This is a sports-centric post

So feel free to hit the "Mark as Read" if you are not interested in any of the following topics: football (american), Nate Kaeding, Figure Skating, Evan Lysacek, curling, bowling, hatred for the Raiders/Cowboys, or basketball hate.

this was such a sad, sad moment...photo credit to nydailynews.

Sunday was not a good sports day for me, unfortunately.  The Chargers lost in a very, very sad game against the Jets, 17-14.  So many penalties were called, it was kind of difficult to watch.  And poor Nate Kaeding (Charger's kicker), because he is being blamed up the damn wazoo.  Yeah, he could have definitely made two of those three missed field goals, and he arguably lost the game.  But really, the entire team was just way too riled up.  And seriously, TEN PENALTIES?!  WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS THINKING?!  Calm the hell down!  Jackson, why do you reverse your gain by almost half its distance?!  Gah...so frustrating.  It was an all around bad game, and no one teammate deserves all the blame.

And I have to say that one of my biggest sports-related pet peeves (yeah, there are multiple of them) is fairweather fans.  Seriously, stick with your team no matter what the hell happens!  And San Diego is possibly one of the worst fairweather football fan cities in the world.  So many people couldn't give two shits for the team when they weren't doing well in the beginning, and then when they started winning people wrote it off as "oh it's a fluke, they'll flub it up."  Then, when the streak got 5 games deep, tickets started to sell. 7 games deep, jerseys were flying off shelves.  By game 9, facebook statuses were up cheering for them.  We managed to go 11 games into a streak, then lost the playoffs.  And all of a sudden, everyone kept saying, "I knew it! They'd flub it up!  Fire Kaeding/Jackson/LT/Norv Turner!"  And that's such bullshit.  Every team is going to have their problems, and guess what?  In every season, 31 teams are going to LOSE.  So suck it up and stick by your damn team.

As much as I love Football, the fans easily ruin this game.  Which is one of the main reasons I hate the Dallas Cowboys and the Oakland Raiders--their fans completely ruin it for me.  Raider Nation is the bane of society, as far as I'm concerned.  I was at the NFL Experience about a decade ago (the host city of the Super Bowl puts on the "NFL Experience" the days before the game.  It's just a big gathering of football enthusiasts, basically), and unfortunately it was Raiders v. Buccaneers.  The Raider Nation was out full force, especially since SD is one of the biggest Raider rivals...ugh.  I will never get over my disgust at those fans.  They are the rudest, most pompous people ever.

Hi, I'm Ashley and I make blanket statements.  That are based in a little of truth though.

(photo taken from the the NBC Olympics site)

And also unfortunately but not quite as sad, Evan Lysacek came in second at Nationals for figure skating.  However, he made the Olympic team!  Not that that's really surprising, since he is the reigning world champion.  And even I will admit that Jeremy Abbott totally deserves that gold medal.  I felt really bad for Ryan Bradley, who fought so hard for that third place that just barely eluded him...even though I think Johnny Weir would have been placed on the US Olympic Team in spite of his placement.  Beautiful routines by most of them, at least...and I can't believe there were SEVEN attempts at a quad!  Five of which were successful, two of which were not (Evan...*sob*), but that's absolutely insane!  I remember watching this when I was a wee young lady, and it was amazing when people could consistently land triple axels!  Goodness the evolution of this sport.

So if it's not obvious, I'm kind of a closet sports fan.  Not so closet anymore, I guess, but you wouldn't really think it if you saw me.  The thing is, I kind of like the obscure sports.  And definitely the sports that actually tread on the fine line between 'sport' and 'activity'--like bowling (I was in a bowling league for 3 years).  And billiards.  I actually much prefer Trick Shot competitions, but I can do for some billiards, too.  Obviously, I dig football, which hardly counts as "obscure."  And I do love me some baseball, whether I'm playing it or watching it (I can admit the bore of it all on the television, though).  But I for reals dig swimming, gymnastics, curling, and obviously figure skating, and the luge...really I could just watch the Winter Olympics for the rest of my life.  Perhaps you've noticed the Countdown to Vancouver 2010 widget on the side of my page.

At the same time, I really dislike a lot of sports.  I absolutely hate hate hate basketball, which makes it a bit complicated because my brother is a superfan and plays basketball twice a week and, even as this post was written, he's headed back from LA from seeing a Clippers game.  And I hate to say it, but I'm not a big fan of soccer/football.  I'm a bad psuedo-Brit, I know.  And somehow I managed to escape being raised in Europe not liking soccer.  I admit that watching the ManU v. Arsenal game was fun when Samra made me go with her to a bar, but really I think I just enjoyed the British-like Pub we were at.  And I can convince myself to like anything on TV, really.  Oddly, I'm not a fan of any college sports.

Ok, apologies for the sports talk, blogosphere.  We now resume your regular Ashley.