because of how he had enthused about â??Friday night lightsâ? in his sermon. I confess my cowardice at this time. "Honesty Time" is right! (I need to make a few comments before I continue with this post. My wife has retinitis pigmentosa, and is therefore legally blind. By the time our daughter entered high school, my wifeâ??s vision had deteriorated to the point where she, as a spectator in a football stadium, no longer was able to see anything taking place on the playing field. If she had still been able to see well enough, I would have swallowed my distaste of football and taken her to football games to see our daughter march. I explained to our daughter why I personally could not attend any football game, although Iâ??ve attended all of the performances of her concert band. She knows that I love her, but I hate football.) To repeat what I just said in different words, since this guest preacher was such a staunch football fan, I was afraid to tell him that I had not attended any of my daughterâ??s half-time performances because I hated to watch football games.
So the question arises in the readerâ??s mind as to why I hate to watch football games. First of all, I never had the slightest interest in the game as I was growing up.
To this very day I still donâ??t know how the game is played, and I have absolutely no intention of ever wanting to learn how itâ??s played. 
(At this point some would automatically begin to question my masculinity, of course.) Secondly, I am prejudiced (sorry to say) against football players, even though several of my close friends played football in high school. 
(More about that later.) So if I were forced to watch a football game, I would climb the walls in utter frustration and go out of my mind. 
I will admit that if I ever have a grandson who is a decent kid that happens to play football in high school, I will attend games in which he participates. 
Anyway, to get back to the guest preacher, I wish I had told him, â??I havenâ??t attended any of my daughterâ??s half-time performances because I just canâ??t stand to watch football. Furthermore, I donâ??t think that just because a teenage boy dons a football uniform that that makes him some kind of a hero.â?
I have more to say, but Iâ??m going to have to get off the computer very soon. Since my life doesnâ??t revolve around the Internet, I have an appointment to keep. When I get back, I hope that Iâ??ll have the time to write another post and pick up where Iâ??m now going to leave off.
(Iâ??m writing from Texas, where King Football reigns supreme. Need I say more?) Following that Sunday morning assembly, we had a potluck lunch at a local senior citizensâ?? center. I chatted with the guest preacher for a few minutes. Since he had played in his high schoolâ??s marching band, the subject of my daughterâ??s own participation as a marching band student in half-time shows came up. To this day I wish that I had had the nerve to tell him that aside from watching a video recording on a DVD of one of her marching bandâ??s half-time performances, I had not seen a single one from inside a football stadium. I was afraid to tell him because of how he had enthused about â??Friday night lightsâ? in his sermon. I confess my cowardice at this time. "Honesty Time" is right! (I need to make a few comments before I continue with this post. My wife has retinitis pigmentosa, and is therefore legally blind. By the time our daughter entered high school, my wifeâ??s vision had deteriorated to the point where she, as a spectator in a football stadium, no longer was able to see anything taking place on the playing field. If she had still been able to see well enough, I would have swallowed my distaste of football and taken her to football games to see our daughter march. I explained to our daughter why I personally could not attend any football game, although Iâ??ve attended all of the performances of her concert band. She knows that I love her, but I hate football.) To repeat what I just said in different words, since this guest preacher was such a staunch football fan, I was afraid to tell him that I had not attended any of my daughterâ??s half-time performances because I hated to watch football games.So the question arises in the readerâ??s mind as to why I hate to watch football games. First of all, I never had the slightest interest in the game as I was growing up.
To this very day I still donâ??t know how the game is played, and I have absolutely no intention of ever wanting to learn how itâ??s played. (At this point some would automatically begin to question my masculinity, of course.) Secondly, I am prejudiced (sorry to say) against football players, even though several of my close friends played football in high school. (More about that later.) So if I were forced to watch a football game, I would climb the walls in utter frustration and go out of my mind. I will admit that if I ever have a grandson who is a decent kid that happens to play football in high school, I will attend games in which he participates. Anyway, to get back to the guest preacher, I wish I had told him, â??I havenâ??t attended any of my daughterâ??s half-time performances because I just canâ??t stand to watch football. Furthermore, I donâ??t think that just because a teenage boy dons a football uniform that that makes him some kind of a hero.â?I have more to say, but Iâ??m going to have to get off the computer very soon. Since my life doesnâ??t revolve around the Internet, I have an appointment to keep. When I get back, I hope that Iâ??ll have the time to write another post and pick up where Iâ??m now going to leave off.
