Our Team Sucks! Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb!

As I've mentioned previously, I hate it when sports fans lean on the rhetorical crutch of calling a player or team "overrated". Nevertheless, I understand why its so appealing. Its a simple but unmistakable insult. Its vague and therefore hard to really refute. Most of all, there are a lot of peripheral things in sports which are subjectively determined: all star selections, MVPs, HOF inductions. When making the case that your favorite athlete deserves such honors, its almost necessary to state that others are "overrated" and therefore undeserving.

However, one thing I can't understand is that stupidest of sports chants:

"OVER-RATED!!!! *clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*!!!"

For those unfamiliar, this chant usually makes an appearance at the end of an upset victory, shouted loudly and moronically by the fans of the victorious underdog. From North to South, sea to shining sea, you need only stumble upon an unexpected win and your ears will be assaulted by this catch ditty. It is, for the most part, a phenomenon limited to collegiate and high school level sports, where subjective rankings are often matters of life and death to die hard fans. Fans of professional sports are prone to several dumb behaviors, including shelling out $9 for a plastic cup of Miller Lite, but at least they mostly avoid this chant.

The idiocy of the "overrated" chant is as plain as day. If the team your team just beat really is "overrated", then your victory is diminished. In effect, these joyous fans are taking what should be a moment of celebration and crapping all over themselves by declaring in unison: "Your team sucks, and as proof, you just lost to US!" It logically follows that their team also sucks.

Perhaps the worst part about this cheer is when its used during a victory which is largely the result of bad luck on the part of the losing team. One example especially sticks out in my memory. This last season I was watching college football, Oklahoma at Texas Tech. At the time the Sooners were ranked high in the BCS polls and had a pretty good shot at a bid to the national championship game if they could win all their remaining games. Tech was unranked but it was a conference home game so they were up to play.

On the very first series of the game, starting Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford suffered a blow to the head, resulting in a concussion. Rules of safety and common sense meant that he was done for the evening, turning the offense over to the inexperienced hands of his backups. Anyone who follows football knows the value of an experienced starting QB, especially in a hostile road game. Tech took advantage of Bradford's absence, feeding off the energy of the home fans and building a large lead. The Sooner offense finally got on track later in the game and staged a rally, but time ran out on them and the Red Raiders took the game by a TD, 34-27.

For a college football fan like me it was a great game to watch. And then I heard it through the TV, coming from the joyous Tech fans: "OVER-RATED!". I was stunned by their stupidity. Not only were they discounting their own team's hard fought victory, but they didn't even acknowledge the huge gift handed to them when Bradford had to leave the game. The Sooners with their starting QB were one of the best teams in college football. Indeed, after Bradford healed and returned to the lineup, and the Sooners went on to win their Conference. But the idea that they were the same team after having their star knocked out and replaced by an inexperienced backup was asinine. I'll try to express it as a mathematical model:

(Highly ranked team)-(vital star player) = (No longer highly ranked team)

To top it all off, the backup eventually found his bearings and staged a decent 4th quarter rally, forcing Tech to hold on by their fingernails to secure the win. Had Bradford been able to play, its fair to say that the Sooners would have played a lot better prior to the 4th quarter and probably would have taken the game. His injury was a godsend for Tech, and here their fans were too stupid or arrogant to acknowledge this stroke of good fortune.

So please people, ditch this chant. I know its tempting, in the heat of the moment, as your favorite team of scrappy underdogs pulls one out against the hated powerhouse rival and the thrill of victory is rushing through your veins, to join in and shout it out at the top of your lungs. But please resist, you're only denigrating yourself.

If anything, fans should try a 180 on the whole thing and start an "Under-Rated" chant. The reasoning is simple: "That team there, our opponent, they are clearly underrated! # 8 in the country you say? Pfft! What a farce! They are easily top 5, and if those voters had a collective brain between them they'd be #2! I demand they be given their rightful ranking! And since they are # 2 in the nation, judging by the scoreboard of this match, which shows our side clearly ahead, it must be that our boys are the true #1! Huzzah!" This could work people.