People in the newsroom who loudly refer to a college team as 'we'

Like most everything Brick complains about: WTFC?

 

Boy ain't that the truth. UNC hits me up all the time with letters asking for money. I think they more than enough from me when I was in school.

 

I think we is also acceptable if you've got money on the game. But then again, I've been accused of being immoral, amoral and unethical.

 

There's one real bad in sports, one REAL bad in news.

Amazingly enough, both whoop and holler about MY alma mater, which I never breathe a word about. I threw away all my fanboi t-shirts decades ago.


If you're not ON THE TEAM ... You're. Not. On. The. Team.

 

Did you also whip yourself for the cheering indiscretions of your youth?

 

Say oui.

 

This is actually a thread and a discussion and people accuse me of being "all-angry all-the-time"........ :

 

As long as it doesn't show up in print, this one doesn't bother me much.

 

I once covered a D1 college football game with a co-worker, who was a huge fan of the home team. Afterwards, we're waiting for coaches and players. My co-worker keeps saying "we" this and "we" that and if "we" had etc. He's talking to other media members while going on his "we" fanfest. And no, he wasn't an alum of the school.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_man_%28football%29

 

It's immature to get worked up about fan behavior in private settings, which newsrooms mostly remain. Alabama football is basically the only team I am particularly into these days, and Tuscaloosa is more than 300 miles away from where I live now. My professionalism at work has never been anything close to an issue. But I don't mind the guys who live and die by the local teams, even those who use "we" to describe the local professional teams.

It might have bothered me when I was fresh out of college and had a sense of righteous indignation that comes with a few too many journalism ethics classes. It's not that those high standards of ethics have been drained from me, it's that I've come to realize they don't apply and shouldn't be applied to every facet of life. Coming out of college, reality shows bothered me because they didn't depict actual reality. That's silly. Reality shows aren't journalism, and neither are reactions to a game that happen to come in a newsroom.

We're in the sports media business, and those fanatics drive our livelihoods. We need people to hold to their teams passionately, to live for every play and every injury and every suspension and every player of the week trophy. Why we would fight fanhood is beyond me.

I don't often use first-person plural pronouns to describe the Crimson Tide, but sometimes I let a "we" or an "us" or an "our" slip. Sometimes, a friend or coworker will call me on it. That used to embarrass me, but I came to realize my connection to Alabama is a good, healthy, normal thing that should be embraced. I'm not going to poison any trees or teabag dead people just because I think our linebacking corps should be really good this year even without Dont'a Hightower and Courtney Upshaw.

You're doing no good fighting this fight, Starman. I don't know what motivates you. I've heard different reasons. It's not unprofessional because it's in a newsroom. Of course, it would be wildly unprofessional of me to go up to Nick Saban and say "Roll Tide" as a reporter at a game. Reporters look like asshats when they use first-person plural in questions to refer to the team. But the newsroom is an office space. I've never been in a newsroom where the only thing going on is journalism. I'd consider it far more professional to be the guy pumping his fist after every first down than the guy who doesn't even know which teams are playing in a game that's the sports centerpiece.

I'm not that guy. My celebrations, even during Alabama games, are more muted (unless I've been drinking). But people deserve the right to freely express themselves in a non-harmful manner in their offices. So, Roll fucking Tide.