Sports don't have to be rocket science

The Tennessee Titans schedule release and a statement from the coach of the Celtics' proved that sometimes, it's best to keep it simple

Sorry to send you two emails in a row this week, but I’m feelin’ frisky. I also don’t really know the “best practices” of “having a newsletter,” because I just started doing this, and, frankly, I’m very skeptical of anyone who claims to “understand the internet.” I’ve read that you shouldn’t send newsletters on a Friday, but you know what? Let’s give it a shot. It’s my newsletter and I’ll post if I want to.

I’m writing to you because, this morning, I started to fire off two tweets, one about the Titan’s viral schedule release video, and one about Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla. But then I realized I didn’t have enough space to explain what I meant without getting yelled at on the internet. And part of the reason I started this newsletter was to say things I would have tweeted, but with more nuance. So here we go.

If you aren’t familiar with the NFL’s schedule release, it’s a TV show which is literally exactly what it sounds like. The NFL reveals when and where all the teams will play their games. It’s part of the league’s grand plan to turn everything into a viewable product, thus sneaking its capitalistic tentacles further into the pockets of every network and consumer. Smart business, I have to hand it to them.

Teams also put out schedule release videos on social media. For theirs, the Tennessee Titans asked folks on Broadway Street in Nashville to name the Titans’ future opponents just by looking at the teams’ logos. Most people got the team names very, very wrong.

titans

A post shared by Tennessee Titans (@titans)

Everyone in the sports world seems to be embracing this video. The Atlanta Falcons even changed their name on Twitter to “Red Stallions,” which is what one person in the Titans’ video mistakenly thought Atlanta’s team was called.

I love the Titans’ video for the same reason everyone else does: The fake names people come up with are hilarious. But I also find it beautifully subversive, whether that was the intent or not. Because, while most of the people interviewed in the video had trouble naming other teams, every single one of them knew the Titans’ logo immediately. That fact reveals a truth about fandom that I don’t think people in sports media take into consideration enough: most casual sports fans really only care about their team, and they’re not trying to be experts.

The people who got the names wrong are not the butt of the joke, at least in my opinion. It’s the people watching the video who do know the team names, and the teams themselves, who are the punchline. We have filled our brains with such silly facts. And teams have designed bizarre and nondescript logos.