Trash talking is one of the great things that are associated with sports. It brings up friendly (and sometimes unfriendly) competition between friends, both real and virtual, co-workers and family members. However, there are some lines that should never be crossed when talking trash, especially with rivalry games. There are a few things that are said constantly when it comes to trash talk, but only make your credibility as a sports fan worse; also making your team look worse in the process. In my opinion, these are the five worst things (in no particular order) that you can say when talking trash after a loss:
1.) “Oh well, we just didn’t play well”- Is there such a thing as an off game? Yes. But can just saying that your team didn’t play well just dismiss the loss? No. More often than not, the reason your team “didn’t play well” is because of how well the other team played. If your favorite football team gave up 10 sacks in one game, that is not because you didn’t play well. It is because the other team’s defensive line dominated your teams offensive line for an entire game. Does it ever occur to people who use the “we didn’t play well” excuse that maybe this had something to do with the way the other team played?
2.) “We still have a better record”- Saying that your team has a better record than the team that just beat you is such an irrelevant argument, the bottom line is your team lost and the other team won. In college basketball, if Northwestern beat Indiana this year, it would be completely unjust for Indiana fans to say that they have a better record than Northwestern. The bottom line is (if this scenario were true) is that Northwestern won the game that is all that matters.
3.) “It was the referees fault we lost the game”- Did the ref’s cause the basketball not to go in the hoop? Or was it the refs who caused your team to miss tackles? It is possible for referees to blow calls, but 99% of the time the reason a team lost is not completely on the ref’s. If you lost by 1, you should have made another basket, scored another goal, or kicked one more field goal. None of these things have anything to do the referees.
4.) “We still lead the all-time series”- This one could be the worst of them all. Bringing the 1920’s into a debate about a game that just happened is ridiculous. This happened a few weeks ago when Michigan State put a beat down on U of M. Wolverine fans kept bringing up the fact that yes, U of M does lead the all-time series in basketball. But how does the fact that Michigan won in the early 1920’s, have anything to do with the game that just transpired. Harvard and Yale were dominant football programs in the early 1900’s. Does that in any way make them dominant programs today or does anyone put any stock into the fact that at one time they were a good team? No!
5.) “The postseason is the only thing that matters”- Is this statement technically true? Yes, you could make the argument. But, in this case, and in this situation, it is completely invalid. If your team had been the team to win, would the postseason still be the only thing that mattered? No! It would be the biggest deal in the world that your team just won. This is just one of many invalid excuses, trying to validate the fact that your team lost.
Accepting a loss, not trying to make ridiculous excuses is the way to go when your team has lost. You will find, if you accept the loss, and move on from it, you personally will receive less criticism then those who stay up all night on Twitter reasoning with the winning team’s fans on why the loss doesn’t matter. If I’m a fan of the winning team, I am much more likely to hate on the person who won’t stop making excuses for their losing team, then one who accepts the loss and doesn’t try to validate a loss that simply, cannot be validated.
