Not Too Smart

My favorite character in "Modern Family" is Jay Pritchett, the dad played by Ed O'Neill.  Now and then, when things are going crazy in the family, he is prone to stand far from the madding crowd and holler, "What the hell is happening?"

I have to holler that now and then, or at least, I want to.  I can't be hollering around the house, what with other people taking naps and all.

Down in Lubbock, Texas, the town nice enough to send Buddy Holly out to a world that needed him and his music, there is Texas Tech University.  They have a basketball team, and a man who supports them to the extent of calling himself a "superfan."  This man's name is Jeff Orr, and he lives in El Paso, TX, a short 343 miles from Lubbock.  “I don’t hunt, fish, golf or any other normal guy activities. I just sort of follow the team around,” he said in 2010.

Marcus Smart apologizes

But he shows up for game after game, which is his right, after all.  Man wants to drive 5 hours to see younger men play a game, no problem.

Here's the problem with superfans:  they don't act like normal fans, and that's not to say they are good for anything.  This Orr was caught a couple of years ago making an obscene gesture at a player for Texas A&M, and the other night during a game between Oklahoma State and TTU, an OSU player, Marcus Smart, wound up flying into the seats just beyond the basket following a hard play under the basket.

So Orr calls Smart a "piece of crap."  We know that much for sure; still in dispute is whether or not he tossed in that familiar racial slur.  Some seated in the immediate vicinity say yes, some say no.  Smart, to his discredit, shoved the blowhard and is about to sit out the next three games for that infraction.  No matter what was said, he should not be pushing fans at all.  He is 19 years of age and has, from what I'm told, a future playing in the NBA, where he will come in contact with more superfans, sad to say.

We've all known these people, mainly men, who feel that their mere presence or actions at a sporting event can tilt the machine in their favor and help their team win.  They dress up in outlandish costumes and holler.  It's one of those things where you go to the ball game and some clown two rows behind you starts hollering at the other team, and the first 27 times, it's fairly funny and by the 4th inning or halfway through the second quarter you start to hope that he will suddenly be stricken with a sore throat, or remorse, or both.  

This is Jeff Orr.  Tell me you've never seen losers like
this hanging around, watching others play sports.

It's sad that some people feel that by being close to the action, they are part of the action.  I'll say this - no one in that crowd Saturday night paid their money to watch Jeff Orr holler at people.  They paid to watch people play basketball.  

You should also know that Orr is an air traffic controller, so you won't react with so much surprise the next time you hear a story about an air traffic controller falling asleep or screwing things up high over El Paso.