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Julio rambles about sports fandom and his waning feelings for the NFL.Contact info:
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This is Julio's Corner, my corner of the internet, where I talk about whatever is on my mind. I'll mostly talk about stuff I've watched, read or listened to, but sometimes I may ramble on about the news or politics or in society at large.
This episode is being recorded on Sunday, November 23rd, 2025. And welcome back to the show. Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this episode, really quick, I just want to talk about Mom Donnie went to Washington to meet the president.
And it went quite unexpected. I would give Mom Donnie the win in that he was not lambasted by the president. The media tried to attack him and create some kind of conflict between him and the president while they were together in the Oval Office.
But not only did that fail, but even Trump himself would go out of his way to shield him from criticism. He would...
There was one point where they were talking about how Mom Donnie had called Trump a despot because of his actions, his fascistic actions and what not. And Mom Donnie wasn't taking the bait.
And he was talking about how he would try to redirect the question about... We came here, we had a productive meeting about affordability, and we've come to an agreement on affordability. Wow, I can't say the word.
Affordability. And that was productive, and we are going to go continue with that. And they're like, oh, so does that mean you now take back your claim that he is a despot?
Do you retract that? And Trump just went, you can just say it, it's easier that way, you don't have to explain it. Like he basically said, yeah, call me a despot, I don't care.
I've been called worse. He actually said that, I've been called worse. So basically, he poo-pooed that questioning because he understands what the reporter was doing.
And Trump was not having it. Trump was all about endorsing his mom, Donnie, and protecting him and showing that they were having a good report, which, you know, for some, might be unexpected.
But for those who understand Trump a little better, like Hassan, Piker from Hassanabi, the way he described it, because he's a big Trump fan.
He's always, he's been, I mean, he's a big media consumer in general in terms of like political news and whatnot. So he studies these people eight hours a day. He was talking about like, yeah, this guy's just, he's content farming.
He's, he's cloud chasing. He's not going to disassociate with Mamdani because he knows Mamdani is popular among the masses. And the one thing that Trump did run on his campaign, besides all the racism and whatnot, was affordability.
And that's a common theme between Mamdani's campaign and Trump's.
Even though obviously Trump was insincere in his whole, his whole affordability spiel, because obviously he has all these tariffs that are increasing prices, so making things less affordable.
He's giving tax cuts to the wealthy, again, not helping the poor. He's cutting, he's gutting Medicaid and Medicare, which is going to affect a lot of poor people that are on those programs.
And he's also withholding funds from states that disagree with him politically, which is funding necessary for a lot of programs and whatnot for people in need.
He's also, yeah, he's trying to hold SNAP payments, which is food stamps for people who can't afford to buy food without these subsidies. So yeah, he's not making things more affordable.
He's obvious, he's making things more insufferable and expensive. And also, the chalice also affects the employments percentages in this country, that there's been massive layoffs going around and there's been fewer jobs available.
So yeah, things are only getting harder financially for people, not better, not better economically. That being said, though, he's all about PR and metrics.
And he knows that everyone is looking towards what Momodani is going to do in New York City in making New York City more affordable again. And by pinning himself to that horse, it should only boost him up a little bit.
Even though it's going to make others scratch their heads because he's supposed to be this, you were calling him a communist and a jihadist and Sharia Law and all this Islamophobic stuff the week before.
But now you're like, yeah, I actually talked to him. I don't think he's a jihadist. We actually, he's actually more reasonable than I expected.
And we agree on a lot more things than we don't. And then he compared Mamdani to Bernie Sanders, who's a very popular democrat because he's also progressive.
And he brought up how Bernie Sanders was cheated during the primaries when he was running for president. And then because of the machinations of the democratic party, Joe Biden became the candidate.
And so he was bringing that up like, yeah, I think it was unfair what happened to Bernie Sanders. And the votes that were going to Bernie Sanders ended up going to me. And I'm also popular.
The people who voted for Trump also voted for Mom Donnie. So there's these associations with Mom Donnie, Sanders and Trump. And so Trump is loving this because this is only good associations.
And it's also a distraction from the Epstein files. So he's loving all of it. So during that whole time, whenever Mom Donnie was answering questions, he was just nodding his head and smiling.
He was patting him on the arm like, yeah, man, go.
And then there was this other point where one of the reporters, probably a Republican, because they like to try to do these double standard, their versions of gotcha questions by trying to point out double standards.
If you're about the environment, why did you take a plane to the White House instead of taking a bus? And even Trump was like, come on, man, this is not the stu... I'm paraphrasing.
I'm not gonna go quote by quote, but he basically insinuated how stupid that question is because obviously it's only a 30-minute trip from New York to Washington DC by plane, whereas a bus would be several hours.
And, you know, it's just more convenient to take the plane over here.
You know, so stop this bullshit about the environment and whatnot because these are the modes of transportation that we currently have and to get there on time and whatnot, plane was the more convenient option.
So, yeah, in a bunch of times, Trump was defending him and endorsing him. And he even said, I think you're the leader of the party. Like, that's just another slap to the actual leaders of the party, which is Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.
