Today, as I was taking my dogs for a morning walk, I passed
a house with a UA flag on a pole hung at half mast. I found it a bit clever, perhaps a bit mellow
dramatic, but clever none the less. It was, after all, a tough weekend to be a
wildcat.
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| Cue Taps. |
Saturday marked the 86th Territorial Cup and
resulted in a 41-34 loss to ASU, which sent the trophy back up to Tempe. It is one of the oldest college rivalries in
the country and can get quite heated. So in an effort to signify the reflective
somberness that currently resides at that particular house, they flew their UA
flag at half mast.
Well done ASU; a hard fought and well deserved win for the
Sun Devils.
That site got me thinking about the rivalry, the game, and
the posts that I witnessed on facebook after the game was final. As would be expected, the ASU fans were ecstatic
and happily posting about the win while the UA fans were very quiet. Not surprisingly, I witnessed many negative
comments. It always seems like the ASU
fans are more likely to say something negative about UA or their fans, but
maybe that is only because I am more aware of that fact as a UA fan.
Not going to lie, I have posted this video a time or two . . .
This is not to say that UA fans are immune to being negative
and it is certainly is not to say that I have not been guilty of making a
negative comment about ASU or their fans.
But as I get older, this part of the rivalry has begun to disgust me a
bit.
I saw several people post that the best part of ASU winning
was seeing all the somber faces in the UA student section . . .
The best part was the sight of sadness or unhappiness on the
face of another human being.
‘Sandalmarks, now you are being a bit mellow dramatic.’
Maybe so, but where do we draw the line? At what point does a rivalry go too far? Sure, it very well could be all in good fun,
but sometimes it appears all too serious.
If you are able to say negative things of something as insignificant
as a group of people that root for the other team, doesn’t that make it easier
for you to say negative things about people that differ from you in other ways?
I’m not going to pretend that I know the exact location of
where that line should be drawn and I don’t necessarily think it is the same in
every instance. If you have a friend
that is a fan of the other team and you know they can appreciate a bit of
mutual ribbing, then I don’t see the harm.
I guess it comes down to the golden rule (as it usually
does). Think about what you are going to say.
How would you feel if someone said the same thing to you? And when in doubt, stay positive.
Oh, and in regard to the above video - I know many an ASU student/graduate that is exponentially smarter than I am.
Until next we meet.
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