Don't make fun of the star-chasers
Posted: Friday, January 30, 2009 2:00 PM
TAMPA – Town is finally filling up with fans, and a lot of them hang out in hopeful knots in front of the headquarters hotels and the media center, standing for hours at a time in the hopes of seeing someone vaguely famous.
It’s hard for folks in my business to understand it. We cover games and talk to the players for a living. We’d never stand outside a doorway for hours to get a glimpse of a radio host or a television announcer or a former player. The most common comment you hear is, “Don’t these people have lives?”
I’ve talked to some, including a guy from Tampa who was lamenting the fact that he just missed getting Warren Moon to sign a football. And the truth is these people aren’t to be pitied or looked at with amusement. They’re doing something that brightens their lives, that allows them to climb out of the rut of daily existence. They’re getting out of the house. They’re not getting drunk or getting in fights or cheating on their wives or knocking off convenience stores. And they’re having fun.
And if some of them want to dress up like football players or paint logos on their faces or put on goofy hats, who cares?
If they were playing golf, nobody would find them strange. I love golf, but I have to admit that it’s no less frivolous a way to spend a day than standing outside the media center hoping to catch a glimpse of Chris Berman. The fans wear funny clothes. So do golfers. The fans yell at celebrities hoping to get a notice or an autograph. Golfers yell at inanimate objects begging them to curve left or right and fly shorter or longer.
Either way, there’s skill involved. Some people can get any autograph. Some golfers can hit any shot. Both work at their totally meaningless hobby and both get an endorphin rush when everything goes the way they planned it. Both sit down with others of their ilk when the day is done and trade lies about how wonderful they are.
The other thing the media should keep in mind is those people in the funny get-ups and the autograph and memorabilia collections are the ones who read the stuff we write, listen to our cogent commentaries and make it possible for us to earn a living writing about games that children can play.
They’ve found something that enriches their lives. Good for them.
