NEW YORK (Mikeylito.com) — I’ve spent a good part of the day bouncing around between sports radio in New York and sports radio in Los Angeles listening to the fussing and feuding of sports fans of intra-city rivalries in both cities.
In New York, the dismal performance of both NFL teams have set up a do-or-die NFL contest this coming Saturday, Christmas Eve, at MetLife Stadium. For fans of the New York Jets and the New York Giants, one will get a good Christmas present; the other will get a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the machinations of the National Basketball Association have placed Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups and Caron Butler in the locker room of the Los Angeles Clippers, Lamar Odom in Dallas and the fans of the Los Angeles Lakers in a schizophrenic funk.
It’s just the latest example of how sometimes we take our sports just a little too fanatically.
The most hilarious comments of the day have come out of L.A. where I’ve been listening to Laker fans on ESPN Los Angeles (KSPN 710) going positively hysterical because Clipper fans are boasting that they have the better team in town. LakerNation has been pulling out all the stops talking about 16 years of championships and the championship banners and so on. While all of that is true, the vast majority of the Clippers’ players haven’t been around to witness any of that. In other words, it’s history. As Chris Paul alluded to last Friday, this current brand of Clippers is looking to make its own history.
You have to start somewhere.
In New York, both local football teams were dismal on Sunday and now both are fighting for their playoff lives. The reality, though, is despite whomever wins on Saturday, probably neither team will go very far in the playoffs, if they even qualify.
However, that won’t stop the fans of the Giants or the fans of the Jets warring over which is the better football team this Saturday and beyond. Just like whatever happens in tonight’s preseason contest in Staples Center won’t stop fans of the Lakers or fans of the Clippers from having the same discussion.
To quote a comedian of some note…
…not that there’s anything wrong with that.
And so it goes.
Mikeylito @LEISURE 