Can We Please Let Go of “Let’s Go….?”
November 13, 2021 at 4:51 a.m.
Can We Please Let Go of “Let’s Go….?”
By Chip Davenport-
This sums up my Friday even more severely than the start of my week of nausea and vomiting.
When I’m not well, it’s easy to be cranky. Today, I’m thinking about something still making me cranky from two weeks ago.
The “Let’s go, Brandon” movement irritates me because it’s slithered its way into big time sporting events. It reared its ugly head in the recent Ohio State-Penn State football game I attended two weekends ago.
“Let’s go Brandon” originated while interviewing NASCAR driver Brandon Brown after his race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The chant in the background was “F*** Joe Biden” although the broadcaster translated it as “Let’s go Brandon.”
The Warsaw student section chanted “build that wall” during a Sep. 9, 2016, football game. The chant originated in political rallies, then snaked its way into the Tiger Athletic Complex that warm Friday evening. “Let’s go Brandon,” however, started at a sporting event, and it can still be heard at subsequent sporting events. It ironically snaked its way into our bicameral federal legislature recently.
There were a few smaller clusters of the infamous cheer heard in Ohio Stadium, and although this is the first politicized cheer I’ve heard (the well-intentioned “USA” doesn’t count here) since I’ve been attending Ohio State football games on and off since 1980, there was an additional shocker of a cheer throughout the entire stadium on the otherwise fun evening of Oct 30.
Here’s some background.
I can remember, as far back as I could read, seeing teenagers and adults of all ages sporting t-shirts with “F” Michigan, and occasionally other Ohio State football opponents. One particularly interesting twist, to avoid ejection from the stadium due to content on one’s apparel, a Buckeye fan’s t-shirt read “Buck the Fadgers” in the stands during my sophomore year at The Ohio State University’s (OSU) homecoming game versus Wisconsin.
Although these t-shirts have abounded among Buckeye fans for decades, I never heard an (almost) entire crowd throw the f-bomb in a chant followed by the opponent’s name.
Dateline Oct. 30, 2021. Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio.
I know it took place in the second half, but I’ll have to replay the televised broadcast to see if the chant was audible during the telecast, or if producers and engineers were able to filter out the cheer, but nonetheless, there it was loud and clear among a fired-up, scarlet-clad, six-figure mass of humanity.
“F--- Penn State! F--- Penn State!”
It was loud, it was vehement, and it had a more intense, latent anger to it than the usual cheers of “underrated,” and “start the bus.”
It felt like a way so many fans in the stands could get around the polarizing “Let’s go Brandon” the same way the guy in the “Buck the Fadgers” t-shirt skirted denial of entry into Ohio Stadium.
Were thousands of fans getting something off their collective chest? It’s up to the individuals in attendance. It did not feel like, based on prior Buckeye football games I attended, the usual tone of a taunt toward a long-standing college football rival.
Here’s some more background.
For what it’s worth, the Big Ten announced Penn State was joining its ranks in June 1990, but OSU and its Keystone State counterpart spent at least three prior decades in recruiting wars over talent between the two states. The two states even had a Big 33 exhibition game displaying each state’s best prep gridders chock-full of athletes from each state already committed to crossing their respective borders to join forces at their rival university.
The hate was there, but it seemed particularly good natured compared to the chant in Ohio Stadium Oct. 30.
I use profanity. I’m an offender. I’m not proud of it. I’ve used profanity while operating a vehicle, hurting a digit, during unsuccessful attempts to repair or install something, forgetting to save a spreadsheet before my computer fizzles, and while dealing with malfunctioning printers.
Is the list all inclusive? No.
I have never, however, f-bombed my favorite college football team’s opponent. I’ve also attended a handful of OSU-Michigan games (a.k.a. The Game), and even in those heated moments, I never heard this chant.
I abstained two weeks ago for the record. Furthermore, I didn’t complain to, nor scold, those fans who partook.
Has it come to this?
It obviously has come to this.
I’m not shocked, but I am surprised it happened in a college football venue. The crowds tend to behave better than the NFL crowds. Granted, I haven’t sat in a student section at Ohio Stadium since fall quarter 1983 so I might not be correct. Additionally, most college venues did not sell alcohol until recent years (the “why” to the “I’m not shocked” portion of my comment).
Stadiums are not the place to evaluate decorum, understandably, but “Let’s go Brandon” is heard, or read in social media, in the U.S. legislature. It is apparent the federal bicameral legislature isn’t dignified enough anymore to avoid pandering, I guess.
