Barcalounge Skipper - Revenge of the Football Nerds?

Gilbert and Lewis: Our Heroes

The age ofthe nerd is upon us.  Iron Man, The Dark Knight, ScottPilgrim vs. The World, BattlestarGalactica, Glee, Pixar movies, vampiremovies, video games – heck, the entire freakin’ Internet – all of these thingsare evidence of the arrival of the Nerd Age. The Information Age is the Nerd Age in most aspects.  EBay anyone? E-Trade?  B2B? Need I continue?  The real question is, are you 1337 or are you n00b?  And, furthermore, “Areyou ready for some football?”

To quote Wikipedia – another nerd invention,BTW – “nerd is a term that refers to a person who avidly pursues intellectual activities, technical or scientific endeavors, esoteric knowledge, or other obscureinterests, rather than engaging in moresocial or conventional activities.”  Star Wars, Star Trek, and D&D jokesaside, the “obscure knowledge” is a phrase I would take issue with.  In the age of blogs, podcasts, and the globalinformation economy, there is no such thing as obscure knowledge – simply knowledgethat has a very specific market for people who, well, want to go really reallydeeply into a subject.

The best example the explosive growth of the nerd ethos into newand surprising areas is fantasy football. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, The Football Nerd.  Last year, ESPN estimated that each year some27 million people play fantasy football of one sort or another – and one wouldassume that the vast majority of them are US citizens.  This means that some 9 percent of thepopulation of the country is playing, with an average of 9 hours a week spenton watching games, following players and stats, and working out trades and otherplayer transactions within fantasy football leagues.  Perhaps, dear reader, you are alreadylost.  This only proves just how far nerdculture has penetrated into the lives of those of you who, as they say, have areal life.

Keep the Faith: Mint in the box.

I must admit to my own nerd tendencies.  I am 41 years old.  I have a comic book collection tucked away inthe closet.  As I type this, I amsurrounded by several hundred jazz and blues CDs. Nearby sits my 2004commemorative Boston Red Sox World Series Champs Monopoly game and my RedSox-Yankees rivalry chess set.  I haveplayed fantasy baseball for some 12 seasons, although now I belong to onecompetitive league and, aside from draft day, I don’t obsess over it too much.

NERRRRRRDS!

I played fantasy football for one season, and that wasenough.  As fun as it was, and as good agroup of guys as I played with, a seasoned nerd like me simply could not keepup with the serious Football Nerd.  Theymove fast, they hit hard, and they take no prisoners.

Some might say that it’s the ultimate revenge of the nerds.  That specialized, obsessive approach, afterall, is what led to the ultimate triumph of Lewis Skolnick, Gilbert Loweand their pals over the jocks and preps from Alpha-Beta House in thenow-legendary 1984 film.  The profound impact on nerd self-esteem wasdocumented in the 2003 film, American Splendor, based onthe life of the late, great comics nerd Harvey Pekar.  In that film, the character of uber-nerd TobyRadloff, played by comedy nerd JudahFriedlander, speaks to the impact of Revengeof the Nerds.

Toby and Judah: White Castle rocks.

“It's abouta group of nerd college students who are being picked on all the time by thejocks. So they decide to take revenge. . . I consider myself a nerd. And thismovie has uplifted me. There's this one scene, where a nerd grabs themicrophone during a pep rally and announces that he is a nerd and that he isproud of it and stands up for the rights of other nerds.  Then he asks all the kids at the peprally who think they are nerds to come forward, so nearly everybody in theplace does. That's the way the movie ends.”

Nearly everybody in the place. Right on, Toby.

And now we have 27 million Football Nerds gearing up for the NCAAand NFL seasons. There’s an FX comedy series – now in its second season, The League,thatis about a group of guys who play fantasy football.  Oh, the wackiness!  Who watches the show – Football Nerds, or thepeople laughing at the Football Nerds?  Somemen – and most of the players are men, sorry – are okay in their pigskindorkiness and have come out to their families, have given notice that they willbe unavailable on draft day and every Sunday from now until January.  Others, sadly, keep it obscured or secret,like Paul Rudd’s sad character in Knocked Up, a man who isnot cheating on his wife, but is in fact trying to get away for his fantasydraft with his buddies.  “No wives,”shouts one of his friends when Rudd’s wife barges into the draft room.  “No wives!” And that’s just wrong.

So, to return to the original dichotomy of the cinematic classic, Revenge of the Nerds: Who winshere?    Also known as Nerdworld.

Gilbert and Lewis would be proud.

When you’re finished with your little pretend football team, bigguy, why don’t you get off your butt and go shine the yacht?  We nerds will be in the man-cave watching Iron Man on the 60 inch plasma.