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -- Oscar Wilde
Go, Montana State Bobcats!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRq4_uxM ... re=related
Go, Montana State Bobcats!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRq4_uxM ... re=related
Re: Honesty Time
When I was younger, I just went along with it (Hated it though), to make life easier. But nowmy brother know that I don't like sports so he doesn't talk about them to me, but didn't stop my brother changing the channel to watch a football match last night when I was watching T.V. 
, so I just went on my laptop.
, so I just went on my laptop.
Re: Honesty Time
I think that was part of the point with my post. I don't do it practically at all in my middle age (I'm 35).Lewis wrote:When I was younger, I just went along with it (Hated it though), to make life easier. But nowmy brother know that I don't like sports so he doesn't talk about them to me, but didn't stop my brother changing the channel to watch a football match last night when I was watching T.V.
But when I was younger I just pretended or just kept my mouth shut. I think when we were younger many of us felt intimidated by crazed sports fans.
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Earl
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Re: Honesty Time
Now that Iâ??m back, Iâ??ll pick up where I left off. I said that one of the reasons I donâ??t want to watch any football games is because Iâ??m prejudiced against football players. Iâ??m not proud to say this, because (ideally speaking) I donâ??t like being prejudiced against any group of people. But political correctness is nothing less than pretending that something is so when it isnâ??t so. Political correctness is a form of denial. While I realize that there are football players who donâ??t live this way, Iâ??m repelled by a lifestyle that is characterized by arrogance, a propensity to pick on others, casual sex, and getting drunk every other weekend.
Arrogance sticks in my craw. My father, who set a good example for me, was extremely successful in his chosen field; yet he was still a humble man who loved people and tried as hard as he could to treat others with respect. Despite his great success, he taught me to respect even those whose walks in life were humble. He respected their dignity.
In their drive to become â??masculine,â?? there is a particular mindset that many men have felt compelled to subscribe to, a mindset that has all the characteristics of an ideology. That mindset is called machismo. Now, the word â??machoâ? can be misused. There are men who are called â??machoâ? simply because they have muscular builds; but some men in that category are gentle, and do not subscribe to machismo. This ideology of false masculinity can be summed up as follows: (1) Athletic prowess and physical strength in men is elevated over intellectual achievement, which is often denigrated. The fact that some nonathletic, intellectual men have great courage is denied as a lie. (2) Empathy and compassion are feminine traits and are therefore undesirable in men. Men should never cry, not even when they are touched by the sufferings of others. (3) Unless they are physically attractive, young women should be viewed as potential objects of sexual conquest, instead of equals in a committed relationship. A man who repeatedly â??scoresâ? (notice the word â??scoresâ? as if bed-hopping were a sport) with many women is considered to be more â??masculineâ? than the man who commits himself to one woman in a loving relationship. More than a few football players seem to drink deep from the poisoned well of machismo. I just heard the conservative talk show host Dennis Prager define manhood as a man committing himself to one women and caring for her and their children. There is a professional football player who has fathered eleven children out of wedlock by eleven different women; but because he is a professional football player, he is considered to be a â??real man.â? This is our new standard of masculinity. A society that tolerates this sort of misconduct is doomed. For those individual players who donâ??t drink from the poisoned well of machismo (such as my friends), I have the deepest respect and honor them.
When I had finished the 6th grade, my family moved to another address in the school district so that most of my elementary school classmates attended a different high school. A few years later I had the opportunity to read the roster for the football team of that high school. I was amazed. Most of the bullies and jerks I had known in elementary school had become football players at that high school. (Yes, there was also one friend, who turned out to be not such a great friend in the long run, and a few guys whom I didnâ??t know.) They had been attracted to that sport like flies to garbage.
