"Omigod, I can just imagine the dread of people discussing a current event that they all shared interest in last night. How dreadful and unoriginal," drone all the hipsters after any disappointing loss around Pittsburgh. "It's just like that time I predicted those people would cry at that funeral. How mundane."
When you're from Pittsburgh, it is culturally significant to be passionate about your football teams--and sports in general. You are not promoted up the food chain in any way by hipishly pulling a finger from your mocha espresso to point accusingly at people discussing a significant community event.
Of course, in pointing this out, I've indirectly created a third level of meta-cool-hipster that points out how cool I am by blogging about hipsters that are so cool that they've pointed out that people are going to talk about a major sporting event the day after it happens. It may well tear a hole in the time-space continuum, but I digress.
Pittsburgh is a community that had its industrial rug and heart ripped out from under it at just about the time two major, local sports teams were emerging. The City of Champions was a fine hook to hang our hats on while the rest of our lives were hurting. And, true to our nature, Pittsburghers are industrious and helpful. We do not simply moan and say there's a problem. We try to identify a way to fix it -- often mixed with the passion we have for our sporting programs.
Sure, there are different plays, players, aspects and influences that stand out in the minds of people with varying levels of understanding of the sport, but the bottom line is that when a loss occurs there is something wrong with something Pittsburghers care deeply about, and therefore, we're trying to do something about it. It's like seeing the potential in your kid and pointing out behaviors that can help or hurt progress.
There's not a formula, there's a consensus on the pathway to progress. Consensus is built through trial and error and cultural exchange of ideas and opinions. People rise to new heights and levels of understanding though studying these exchanges. Some are happy to yell it out on the sidelines or at their TV's. Some discuss it among their friends. Some hone it into a skill that enables them to write and discuss it through a medium. Some take it to a level where they are professionals, coaches and advisors. But, it all starts in the examination of what works and what doesn't.
So, it's funny to see the hipsters don their evolved, original analytic cap and braggishly post to their social media commoners how boorish it will be to hear people be upset about a passionate loss. And, it's twice as funny to hear sports media personalities don their hipster high horse saddles.
That's why sports talk shows exist--as a forum for these passionate sports fan folk. Without these folks, the show hosts wouldn't have a forum nor the access that gives them the shard of increased knowledge they're given by having access to the them--to share with their audience.
But, in all honestly, if this level of access or their access to a medium made them any more knowledgeable than the rest of the people discussing it, they'd be coaching or rich by cashing in at a Vegas sports book.
And, the hipsters that sneeringly scoff at the differing perspectives of analysis, well, I'm sure that's just one of many instances in their lives where they blame their lack of belonging or contributing to the community on their evolution in originality.
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