The first sentence of  the essay grabbed my attention immediately because of the authority in which it was delivered. In the beginning, Phillips starts to discuss the nature of professional level coaches and how they have been infamous for years for “deflecting” blame of their team’s misfortune. He highlights the outward anger these coaches show towards the referee’s and points out that because their easy targets, they receive a lot of the blame because it’s most convenient for the coaches. He goes to add that this isn’t necessarily some smokescreen conjured up by the coaches, but they actually train their minds to believe these referees have a conspiracy against their team.

He then makes the point that the reason we are so drawn to these rants is because they represent the deep down unfiltered thoughts of our own. We have such a bias approach to how we view the game that we refuse to believe “our” team has anything to do with it. The coaches behavior only adds justification to our’s. When you turn the tables around however, and the other team’s coach  is now doing the same thing, it’s them who are crybabies and are making excuses. He goes into explaining how fans take a rest-of-the-universe-versus-us mentality and it’s either “your with us, or against us”. He says that the hyper partisanship displayed by these fans leads into this delusional way of thinking.

I feel this article was well written, and the points of the essay were hammered down in a very effective way. There were examples, such as fans getting angry and yelling at the tv, that were very relate able  however, I don’t think he touched both sides. Maybe for the sake of his argument it wouldn’t have been a wise idea, but I know some very civilized fans that are more than capable of rooting for their team through a partisan perspective.