"(Insert Team Name) Nation"

PJ_SalukiPJ_Saluki Posts: 1,006
edited November 2007 in All Encompassing Trip
"'(Insert Team Name) Nation' has to love the way this game is turning out!"

Ugh. Isn't it time to get rid of this stuff?

I'm listening to SIU dismantle Mississippi State, 63-49, Friday on its way to the championship game at the ESPN Annaheim Classic and the Salukis' play-by-play guy keeps describing SIU's fans as "Saluki Nation."

"Saluki Nation"?

What nation? French Guiana? A conglomeration of Lichtenstein, Monaco and the Seychelles?

According to the SIU Alumni Association Web site, SIU has about 220,000 alumni worldwide. That's a fair-sized city or a couple of islands, but not a "nation" of fans.

Even if SIU's fans were loud and out in a pretty good number, which I gathered from the broadcast they were, does making a bunch of noise qualify something for nation status? Don't answer that, Ahmadinejad.

Look, just because you have flags on your car or wave a towel or paint your face or eat a goldfish in the tailgate lot, it doesn't make you part of a "nation." It makes you part of a cult.

Blame Al Davis. His team started this mess.

"Raider Nation" -- we make Iraq look safe. And don't think of saying anything against "Darth Raider." He makes Musharraf look like Thrugood Marshall in both reason and response.

Maybe the Raiders can get grandfathered in if sports activists get this ridiculous phrase outlawed. But since it's the Raiders, they'll lose on some sort of "tuck" technicality if the NFL has any say in the matter.

And now fans are "nation"-building.

When "Red Sox Nation" was first rammed down our throats, it was kind of cute like your sister's kids are cute -- for about five minutes.

Sure, their "nation" iis large and growing larger with every World Series win, but c'mon, I've never seen President Tom Clancey or Secretary of the Interior James Taylor on C-SPAN. And who the hell is their U.N. ambassador? Matt Damon?

Maybe the Cleveland Indians or the Washington Redskins or Fighting Illini could have nations -- I mean, think of the Sioux -- but unless C.C. Sabathia or Clinton Portis or "Juice" Williams have to dodge small-pox-tainted blankets while getting their property ripped from them, I don't want to give them casino licenses.

This "nation" stuff just makes things too complicated.

I don't want to root for SIU but wonder to myself, "How did the leader of "Saluki Nation" feel about the war (or whatever it is) in Iraq? Are they part of the coalition of the willing or do they want the terrorists to win?"

Or, "What are the taxes like in "Saluki Nation"? Would it make more sense to commute to "Saluki Nation" from "Red Sox Nation"? Will I need to update my passport?

I like to keep my politics where they belong: behind the scenes at major awards shows or in campaign commercials on immigration that feature Chuck Norris.

You know, the serious stuff.
"Almost all those politicians took money from Enron, and there they are holding hearings. That's like O.J. Simpson getting in the Rae Carruth jury pool." -- Charles Barkley
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • mrwalkerbmrwalkerb Posts: 1,015
    the only "nations" I know of are Red Sox and Leafs Tragically I'm a member of the latter
    "I'm not suicidal, except when I drink. That's why we don't all drink at the same time, there'd be no-one alive to drive home..."
    Chris Cornell

    http://www.myspace.com/mrwalkerb
  • ryan198ryan198 Posts: 1,015
    damn u...i'm writing a whole dissertation on this.
  • PJ_SalukiPJ_Saluki Posts: 1,006
    mrwalkerb wrote:
    the only "nations" I know of are Red Sox and Leafs Tragically I'm a member of the latter

    "Maple Leafs Nation"? Isn't that more of a "province"? Even if it's not, "nation" is still a silly, self-important synonym for "fans" self-glossed by fans.

    It's gotten so ridiculous, I think the Red Sox are electing a President for the "Red Sox Nation."

    Can you imagine the negative campaign ads in that one?

    "Patrick O'Callahan says he's a member of 'Red Sox Nation,' but does his record back up that claim? O'Callahan, who says he's the 'World's Biggest Sox Fan,' doesn't even know the words to 'Tessie.' He once had the chance to spit on Bucky Dent and turned it down. In 2004, he even said that Derek Jeter was a better shortstop than Orlando Cabrera. Now I ask you, is that the man you want leading "Red Sox Nation"? Vote O'Toole on next November. Paid for by the 'We Are All O'Tooles Committee to Elect Shamus O'Toole.'"
    "Almost all those politicians took money from Enron, and there they are holding hearings. That's like O.J. Simpson getting in the Rae Carruth jury pool." -- Charles Barkley
  • PJ_SalukiPJ_Saluki Posts: 1,006
    But the worst part about those jokes -- besides the punchlines -- is that "Red Sox Nation" actually has its own President. No joke. Television baseball analyst Jerry Remy, a Red Sox Hall of Fame second baseman, won the "nation's" first-ever presidential election. Democracy at work.

    And just think, Jesse Ventura only won a gubernatorial election. Of course, he didn't have to worry about an assassination attempt from carpet-bagging former Sox third-baseman Wade Boggs. More power, more problems.
    "Almost all those politicians took money from Enron, and there they are holding hearings. That's like O.J. Simpson getting in the Rae Carruth jury pool." -- Charles Barkley
  • ryan198ryan198 Posts: 1,015
    haha...that's funny stuff man. the whole thing comes back to making a lot of loot, and that's basically it.
  • inmyrvminmyrvm Posts: 933
    that phrase was stolen from the steelers
    "Fuck the talkin' let's start rockin" - Eddie Vedder 9-5-00 Pittsburgh
    4/26/03 Pittsburgh 5/3/03 State College 7/12/03 Hershey 10/1/04 Reading 9/28/05 Pittsburgh 5/20/06 Cleveland 6/23/06 Pittsburgh 6/22/08 DC

    friends don't let friends listen to good charlotte
  • Red Sox nation was a 3rd world country until 2004, now everyone's moving there. I think Bono played a show for them or something, probably why they won the series in 04.

    Yes, I'm sick of any "Sports Nation". I'll stick with "The House that (Insert Name Here) Built".
    Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you are a racist, I will attack you with the North."
  • ryan198ryan198 Posts: 1,015
    you mean the house that ruth built which is being moved for the house that has more seats for rich people?
  • kc_pjkc_pj Posts: 284
    Husker Nation is quite happy right about now...
    "Seek my part, devote myself.
    My small self. Like a book amongst the many on a shelf."


    "I'm already 30% more unpredictable."
    -Pam Beesly
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