The Square Life

Ladies and gentlemen, I have found the dumbest football fans in the world: the Utah State students.  

I had no intention of writing anything about the BYU game this weekend against Utah State, but after Utah State’s fans continued to annoy me, I couldn’t help it.  

First off, this was a really bad game for us. We played mediocre in the first half, and poorly in the second. However, the silver lining is that we were thankfully playing USU, and we still managed to beat them by 20. Now, back to my annoyance.  

For a very long time, I have felt that the “Overrated!” chant is the dumbest chant there is. Traditionally, the “Overrated!” chant is directed to an opposing team that is either highly rated, or at least rated above the home team. When fans start this chant, they are intending to point out that their opponent isn’t as good as people think.   

Now, this is nice in theory, but it almost always undercuts itself, and ends up making the home team look bad. Think about it.   

Let’s say you’re team isn’t ranked, and you’re playing a ranked team. Let’s say it’s the fourth quarter, and you’re team is about to win. You might be tempted to start chanting “Overrated!” but realize what you’re saying. What you really are saying is: “We’re not good enough to beat a ranked team, so you guys don’t deserve to be ranked.”   

Pretty dumb when you think about it, right? Well, what exactly does the “Overrated!” chant mean when you’re team is losing? “Man, we really stink! You guys should be killing us! Ha!” Why would any intelligent fan do something so stupid? Oh that’s right, an intelligent fan wouldn’t.  

When USU scored their second touchdown, making the score 34-14 in the fourth, the fans made a raucous chant of “Overrated!” as if they were about to win the game. They were down 20 points to an entirely uninspired team, and they pulled off the “Overrated!” chant. What’s the precedent for this? It’s like getting dumped by a girl you’re still in love with, and then yelling “Loser!” to the new boyfriend. Basically, either USU doesn’t love the ex-girlfriend (respectability, winning, you take your pick), or they’re not very sharp. I’ll go with either.  

Now, I’m willing to overlook the dozens of ugly overweight fans which sadly sported the shirtless look, and I can pretend I didn’t see multiple Aggie fans giving BYU fans the bird finger after they finally scored in the final period, but “Overrated!”? Really?    

I know USU’s season has pretty much been in the dumps, and I certainly don’t want to say they should just give up, but aren’t there better ways to show your excitement? Nothing like capping off a touchdown with a chant that makes you look downright pathetic, right? Watching the game in the fourth quarter, you’d think the Aggies were about to bust the BCS. But the reality was they were only busting a shut out. I seriously expected USU’s students to rush the field when the game ended. Shouldn’t this concern somebody?  

Back to a previous point. I lied. I can’t pretend I didn’t see those fans waving their middle finger at BYU fans. I have nothing else to say about that, but I felt I needed to be honest.   

One last thing. If I ever have to watch a football game again on KJZZ, I’m definitely pushing the mute button early on. Mike Norseth is the sports commentator equivalent of a USU fan. I half expected him to pull his shirt off and paint an “M” for Mike on his chest, beer belly and all.