Favorite Sports Traditions

[PeytonManningRocks]

Dislikes:

The singing of the national anthem before games. I just don't understand what the point of it is.

I am in complete agreement with this. I can't stand it.

Come to think of it, I agree completely. Don't want to sound unpatriotic or anti-American, but the national anthem and/or "God Bless America" doesn't belong in every single event in the sporting world except on important national days, like July 4th or Memorial Day.

[OnWis97]

Dislikes:

The singing of the national anthem before games. I just don't understand what the point of it is.

I am in complete agreement with this. I can't stand it.

Come to think of it, I agree completely. Don't want to sound unpatriotic or anti-American, but the national anthem and/or "God Bless America" doesn't belong in every single event in the sporting world except on important national days, like July 4th or Memorial Day.

You DON'T sound unpatriotic or anti-American. Wanting these songs everywhere has nothing to do with patriotism.

People confuse patriotism and nationalism far too often.

[oddball]

Dislikes:

The singing of the national anthem before games. I just don't understand what the point of it is.

I am in complete agreement with this. I can't stand it.

Judging by signature..i think i see why...

Oh I get it. He's an Obama supporter so he must hate America. Damn, I wish I were capable of that type of analysis.

Nice cheap shot.

Or, even though it was sarcastic to begin with, he could just be referring to the fact that the man tends to disrespect our national anthem...

How does covering one's heart with one's hand constitute "respect"?

You know, I guess it officially doesn't. But to me, and I'm sure many others, it is a respectful move in that situation. I mean, how hard would it have been? The man's running for president. You gotta take the little things like that into account.

But anyway, this isn't what this thread is about. Back to Sports Traditions.

100th post.

Great! Communism at it's best! Why do people think that there's only one way to do things? It's ridiculous that we criticize a football player that doesn't wear a United States flag on his helmet, but we refuse follow the rules of wearing an American flag as many teams do and some do, incorrectly. I'm sorry, I missed the memo that you have to put your hand over your heart during the National Anthem. I didn't know that standing at respect during the National Anthem was wrong. Wow! Communism at it's best! It's the government's way or it's no way! Oh yeah, and anyone with a brain knows your heart is in the middle of your chest and on the left as the other three morons in that picture can't figure out. And someone thought Hillary Clinton could run the country when she has no clue where her heart is... oh wait, it's Hillary, she has no heart!

[BostonBlazer]

I don't know what I could say for a most favorite sports tradition. But my least favorite is using "R&R Pt. 2" as a goal/victory song. It's not that I don't like the song. It's that it's the biggest cliche in sports in my opinion.

[BB61]

Considering the fact that I don't attend many NFL games, I really enjoy hearing 66,000 drunken Eagles fans caterwaul "Fly, Eagles Fly" at the top of their lungs when I went to a preseason game last year. I especially like the "E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!" chant at the end of the song.

However,

I find it quite annoying that people started doing it at other sporting events -- Phillies games, Flyers games, whatever. You'd always have some idiots starting the "E-A-G-L-E-S" chant and it would just get old in a hurry.

I agree with BBtV about the home run balls at CBP. I have no intention of ever doing so, at least until I get my first one.

One of the things I really love about Aussie Rules football is that each team has a club song. Not a "fight song" necessarily, but just a "we are more awesome than you song". I also like how most of these songs are blatant ripoffs of old songs, such as "When the Saints Go Marching In" (St. Kilda Saints), "It's a Grand Old Flag" (Melbourne Demons), and "Keep Your Sunnyside Up" (Essendon Bombers).

[Gothamite]

Like European football - American sports fans are waaay too insecure to ever adopt a song like this.

Ye gods, I love the English.

[Camden Crazy]

I think I'm the only one that loves storming the court/field. Last year in high school we rushed the football field 3 times and the basketball court once, all were huge wins against rivals or, in the instance of one football game, a very significant game. Nothing went wrong and it was amazing each time. I wish I could do it again.

[ShinyHubCaps]

I think I'm the only one that loves storming the court/field. Last year in high school we rushed the football field 3 times and the basketball court once, all were huge wins against rivals or, in the instance of one football game, a very significant game. Nothing went wrong and it was amazing each time. I wish I could do it again.

My premise was, though, the fact that you did it that often, it dilutes its significance.

[Drew22]

Our high school rushed the field last year after we beat our rivals from down the street. That was it though.

