We often getting letters of praise or criticism for what we write. I am posting this one because it is the most vitriolic I have ever received since Outsports began. It concerned my Super Bowl recap, which also ran on Gay.com. You can read it here, but in short I basically wrote about how happy I was that the Patriots lost. This letter, from which I have removed the name and e-mail address, is a classic in the angry fan genre:
Greetings from a sickening, disgusting, gag-inducing, insufferable Boston-area sports fan. Your article on the Patriot’s Super Bowl loss had to be one of the worst pieces of crap I’ve read on gay.com in a looooong time … and that’s saying a lot for website loaded with tons of crap. What did the Patriots and Red Sox ever do to you? Do you consider the Giants and Yankees to be prime examples of humility, generosity of spirit and all-around swell-guy kindness? Please! These are teams that wrote the book on bought-and-paid-for arrogance and their fans are never far behind. Your article is such a bitter rant that you might think your beloved team lost the Super Bowl. THEY WON! So shut up and move on.
While I’m impressed that you pulled a big word like schadenfreude out of your ass, you might want to check out a dictionary the next time you move beyond the monosyllabic. It really doesn’t apply when you are talking about Red Sox and Patriots fans. Just because people support their teams and are excited about their victories DOES NOT mean they are “taking pleasure from the misfortune of others” or engaging in “malicious glee or gloating.” Now if you really want to see an example of true schadenfreude, try this: I find it wholly ironic that you cast aspersions on ESPN. Have you looked in the mirror? You are a third rate writer for a third rate website. To those of us in the real world, that’s a guy who’s meaningless.
Enjoy the comment I left for your “article” on gay.com:
Jim Buzinski’s place in sports commentary: meaningless. Of all the post game comments I have read, yours has to be the most obnoxious, addle-brained and blindly biased. Yes, the Pats lost the Super Bowl. With that said, none of what came before is meaningless. Unless you are some inane writer for a gay website who thinks he knows something about sports. The Patriots sealed their place in history long before the Super Bowl. Sorry if the truth hurts, but those are the facts. Rather than talking about what a thrilling game it must have been for those watching at home, you decide it’s time to play a few rounds of smart-ass revisionist history. Maybe you should work where that kind of writing is celebrated … somewhere in the Bush/Cheney administration. Even more hilarious is your lame attempt at dinging ESPN. Yeah, a guy who writes for Outsports.com is really in a position to knock the single biggest brand and website in sports. Get a clue and life. You need both.
I have yet to reply. –Jim Buzinski
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 4:55 PM
Gee Cyd, you could have just posted your letter as your NFL notes rather than sending it to Jim in an email
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 6:48 PM
Wow. Just…wow. Is this what’s going on among all Boston fans? Is it possible that they’re worried that the good times are ending? Next up, the Celtics and Bruins…
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 7:26 PM
Here is my reply:
Thanks for your e-mail. As someone who has 25 years in sports journalism, it was one of the better rants I have seen. And kind of proved my point about why so many people were thrilled to see the Pats fall.
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 7:55 PM
This kind of fan exists everywhere for every team. It doesn’t “prove” anything about why people wanted the Pats to lose. I have gotten so many emails like this, particularly from liberals attacking me. Does that mean all liberals are evil and vindictive? Hmmm. Well, OK, maybe you have a point . . .
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 10:44 PM
So I wrote the guy and told him I reprinted his letter and he replies, “cool,” before ripping me again: “By the way, longevity in a field does not make one an expert or one’s opinions more valid. There are plenty of unqualified, ill equipped people who plug away at the same job for 25 years who do so with an equal amount of mediocrity. You obviously revel in the downfall of others. That is clear from the nasty, fanatical tone of your lengthy rant. I’m over the moon that I was able to respond in kind.”
Cyd asks: Does that mean all liberals are evil and vindictive?
No, only the ones who root for NE!
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 10:52 PM
I’m still trying to figure out what the guy wrote that was so objectionable…
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 11:29 PM
I love how the idiot letter writer assumes Jim is a Giants fan.
No, Cyd, “this kind of fan exists everywhere for every team” is total nonsense. I guarantee you, no Angels, Vancouver Canucks or Everton supporter I’ve ever met or read online comes close to the sheer breathtaking arrogance and sense of entitlement of the Massholes like Jim’s correspondent who’ve come out of the woodwork since the Pats started winning and especially since the Red Sox won their two titles. See: the inexplicably popular Bill Simmons. The temporary resurgence of the Celtics has shown this all over again. God help us all if the Bruins make the playoffs and go on a Stanley Cup run and I write that as an atheist!
Maybe it’s because the teams I support generally suck, but even when the Angels won the World Series in 2002, it was more “I can’t believe it” than hordes of Angels fans clogging up message boards with “Hahahahaha, suck it (SF) Giants and Yankees fans”.
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 11:36 PM
To add, having read the guy’s rant again: I also love how he lapses in to that weird Boston v. New York thing, again, assuming Jim’s from NY/a Giants fan. Boston’s inferiority complex about NYC is so bizarre to me; except for lacking a good opera company, it’s a great city with nothing to apologize for. It’s like the people I meet when I go up to San Francisco who, when they find out I live in Los Angeles, immediately start ranting about freeways, Hollywood and surfing. Um, who asked you?