This sums up my Friday even more severely than the start of my week of nausea and vomiting.
When I’m not well, it’s easy to be cranky. Today, I’m thinking about something still making me cranky from two weeks ago.
The “Let’s go, Brandon” movement irritates me because it’s slithered its way into big time sporting events. It reared its ugly head in the recent Ohio State-Penn State football game I attended two weekends ago.
“Let’s go Brandon” originated while interviewing NASCAR driver Brandon Brown after his race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The chant in the background was “F*** Joe Biden” although the broadcaster translated it as “Let’s go Brandon.”
The Warsaw student section chanted “build that wall” during a Sep. 9, 2016, football game. The chant originated in political rallies, then snaked its way into the Tiger Athletic Complex that warm Friday evening. “Let’s go Brandon,” however, started at a sporting event, and it can still be heard at subsequent sporting events. It ironically snaked its way into our bicameral federal legislature recently.
There were a few smaller clusters of the infamous cheer heard in Ohio Stadium, and although this is the first politicized cheer I’ve heard (the well-intentioned “USA” doesn’t count here) since I’ve been attending Ohio State football games on and off since 1980, there was an additional shocker of a cheer throughout the entire stadium on the otherwise fun evening of Oct 30.
Here’s some background.
I can remember, as far back as I could read, seeing teenagers and adults of all ages sporting t-shirts with “F” Michigan, and occasionally other Ohio State football opponents. One particularly interesting twist, to avoid ejection from the stadium due to content on one’s apparel, a Buckeye fan’s t-shirt read “Buck the Fadgers” in the stands during my sophomore year at The Ohio State University’s (OSU) homecoming game versus Wisconsin.
Although these t-shirts have abounded among Buckeye fans for decades, I never heard an (almost) entire crowd throw the f-bomb in a chant followed by the opponent’s name.
Dateline Oct. 30, 2021. Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio.
I know it took place in the second half, but I’ll have to replay the televised broadcast to see if the chant was audible during the telecast, or if producers and engineers were able to filter out the cheer, but nonetheless, there it was loud and clear among a fired-up, scarlet-clad, six-figure mass of humanity.
“F--- Penn State! F--- Penn State!”
It was loud, it was vehement, and it had a more intense, latent anger to it than the usual cheers of “underrated,” and “start the bus.”
It felt like a way so many fans in the stands could get around the polarizing “Let’s go Brandon” the same way the guy in the “Buck the Fadgers” t-shirt skirted denial of entry into Ohio Stadium.
Were thousands of fans getting something off their collective chest? It’s up to the individuals in attendance. It did not feel like, based on prior Buckeye football games I attended, the usual tone of a taunt toward a long-standing college football rival.
Here’s some more background.
For what it’s worth, the Big Ten announced Penn State was joining its ranks in June 1990, but OSU and its Keystone State counterpart spent at least three prior decades in recruiting wars over talent between the two states. The two states even had a Big 33 exhibition game displaying each state’s best prep gridders chock-full of athletes from each state already committed to crossing their respective borders to join forces at their rival university.
The hate was there, but it seemed particularly good natured compared to the chant in Ohio Stadium Oct. 30.
I use profanity. I’m an offender. I’m not proud of it. I’ve used profanity while operating a vehicle, hurting a digit, during unsuccessful attempts to repair or install something, forgetting to save a spreadsheet before my computer fizzles, and while dealing with malfunctioning printers.
Is the list all inclusive? No.
I have never, however, f-bombed my favorite college football team’s opponent. I’ve also attended a handful of OSU-Michigan games (a.k.a. The Game), and even in those heated moments, I never heard this chant.
I abstained two weeks ago for the record. Furthermore, I didn’t complain to, nor scold, those fans who partook.
Has it come to this?
It obviously has come to this.
I’m not shocked, but I am surprised it happened in a college football venue. The crowds tend to behave better than the NFL crowds. Granted, I haven’t sat in a student section at Ohio Stadium since fall quarter 1983 so I might not be correct. Additionally, most college venues did not sell alcohol until recent years (the “why” to the “I’m not shocked” portion of my comment).
Stadiums are not the place to evaluate decorum, understandably, but “Let’s go Brandon” is heard, or read in social media, in the U.S. legislature. It is apparent the federal bicameral legislature isn’t dignified enough anymore to avoid pandering, I guess.
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092