Maybe some NASCAR fans can’t help their hypocrisy
Quote selected text Published May 23rd, 2008 in NASCAR News
By Josh Stewart-I’ve been pondering the following comments for a couple of days now, and I’m pretty sure that after people read this they’ll suggest that I should have pondered away for a couple more.
But I feel the need to respond to some general complaints I’ve received from NASCAR fans since starting this blog. Now, I’ve never necessarily felt that having good sense and being a sports fan go hand-in-hand. Rooting for a person or team is an escape from reality that is supposed to detach us from our more reasonable faculties…to an extent. But some people tend to cross the line, and since in this political season declaring victory is en vogue, I’ve hereby elected myself to slap a few hands. You know who you are.
Complaint: Why is a guy in Long Island, New York writing about NASCAR?
That comment is dumber than the asphalt parking lot I’m looking at through the window of my office. But more than that, it’s a hypocritical complaint. NASCAR fans tend to gripe that they don’t get recognition as a Big Four sport in the mainstream media despite outpacing every one of them except football in many measuring sticks. And yet, when somebody sees something I write that they don’t like, they throw out some “You must be too busy covering the Yankees to know anything about NASCAR” line. In other words, you beg for coverage, and then when you get it and it’s not exactly what you want to hear, you ask that the offending outlet of opinion close its shop.
If you have a problem with one of my opinions, argue with me on the merits. But the whole New York thing is weak and childish. And by the way, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m originally from North Carolina. Don’t embarrass yourself further.
Complaint: I only like the whiny corporate-sellout drivers.
No, I like professionals. This is another area where NASCAR aficionados, maybe unintentionally, become a little two-faced. Fans laud the fact that NASCAR drivers are so much more down-to-earth, accessible and good-natured than many of those who occupy the top spots in other sports. And yet, the second someone becomes too agreeable to the media, sportsmanlike or kindhearted, he has officially become a “wussy.”
More at Long Island Press
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This is so true… Well put, I agree 110%
Nicely put, I completely agree with you.
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I love it, some of the best sports writers and broadcasters are all from the Northeast where Auto racing really started. I lived in Ridgewood NJ on the same street as Chris Economaki and he got my family into racing at the HoHoKus speedway back in the 1930,s and in Paterson is one of the legendary sppedways of the country, it was built of wood. Mark Garrow is from Rutland VT. he is one of the best announcers on the circuit. and as far as being from Long Island there use to be great racing out there. People from the south think that racing was born there but they were racing in the Northeast long before they were racing in the south.
Hypocrisy is in everything, it’s part of life!