[nwtrailtrekker]

Likes:

One Uniform Color for fans to wear. (Black out/white out, etc)

Lambeau Leap

Towel Power (Canucks..not Steelers)

Hockey Handshakes

Rioting the streets after big games

Dislikes:

Throwing Home Run balls back onto the field

Yelling out certain words in the National anthem (Stars-Dallas, Brave- Atlanta)

[TFoA]

Likes:

One Uniform Color for fans to wear. (Black out/white out, etc)

Lambeau Leap

Towel Power (Canucks..not Steelers)

Hockey Handshakes

Rioting the streets after big games

Dislikes:

Throwing Home Run balls back onto the field

Yelling out certain words in the National anthem (Stars-Dallas, Brave- Atlanta)

Nobody does that, idk where folks are getting that from. I mean, like Hedley said, the Thrashers fans yell out "Knight!" but I've never heard anybody scream out Brave unless they were singing along with it.

[DrBear]

Likes: Script Ohio (and I'm NOT a Buckeyes fan! It's just great), UGA, waving the arms for "Varsity" at halftime of Wisconsin games, chanting "sieve, sieve" after the home team scores a goal, the Lambeau Leap (natch), the "waving of the wheat", the school songs at the end of Army-Navy, NFL team fight songs, the St. Joseph's Hawk flapping his wings the whole game, ... man, am I old school.

Dislikes: Any music in a stadium that is NOT played by live musicians, the 12th Man in Seattle (Texas A&M had it first), a "first ball" every night to honor some sponsoring company,

Oh, and message board discussions that degenerate into silly political arguments between people too pig-headed to admit any group but their own can possibly be correct.

I miss: Organ music at ballparks, the Packer fight song at each kickoff, ABC doing the Olympics and the original "Bugler's Dream" music.

[illwauk]

Dislikes:

The singing of the national anthem before games. I just don't understand what the point of it is.

I am in complete agreement with this. I can't stand it.

Come to think of it, I agree completely. Don't want to sound unpatriotic or anti-American, but the national anthem and/or "God Bless America" doesn't belong in every single event in the sporting world except on important national days, like July 4th or Memorial Day.

I'll co-sign to this as well. I never liked having to sit through it and never even understood the purpose. What about sports makes it necessary to confirm that we're in the U.S. at every game?

[LEWJ]

Like:

College Bands & Fight Songs (especially the" band battles" for the black colleges)

Lambeau Leap/Leap into the Dawg Pound

Crazy TD celebrations

Female play-by-play announcers (they make me sick)

The Wave

Stadium giveaways

Mascots

Coaches shaking hands after games (NFL, NCAA)

Standing Ovations

Rivalry Games (especially NCAA Football/NFL)

Dislike:

15 yard penalties for excessive celebrating (way to inconsistent)

Thunder Sticks (annoying as hell)

NFL Cheerleaders (Hot as hell, but such a dumb idea)

College Bowl Games--Get a friggin playoff! system

Corporate Sponsors for everything now (Home Run Derby, Bowl Games, etc.)

And way more prolly.

[tp49]

Dislikes:

The singing of the national anthem before games. I just don't understand what the point of it is.

I am in complete agreement with this. I can't stand it.

Come to think of it, I agree completely. Don't want to sound unpatriotic or anti-American, but the national anthem and/or "God Bless America" doesn't belong in every single event in the sporting world except on important national days, like July 4th or Memorial Day.

I'll co-sign to this as well. I never liked having to sit through it and never even understood the purpose. What about sports makes it necessary to confirm that we're in the U.S. at every game?

I agree with this at least when it comes to God Bless America. There's no need to play it during the 7th inning stretch though I think now it's only the Yankees that do this. I understand the premise but considering when and why the started the practice, it's just a seemingly constant reminder of that day. It should be limited to once or twice a year (4th of July/ 9/11).

Another dislike is the high number of college bowl games. If they're going to keep that system then it should be limited to a reasonable number of games. Though as stated above a playoff system would be better.

I do like player introductions at the beginning of the MLB All-Star Game (probably the only part of the game I'll watch) and before the first game of the World Series in each park.

I also like the tradition of each player on a Stanley Cup winning team to be able to have their day alone with the cup to do whatever.

[Thad]

Rushing the field is my personal favorite (did it at both Semi-Final games). The marching band leading in the football team is always awesome. At App, there's a huge inflatable helmet that covers the entrance to the locker room, and right before the players come out of it you can see the thing bouncing around that thats just crazy to watch. They then run through the band playing the fight song and I'm just fired up after that. Black Saturday (either against Furman or Georgia Southern, two conference rivals) is also a day where the atmosphere is amazing. Rammer Jammer after Alabama wins are awesome also.

I don't like how everyone plays "In the Air Tonight", it's kinda overused.

[BlueSky]

Dislikes:

The singing of the national anthem before games. I just don't understand what the point of it is.

I am in complete agreement with this. I can't stand it.

Come to think of it, I agree completely. Don't want to sound unpatriotic or anti-American, but the national anthem and/or "God Bless America" doesn't belong in every single event in the sporting world except on important national days, like July 4th or Memorial Day.

