Category: fandom (Page 2 of 3)

Oh. No. You. Didn’t.

9 August, 2009 / Kat

The NFL Snuggie. The horrors.

I never truly believed the apocalypse was near until I saw this.

To celebrate the beginning of the NFL pre-season, HSN has been selling the NFL Huddler (aka an NFL Snuggie) all day. To demonstrate its use, they are continuously showing a group of male and female models sitting on the back of a pickup truck eating with various teams’ Huddlers on.

Oh, because the people tailgating in Orchard Park, Pittsburgh, Philly, or Oakland aren’t going to beat you up for wearing a massive piece of team printed felt with arms while grilling and kicking back beers in their vicinity.

Sports fans, if you fear being cold while watching a game, I would like to introduce you to this nifty invention called a jacket. Last I checked, they worked really well for most of human kind.

Blast from the Past: On Excitement and Nervousness

14 March, 2009 / Kat

It’s Hockey East quarterfinals time, and I found myself yesterday in a particular mood. One of excitement and nervousness, one that I have anytime a favorite team of mine is in the playoffs. This weekend, I have this two fold, as now only is Boston Univeristy in the Hockey East quarterfinals against the University of Maine (ye of the giants), but my undergraduate alma mater Binghamton University is playing in their first America East men’s basketball championship game this morning. Binghamton will secure their first ever NCAA berth with a win today. If this isn’t the biggest day ever for Binghamton, I don’t know what could top it.

Needless to say that this weekend, I have an excess of nervousness and excitement. Frankly, I’m a nervous wreck. I have channeled this excess excitement and nervousness into doing my nails multiple times. (I even went as far as to buy a new buffer. That means I’m serious.) But the nail filing and buffing isn’t working.

Last year to the day, I wrote a piece about excitement and nervousness, and how your favorite teams may ebb and flow throughout the years, the way you act when they’re in the playoffs may never really change. The original post (which I very much enjoy) is located here.

Now someone pass the top coat.

Five questions with…Ryan Gentry of CPR Gear

2 January, 2009 / Kat

Ryan Gentry is a devoted Boston sports fan, despite relocating several years ago to Southern California. The co-founder of up-and-coming sports fan wear company CPR Gear, Gentry saw a need for fan wear that was hip and spoke to the intense nature of New England sports fans. He founded CPR Gear – “The Heartbeat of New England” – in 2008, and his line has attracted all sorts of attention from several teams and many fans. CPR Gear may stand for “Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox,” but Gentry is quick to point out that the Bruins and all other teams are included as well – his line represents more of the devotion and dedication of New England fans as a whole, rather than individual teams.

I had a great phone conversation with Gentry a few weeks back, and he agreed to be one of my first “Five questions with…” subjects. Here’s the interview! Continue reading

A Fellow Western New Yorker Weighs In (A Sorta, Kinda, In A Way Guest Post)

15 November, 2008 / Kat

I am always surprised at the reaction my now-year-old post, Obviously, Massachusetts Schools Neglect to Teach Geography of Areas outside of New England (or No, Western New Yorkers are not Yankees Fans.), still gets. The most viewed and most commented post ever on this blog, the discussion it’s encouraged is great!

Jon emailed me earlier this week with a comment too lengthy to be posted as a comment, and I thought it was cool enough to be my first sorta, kinda in a way guest post ever. I’ll also link to this in the comments section of the original post as well.

Thanks, Jon for such a well thought out response to the article, and for another view into being a Western New York sports fan. The comment, which includes one of the best descriptions of why Western New Yorkers tend to flock to Boston, after the jump. Continue reading

To Buy a Jersey, To Not Buy a Jersey

19 October, 2008 / Kat

Brief note before I begin – I may be the only person on WordPress not writing a blog post on Sarah Palin today. Logging in just now, every single post on the WordPress front page was about her Saturday Night Live appearance last night. Come on, Bloggers of the World, stop copying one another.

(And yes, I’m hoping just by slipping her name in there, I get 6-10 extra hits on my blog today.)

On to our regularly scheduled sports related blog, because while I may have been named Most Political in high school, it was because there was no “Overly Involved Wanna-Be Sportswriter” superlative, not because I actually like politics. (American politics is faker than the WWE, as far as I’m concerned.)

Two and a half weeks ago, I found myself on NFL.com pricing a Trent Edwards jersey or t-shirt (call me cheap, but I prefer the t-shirt fake jersey because of price and because I can wear it more places.) I believed Edwards had shown enough over the previous four weeks for any serious Bills fan to consider buying his jersey. It would be the first time since the Drew Bledsoe era that a Bills fan could consider buying a starting quarterback’s jersey. Sure, the cheapest option would set me back at least $29.00, but one’s weekend wardrobe can’t consist of her three Gabe Kapler and one Jason Bay shirts through the entire baseball off-season. (And that’s not a new thing for me – I wore my 49ers, Bills, Amerks, and Steve Young shirts all through high school. That was before this whole women’s sports paraphernalia thing was accepted. No wonder I didn’t have a date until college.) Continue reading