Most of the football players at my high school were arrogant. With the exception of a few, they were anything but friendly. And they were given preferential treatment. At many, if not most, high schools in this country, the football team is automatically elevated to the top of the social hierarchy. No distinction is made between the decent players and those who are jerks or thugs. The unwashed, nonathletic boys can be redeemed, however, under the institution that is called King Football, by becoming football fans and partaking of â??school spirit.â? By the time I became a high-school freshman, I had learned to fear football players.
A close friend of mine who attended a rival high school in the same district recently told me some real horror stories about his high school. I should point out that my friend was not a â??nerd,â? but was actually regarded as â??coolâ? by most of his classmates. He was a funny guy who was mischievous in a nonmalicious sort of way. One day when he was an underclassman, he was minding his own business, messing with his locker, when one of the senior football players came along and deliberately slammed the locker door on his right hand. The nurse who checked his hand told him that he was lucky that none of the bones in his hand had been broken. He had to keep his injured hand (which was the hand that he wrote with, incidentally) in a cast for two weeks. The football player, whom he identified, was never disciplined. In fact, bullying by some of the football players was rampant. Neither the principal nor the coaches seemed to care. One of these players, whom I had admired in junior high, even picked on a mentally retarded student! This was a bullying victim who had two strikes against him: (1) He was physically weak, and (2) he was mentally retarded. The player was â??penalizedâ? by being suspended from school for just a few days. (Iâ??m sure he enjoyed the vacation.) What is especially significant is that his popularity did not suffer one bit. If he had not been on the football team, he would have been reviled, and rightly so. A girl once offered herself to as many of the football players who wanted to have sex with her. All in one night. The next day the principal publicly called her down to the office, but none of the players. During their senior year, there was a new girl who was quite shy. One of the football players, whose reputation was particularly notorious, started dating her. Soon a rumor began to circulate that he had raped her. On the very next day after the rape was allegedly committed, the family had vacated their home in a hurry. Why would they have done that? Because the player was a star athlete who would be playing at a leading university in the fall, that's why. Perhaps the girlsâ?? parents realized that they would have no chance in court. You know, her word against the word of a star athlete. All of this happened at the same high school in only two or three years. This is what high-school football means to me.
Arrogance sticks in my craw. My father, who set a good example for me, was extremely successful in his chosen field; yet he was still a humble man who loved people and tried as hard as he could to treat others with respect. Despite his great success, he taught me to respect even those whose walks in life were humble. He respected their dignity.
In their drive to become â??masculine,â?? there is a particular mindset that many men have felt compelled to subscribe to, a mindset that has all the characteristics of an ideology. That mindset is called machismo. Now, the word â??machoâ? can be misused. There are men who are called â??machoâ? simply because they have muscular builds; but some men in that category are gentle, and do not subscribe to machismo. This ideology of false masculinity can be summed up as follows: (1) Athletic prowess and physical strength in men is elevated over intellectual achievement, which is often denigrated. The fact that some nonathletic, intellectual men have great courage is denied as a lie. (2) Empathy and compassion are feminine traits and are therefore undesirable in men. Men should never cry, not even when they are touched by the sufferings of others. (3) Unless they are physically attractive, young women should be viewed as potential objects of sexual conquest, instead of equals in a committed relationship. A man who repeatedly â??scoresâ? (notice the word â??scoresâ? as if bed-hopping were a sport) with many women is considered to be more â??masculineâ? than the man who commits himself to one woman in a loving relationship. More than a few football players seem to drink deep from the poisoned well of machismo. I just heard the conservative talk show host Dennis Prager define manhood as a man committing himself to one women and caring for her and their children. There is a professional football player who has fathered eleven children out of wedlock by eleven different women; but because he is a professional football player, he is considered to be a â??real man.â? This is our new standard of masculinity. A society that tolerates this sort of misconduct is doomed. For those individual players who donâ??t drink from the poisoned well of machismo (such as my friends), I have the deepest respect and honor them.