Yeah, when you look around at third-world countries where people are watching their children starve while warlords and their thugs get fat on U.N. aid meant for the people, or where women are shot and buried alive for daring to say they want to choose their own husbands, sure, I can understand why you'd object to taking 3 or 4 minutes to show appreciation and respect for this relative paradise we're all very fortunate to live in. I mean, since 80 to 90% of our population can't be bothered to vote in routine elections as it is, and spends twice the effort to avoid jury duty that it would actually take to serve, and has plenty of time to play World of Warcraft but none for civic activities, what the hell, let's dump the National Anthem too and show in just one more way how so many of the people lucky enough to live here take America for granted.

OK, seriously, you "don't see the point"? That's truly astounding.

[winghaz]

The photo of Obama reminded me of one of my pet peeves: People who don't take their caps or hats off during the national anthem.

Gang, you're supposed to do this. No, it's not the law, but it's a matter of respect. It's like saying "Excuse me" when you burp -- you don't have to do it, but you look like a jerk when you don't.

[PeytonManningRocks]

The photo of Obama reminded me of one of my pet peeves: People who don't take their caps or hats off during the national anthem.

Gang, you're supposed to do this. No, it's not the law, but it's a matter of respect. It's like saying "Excuse me" when you burp -- you don't have to do it, but you look like a jerk when you don't.

Well where did that one come from anyway? Not trying to stir up something, but where did this whole custom of taking the hats off become so prevalent? For that matter, what about the whole "guys shouldn't wear hats indoors" thing? Do any of these "traditions" have a purpose, or are they just tradition for sake of tradition?

[tBBP]

The photo of Obama reminded me of one of my pet peeves: People who don't take their caps or hats off during the national anthem.

Gang, you're supposed to do this. No, it's not the law, but it's a matter of respect. It's like saying "Excuse me" when you burp -- you don't have to do it, but you look like a jerk when you don't.

Well where did that one come from anyway? Not trying to stir up something, but where did this whole custom of taking the hats off become so prevalent? For that matter, what about the whole "guys shouldn't wear hats indoors" thing? Do any of these "traditions" have a purpose, or are they just tradition for sake of tradition?

To the first of those two...while this isn't absolute fact, the removal of the hats during the national anthem-as well as the Pledge of Allegiance-is rooted in military tradition to a degree. As for the second one...that again is rooted in military customs and courtesies--but, to add to that, guys removing headgear indoors is also rooted in Southern virtue (those of us brought up in the Deep South know this as "fact")--which is also why it's considered disrespectful to place hats on the breakfast/lunch/dinner table to some of us southern-fried folk.

But anyway...getting back to the main point of this thread...

DISLIKES

Intentional storming of the field/court. Usually one can tell when this is about to happen because 1/ the game will probably already be iced close to the end and b/ you can see people in the stands looking like they're PLOTTING to rush the field/court (and in some cases, head straight for the goalposts--I can still remember the knucklehead who climbed damn near to the top of the post and got a ride from the throngs of fans carrying him and the pole at the end of a college game some years back--I wanna say that happened either at Virginia Tech or East Carolina. (I don't even know if this is much a "tradition" as it is just a repeated "occurrence".

-The seventh-inning stretch. I don't hate it, but this is why I think it's goofy: you're singing a song about taking yourself or someone else out to a ballgame...2/3 of the way through the game you're already at. That just don't make no sense to me--but then, I ain't exactly the biggest fan of baseball, anyway.

LIKES

The Lambeau Leap. While I think it looks retarded, I'm fairly certain it started in Green Bay, and as much, I can respect that.

College football game rivalry trophies, such as Paul Bunyan's Axe (I think it is), whatever it is Oregon and Oregon State tussle over in the Civil War (I'm drawing a blank right now), and the like. Some of these games even have names, such as the Egg Bowl between Ole Miss and Miss. State, the aforementioned Civil War, and of course my favorite--the IRON BOWL. (Now there's a tradition if ever there was one--even when one team sucks elephant balls and the other's a powerhouse, you can NEVER predict how that game is going to go)

-Cutting down the nets at the Final Four championship. I got curious the first time I saw Jim Valvano and his NC State team do it back in the day and have been stoked for and about that since then.

-And, of course--the Stanley Cup. Everything about it. The fact that the name of pretty much every singular person who played on a Cup-winning team is etched on that thing, the fact that each team member gets to take a victory lap with the cup after the team wins it (I believe the whole team gets to do it, anyway), the fact that each team member gets to spend a day with that Cup...THAT's how you appreciate some tradition right there.

(I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this one, but um uh..does anyone know if it is the same exact Cup that gets passed on from team to team from year to year? I believe it is, and if so, that only adds to the aura of the Cup--especially knowing that some of the greatest to have ever played your sport held that same piece of hardware. It's a little spooky to think about--but in a good way.)