Sports weirdos

I was watching the Browns play in a bar named Nickie's in San Francisco on Sunday, where I enjoyed a bloody mary consisting of roughly 96% pepper prior to watching the Browns lose. The place was sparsely populated, though for some reason they were selling mimosas by the truckload. I still can't figure out who was putting all those things down, but we were by the bar and noticed the staff almost constantly preparing them like it was some mimosa-only hurricane relief effort.

Anyway, I was the lone Browns fan in the joint, but also overheard some joker openly rooting for the Washington Redskins, their opponent. Say what? I looked over and found not a red-and-gold clad 'Skins fan, but instead a white guy with a huge afro and a Liverpool soccer hoodie on. As a quick digression, I generally find this to be a faux pas - if you're going to randomly root for an out-of-city team, buy a damn t-shirt or something. I mean, if you're just going out to root for San Francisco or Oakland, fine, but this annoys me. As this guy did.

Some time in the second half, already annoyed, I took a trip to the men's room, and guess who decided to join me? Our favorite Liverpool Redskins fan. He said "hi, old chap" or something and I sort of mumbled back a greeting, and he said with a British accent (hence the hoodie), "you a Redskins fan?"

I said, in full sarcastic mode as I washed my hands (after asking him to repeat this crazy question): "What is it that would make you think that? Is it my Cleveland Browns shirt? Or maybe my Cleveland Browns hat? Or maybe my Cleveland Browns wristband? Or maybe how I've been rooting for the Cleveland Browns all game long against the Redskins?"

He sort of laughed and commented that it was a boring game (this was true), pointing out that it was "nil-nil" at halftime.

Nil-nil? That's it, you're deported. Out!


Later in the evening, I gleefully watched the Boston red socks dispatched from the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Rays while at the airport (I was at the airport - the game was played in a baseball stadium, sort of). After the final out, this random guy remarked to me that he was going to have a very upset grandson after this game. My initial thoughts:
1) Who cares?
2) After championships in '07 and '04, I think your son will get over it.