When I had finished the 6th grade, my family moved to another address in the school district so that most of my elementary school classmates attended a different high school. A few years later I had the opportunity to read the roster for the football team of that high school. I was amazed. Most of the bullies and jerks I had known in elementary school had become football players at that high school. (Yes, there was also one friend, who turned out to be not such a great friend in the long run, and a few guys whom I didnâ??t know.) They had been attracted to that sport like flies to garbage.
Most of the football players at my high school were arrogant. With the exception of a few, they were anything but friendly. And they were given preferential treatment. At many, if not most, high schools in this country, the football team is automatically elevated to the top of the social hierarchy. No distinction is made between the decent players and those who are jerks or thugs. The unwashed, nonathletic boys can be redeemed, however, under the institution that is called King Football, by becoming football fans and partaking of â??school spirit.â? By the time I became a high-school freshman, I had learned to fear football players.
A close friend of mine who attended a rival high school in the same district recently told me some real horror stories about his high school. I should point out that my friend was not a â??nerd,â? but was actually regarded as â??coolâ? by most of his classmates. He was a funny guy who was mischievous in a nonmalicious sort of way. One day when he was an underclassman, he was minding his own business, messing with his locker, when one of the senior football players came along and deliberately slammed the locker door on his right hand. The nurse who checked his hand told him that he was lucky that none of the bones in his hand had been broken. He had to keep his injured hand (which was the hand that he wrote with, incidentally) in a cast for two weeks. The football player, whom he identified, was never disciplined. In fact, bullying by some of the football players was rampant. Neither the principal nor the coaches seemed to care. One of these players, whom I had admired in junior high, even picked on a mentally retarded student! This was a bullying victim who had two strikes against him: (1) He was physically weak, and (2) he was mentally retarded. The player was â??penalizedâ? by being suspended from school for just a few days. (Iâ??m sure he enjoyed the vacation.) What is especially significant is that his popularity did not suffer one bit. If he had not been on the football team, he would have been reviled, and rightly so. A girl once offered herself to as many of the football players who wanted to have sex with her. All in one night. The next day the principal publicly called her down to the office, but none of the players. During their senior year, there was a new girl who was quite shy. One of the football players, whose reputation was particularly notorious, started dating her. Soon a rumor began to circulate that he had raped her. On the very next day after the rape was allegedly committed, the family had vacated their home in a hurry. Why would they have done that? Because the player was a star athlete who would be playing at a leading university in the fall, that's why. Perhaps the girlsâ?? parents realized that they would have no chance in court. You know, her word against the word of a star athlete. All of this happened at the same high school in only two or three years. This is what high-school football means to me.
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -- Oscar Wilde
Go, Montana State Bobcats!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRq4_uxM ... re=related
Go, Montana State Bobcats!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRq4_uxM ... re=related
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Fat Man
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Re: Honesty Time
I voted NEVER!
When I was a kid in school, I was honest and said that I didn't care for football. I didn't exactly hate football, I just didn't care for it.
But after having the holy crap beat out of me a few times, then I had come to absolutely hate football with the purplest of passions!!!
Oh yes indeed! The best way to promote your favorite sport is to beat the holy crap out of anybody who does not share your passion for it!
Yeah! An excellent way to promote sports!
When I was a kid in school, I was honest and said that I didn't care for football. I didn't exactly hate football, I just didn't care for it.
But after having the holy crap beat out of me a few times, then I had come to absolutely hate football with the purplest of passions!!!
Oh yes indeed! The best way to promote your favorite sport is to beat the holy crap out of anybody who does not share your passion for it!
Yeah! An excellent way to promote sports!
I'm fat and sassy! I love to sing & dance & stomp my feet & really rock your world!All I want to hear from an ex-jock is "Will that be paper or plastic?" After that he can shut the fuck up!