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 11:46 PM
“I’m still trying to figure out what the guy wrote that was so objectionable…”
Hey Todd, you said you liked my postgame writeup!
on Feb 5th, 2008 at 11:56 PM
Aren’t most Pats fans liberals anyway? I mean, the team’s based in “Taxachusetts.”
on Feb 6th, 2008 at 2:49 AM
Scientific proof that Boston sports fans are teh suck!!!.
Well, OK, it’s a physicist voicing his opinion, but hey, that’s good enough for me!
I especially like the link in post #20, which pokes fun at bigger losers than Boston sports fans, global warming deniers.
on Feb 6th, 2008 at 2:51 AM
^^crap, hit the wrong button, that should be “global climate change” instead of “global warming”.
on Feb 6th, 2008 at 4:33 PM
“Hey Todd, you said you liked my postgame writeup!”
I did, and I do…I was just funnin’ with you, Jim, because I’ve had a whole football season to acclimate myself to your writing.
But I can see how your writeup might’ve gotten some Pats fan’s panties in a wad…It seems like you really hit a nerve with this guy. Hell hath no fury like a Pats fan scormed. If you plan on coming to Beantown in the future, you might want to invest in some pepper spray…
(For the record, I’m crazy about “Outsports.com”. I mean, where else on the Web can you discuss the NFL and “Ugly Betty”?)
on Feb 6th, 2008 at 5:32 PM
While I would have been much more tactful about it so that it would be taken seriously, they guy makes a point. This season for the Patriots and all that they have accomplished is NOT meaningless. Yes, they lost the biggest game of the year, but the fact remains that they now hold many records that were and still should be considered sacred. My guess is if any other team had set these new records, you would not have minded. And while I don’t agree with the ‘personal attacks” the writer made against you, there is a point to be made about being objective in journalism whether it be sports, entertainment or REAL news. Oh, what am I thinking. Journalistic objectivity and integrity across the board died years ago, somewhere around the time a certain shrub invaded the white house. But I digress.
on Feb 6th, 2008 at 5:44 PM
Well, several Patriots players have called the season a “waste” and I quoted Ellis Hobbs on it. Their goal was to win the SB. As a Colts fan, I can tell you that Peyton’s then-record 49 TDs in 2004 and 13-0 start in 2005 were quickly forgotten when they lost in the playoffs (as Pats’ fans were quick to chortle over!). The only record the Patriots truly cared about is the one that lists SB champs.
Also puzzled as to the “objectivity” argument. These notes reflect how Cyd and I see the NFL and are a mix of fact and opinion (like many NFL notes columns). I thought I factually broke down the game itself, and used my opinion to judge how I saw the Pats’ 2007 legacy. Cyd has a different take and his opinion is no more or less worthy than mine. Columns are by their nature meant to provoke and stimulate opinion; this was a not a “game story” that either of us was writing (and which would have bored everyone).
Final follow on my e-mailer: He writes me again and tells me that he’s not a Pats fan! I then wrote back as to why then my article so upset him that he wrote me 3 times and have yet to get a reply.
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 1:48 AM
I think the writer makes some valid points. You are a highly biased writer. I have always ASSumed that was your intent.
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 4:58 PM
I don’t think the writer made any valid points. It’s just a bunch of histrionics from a very bitter person who seems to be a Pats fan but denies it in subsequent correspondence. If he’s not a Pats fan, why does it upset him?
As for that “highly biased writer” crack, someone writing an opinion piece instead of a straightforward report HAS to show some sort of opinion. Otherwise what you get is an extremely boring article.
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 10:24 PM
Wow!
There are def a lot of Hatriots out there and of all team colors! It has taken this long to recover from the dagger the Giants put in my heart, but this will pass. Yes we fell, we stumbled and plain just got our asses handed to us. But, after watching Strahan and the rest of the team state that they “stomped” the Patriots out in front of 2 million people in NYC really did not sit well for this Boston area fan–so long live the rivalry. To me I watched an incredible game. Not one that was a blowout in any direction but one that was hard-fought and deservedly won by the NYGFC. Following what was and is still an incredible season for the boys of the ‘bourough, I’ve found through the loss that humble pie tastes like bitter dirt and grass. I will admit that at some point I felt uncomfortable with some of the runaway wins in the early season. Later in the season I was not as hopeful and confident of our OL or secondary. Many of my CoPatriots knew that there was a weakness in BB’s plan—“We knew who we were”, but we kept winning. But I also remember back to the Giants match up against the Pats in Nov. when NYG fans were trying to gouge the Bostonians by selling their ticks and booing their own team. They certainly didn’t bELIve back then. But this is all water under the bridge. Both teams will go on and we will have to see what next season holds. As a life long Pats fan, yes I’ve been spoiled. Watching the last 7 seasons have been an incredible ride, but one I wouldn’t trade for the world. There was a day when wearing a Pats jersey (like in the 80’s) didn’t emit any emotion good or Hate. That has changed. That’s why we are called fans–short for fanatic. Flying the Patriot colors comes with a price and you better have thick skin.
See ya at Cheers and good luck getting to Tampa Bay!