Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Guest Post: @Homersapien619 is mad at Orlando Hudson types . . . and he ain't gonna take it anymore!


A blog is a place to vent. As such, I have an open door policy to those who have become friends. When you factor into the equation that this post simultaneously denigrates both Orlando Hudson and Shaun Phillips I have little choice but to acquiesce.

This column comes from a man known on the Internet as @Homersapien619 and 'tis his first foray into the blogging business. Welcome him, please.

Congratulations, Homer! You're officially an a-hole.

This is my first ever blog submission. I’m normally one of the guys in the background, doing a lot of technical stuff, making the writers look good. Hopefully, this is going to live up to the Avenging Jack Murphy standards of excellence. That means there will be at least one Joe Randa reference, guaranteed. But, I haven’t been drinking Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, so it’s doubtful there will be any misspelled capitalization errors (see: vIlL WeNaBlE).

That having been said, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among San Diego “professional” athletes this year in terms of interacting with their fans via social media sites like Twitter.

If you don’t know, I have been coordinating social media locally for a Fortune 500 company, so I think I have a little insight into how not to interact with customers (aka fans) via Twitter. And lately, certain San Diego athletes have been doing it wrong.

I have dubbed it the “Mow My Lawn” rule, after the following interaction between Padres fan, Scott Colson and the account of Padres 2nd baseman Orlando Hudson.

I say account because it was obvious that someone else was tweeting for Orlando. But that’s another story altogether.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a Chargers fan. In fact, I’m really not a football fan. I follow the sport, but nowhere near as closely as others.

But Monday I just happened to come across a couple of tweets from two Chargers players that fall under the “Mow My Lawn” rule. The following tweets are prime examples of why I don’t like the Chargers organization as a whole, and the current players in particular.

First up, I give you TE Randy McMichael (@randymac81):
I didn’t include his tweet shortly after this one where he calls a fan an @$$hole after said fan made a joke involving some of the people he was following (Editor's note: Wow . . . you're not as big of an asshole as I thought, Homer!)
 
Hey, Randy. It’s never a good idea to denigrate grocery baggers. Next thing you know, your bread & eggs are underneath the milk.

Secondly, I give you everyone's Twitter favorite, LB Shaun Phillips (@ShaunPhillips95):
 What can I say about this sequence? I’ve heard it all before from Shaun. He’s notorious for berating critics with his tweets. Even when he deserves it.
 
 My point is this: Yes, we know that you’re getting paid to do a job that most of us can’t do. But you should remember that as fans, we pay our hard earned money to buy tickets. Or jerseys. Or t-shirts. Or MLB Extra Innings. Or NFL Sunday Ticket. Most of us don’t have a lot of disposable income to buy these things. So you should man-up and take the criticisms with a grain of salt.

Does this mean you should respond with “I’m sorry you feel that way, but I disagree with your point,” or “I understand and I’ll do better next time”? No. I’m sure I’d call you a pussy if you took that stance. But take some responsibility for the way your TEAM is playing.

That’s right, I said TEAM. 

The fact is that the Chargers have lost 5 in a row as I write this. I have no idea how Randy McMichael or Shaun Phillips are playing right now. They could suck more than the suckiest bunch of sucks whoever sucked. Or they could be invoking the image of Joe Randa, roundhouse kicking their way into the record books. But their TEAM is playing like the suckiest bunch of sucks whoever sucked.

There’s that word again. TEAM.

 *Editor's Note: Excellent Joe Randa product placement.

3 comments:

  1. Mr. Phillip has been hurt--or should I say injured, because football players don't play hurt--and has been inactive of late. As for McMichael? Don't know--never notice him in the game.

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  2. Good to see Shaun Phillips doesn't read this blog. Maybe he should.

    http://twitter.com/ShaunPhillips95/status/140988018134761474

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  3. And here's a link to a blog entry from my brother, who tells it like it is from the average fan's perspective:

    http://bigbaldmark.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/do-athletes-get-that-fans-are-emotionally-invested-in-the-team/

    ReplyDelete