Heah comes da judge! Heah comes da judge! Order in da court 'cuz heah comes da judge!
Re: Honesty Time
I don't remember actually pretending to be into sports. There was one guy (an ex-boyfriend) who used to sometimes talk local sports with me, and since I wasn't always in the mood to argue with him about it, I just sort of halfway pretended to be interested, kind of like "Uh-huh," "Yeah," "Oh really?" stuff like that, when he would talk about it. So I'm not sure what to vote for.
Yes, it really is JUST A GAME.
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Skul
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Re: Honesty Time
I chose "Once or twice", because the (fortunately) few times I've been asked, I've played along and like Millhouse, just nodded and hoped I didn't get asked anything specific. If I was, I'd just try to bullshit my way through the conversation.
Now I'd just be honest.
Now I'd just be honest.
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Love and Tolerance!
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Ray
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Re: Honesty Time
I used to dread the topic of sports coming up because I don't know jack about any of them --I mean JACK. I used to nod in agreement and then leave as soon as possible before I was detected as an imposter.
But then, after watching others stand up to the group and deny any interest in fill-in-the-blank, I gained the courage to do it myself.
But for a long time I could only muster the courage to say, I don't watch whatever sport was being discussed at the moment. That way I would be excused from knowing anything about that particular sport and yet still be considered a regular guy/heterosexual.
But now, finally, I got mature enough to just say NO! Yes, I am now often considered a weirdo by sports nuts or meat-lumps but I don't CARE!
EDIT: In some social situations where everyone is a stranger, the atmosphere is already tense due to whatever reason, I will revert to the head-nodding yeah-yeah-yeah routine just to avoid the unnecessary confusion caused by a confession that I'd rather whack my balls with a cane than watch five minutes of football.
But then, after watching others stand up to the group and deny any interest in fill-in-the-blank, I gained the courage to do it myself.
But for a long time I could only muster the courage to say, I don't watch whatever sport was being discussed at the moment. That way I would be excused from knowing anything about that particular sport and yet still be considered a regular guy/heterosexual.
But now, finally, I got mature enough to just say NO! Yes, I am now often considered a weirdo by sports nuts or meat-lumps but I don't CARE!
EDIT: In some social situations where everyone is a stranger, the atmosphere is already tense due to whatever reason, I will revert to the head-nodding yeah-yeah-yeah routine just to avoid the unnecessary confusion caused by a confession that I'd rather whack my balls with a cane than watch five minutes of football.
I Hope We Lose!
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Ray
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Re: Honesty Time
I don't think you have to defend yourself or explain WHY you don't like football. You don't HAVE TO like football! You do get extra credit for being an introspective, considerate person and for trying to figure out why you're not like "most people" but I don't think you should beat yourself up about this.Earl wrote:
So the question arises in the readerâ??s mind as to why I hate to watch football games. First of all, I never had the slightest interest in the game as I was growing up...
In my humble opinion, a more obvious question is WHY would a guy be a "staunch football fan". WHY does a guy feel it necessary to declare his dedication to a group of guys he's never met?
I know the type of guy you describe --I've met many, many guys like him. They declare their love for the game or for their team so ferociously, so obnoxiously, that, to me, it can only mean that they are compensating for some other area in their life in which they are sorely lacking.
The guy who fiercely announces his love of "da game" is probably fiercely proclaiming: I AM A HETEROSEXUAL even though he loiters around the stadium mens room. Which is sort of OK I guess but I wish they would just come out and say they like guys before their frikkin' head explodes.
I Hope We Lose!
Re: Honesty Time
Guys watch football because they enjoy it. Same as you guys choosing not to watch it, because you don't enjoy it.
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Ray
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Re: Honesty Time
Watching football and challenging everyone around them to deny their absolute, unconditional love for football are two completely different things.Polite24 wrote:Guys watch football because they enjoy it. Same as you guys choosing not to watch it, because you don't enjoy it.
We are talking about the latter type of mouth-breathers.
Get with the program.
I Hope We Lose!