Piggybacking: "The Cult of the Status Quo"

This post inspired by Bill Simmons's article on Grantland.com (more on that site later), where he embraces his own role as a bandwagon hockey fan. In it, he refers to hockey fans who were there all along who do not want new fans:

"Look, I totally get the Cult of the Status Quo, which afflicts MMA fans, hockey fans and American soccer fans in particular — they all have a chip on their shoulder because they're still in that "we're all rooting for a local music band and we don't want it to go mainstream" stage, so they unabashedly drive away anyone late to the party."

He then points out to those hockey fans that the arrival of people like him helps the sport. And to me this is always the point with "bandwagon" fans. When the Rockies made their famed 2007 Rocktober run, many were upset, almost offended, at the number of people who packed Coors Field who were nowhere to be seen in the skinny years prior. But wasn't it great to see the stadium full to the point of standing room only, and wasn't it great to hear the eruption when Matt Holliday hit that inexplicable triple? It's nothing but good for the Rockies, even if some of those fans bought a shiny new hat that day.

There are such better areas to expend one's "fan energy" than worrying about who was there first. And you do not enjoy your team's success any less than you would anyway. So let it go. Like Simmons, the way I see it, the more fans the better.

At this point I am going to insert a rare inside joke and see if any of my certain readers notice. "Bro, I don't even like Weezer anymore. I pretty much discovered them, but now that everybody likes them it's kind of like 'whatever.'"

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About Grantland: at one time I wanted nothing more than to be a sportswriter. I later decided that the grind of journalism was not for me; I just don't have the personality for it. However, I always said there is still a certain type of writing about sports that I am drawn to. I never totally knew how to describe it, and I always tried to avoid describing it as "more literary" because that sounds uppity and obnoxious. So what kind of writing would I want to do? The kind on Grantland.com. It's exactly the sports writing that I love. It's me.

Recently, my good friend Lindsey Costley (you know her as The Clean Freak) posted about her discovery of the site Autostraddle, and how badly she wants to write for them. Which I think she will, by the way. (And I'm trying to help...you laugh...). Just days later, I feel the same way about Grantland. 

To be clear, that is a lofty goal, seeing as Simmons surrounded himself with some New York Times bestselling authors (Dave Eggers - heard of him?). Nevertheless, I absolutely love what they are doing on Grantland and would love to be a part of something like it. As if they need my help, I absolutely recommend that everybody go check it out.