And the pièce de résistance, they brought up how, because, you know, the whole thing, the whole fear, scare tactics that they're talking about regarding Mamdani's election as the mayor, the mayor-elect of New York City, is that the rich are afraid of
losing money to Mamdani because he's going to raise taxes by 2%. And so they ask him, Trump, you know, you know how billionaires are afraid of staying in New York City because Mamdani's going to be the new mayor.
Would you want to live in New York City under a Mamdani mayorship? And he's like, yeah, I would.
He wants to get rid of crime, like I want to get rid of crime, and he was trying to make things more affordable, and he's trying to make New York City great again.
So yeah, I would definitely, I see no problem moving back to New York City with Mamdani as the mayor. You can't get a bigger endorsement than that to poo poo all the Mamdani slander that the right-wing machine was trying to put out there.
Now, with their leader, their MAGA head, endorsing him, they had to do it on our face, and there was some clips I saw where like an hour after the, or immediately after that press, Fox News was talking about like, oh man, Mamdani has so much
charisma, and look at them together. There's so much charisma in the room with those two together and blah, blah, blah.
So they also started gaslighting, like glazing Mamdani because like, what other direction can they take when hours before they were getting ready for this big antagonism by Trump on Mamdani, the way he was antagonistic towards Zelensky.
And it was a complete 180 of what they expected. Anyways, that went longer than I expected. So I am going to talk about fandom.
And in doing so, I felt writing down my thoughts was the best way to go about this thought, because it will definitely would have been very, what's the word? What's the phrasing? Stream of conscience.
So I wrote down, first I thought I was going to write a bunch of bullet points like I normally do, and ramble off of those. But as I started writing, it ended up becoming a big essay.
And I feel like as even stream of conscience as my essay writing came out, I feel like this would be more concise and have a better sense of direction than if I was to go off the cuff. So I'm just gonna read what I wrote and go from here.
Go from, yeah, we're just gonna go from here. Let's get going. So here is my essay about fandom being a funny thing.
I remember when I became a fan of the NBA and the Chicago Bulls in 1991. I started playing streetball with my friends that year.
For some reason, I decided to watch the NBA that summer, and the Bulls were in the middle of their finals against the Lakers, and I got to witness the famous reverse layup. As impressive as Michael Jordan was, he wasn't who I became a fan of.
It was Horace Grant, the Bulls power forward. I don't know why, but I was drawn to power forwards. They seemed like the workhorse to me.
When I was a fan of baseball, ages 6 through 10, though I only played softball myself, I was a fan of the catcher. In basketball, the power forward was the catcher equivalent to me. I identified with power forwards for whatever reason.
Horace Grant was great on defense and rebounds, and he would occasionally get a good shot. But of course, scoring was for the hot shots that was Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. And that was fine.
They needed Horace Grant to clean up their misses with putbacks or to grab rebounds whenever possible for other scoring opportunities. Being a fan of the Bulls was great during that two, three-peat run.
The mostly two seasons that Jordan was in retirement were tough, but I remain a fan of the Chicago Bulls. Horace and Scottie Pippen were still there until they let Horace Grant go to Orlando Magic in free agency.
I still kept up with his exploits in Orlando, but the Chicago Bulls was my team. I was not going to leave them. I don't believe in being a bandwagon fan or a fairweather fan.
I'm a do or die. So I tell myself. Nowadays, I think that principle still holds true, but I'll explain as this episode goes on.
Anyway, Jordan came back and there was a spark of excitement. The Rockets two-peat run was done, and we were going to be back and the Bulls had another three-peat. Then the unthinkable happened.
Management decided to let the team disband. I was disgusted. They let Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, and Dennis Rodman walk.
Michael Jordan decided to retire again because management decided to go in a new direction. I felt cheated by management. How can you betray your fans like that?
Why do you think this dynasty that landed on your laps is so easy to replicate? Anyway, I gave up on the Bulls. I felt if they were going to betray my trust the way they did, why should I stick around?
And keeping to my principles, I gave up on the NBA. So that left me in a sports vacuum. Where do I go from here?
Well, the NFL season began. I never really watched that sport, so I decided to give it a shot. I watched both the New York Giants and the New York Jets, and the playing style of the New York Jets won me over.
I liked the Contancor's coach that was Bill Parcells, and I loved the New York Jets running back Curtis Marden, my new workhorse player to root for. Anyways, if you know the New York Jets, you know they are known for losing seasons.
They had some successes and made it to the AFC Championships two times during my fandom, of them from 1998 to 2012. Frustratingly, when they made the AFC Championships, they would then let go of key players the following season.
That would make me a disgruntled fan. The second time they disbanded the band, I was really questioning why was I putting myself through this frustration. The final straw for me was when they decided to sign Tim Tebow to be their backup quarterback.
No offense, but he sucked as a quarterback. We already had Mark Sanchez, and his backup from the season before was more than enough for our roster. We needed other positions to be filled.
So that was that. If the Jets management can't respect their fans, why should I have any respect for them, or emotional investment in their franchise?
So once again, I was in a sports vacuum, and this time I left it like that, and pursued other interests until recently.
For various reasons, my interest in the NFL was peaked again, and this rookie quarterback of the Houston Texans named CJ Stroud was having one of the most amazing rookie seasons a rookie has had in the NFL in some time.
And I was sold as a Houston Texans fan. This rookie year was quite amazing, and they got to the second round of the playoffs before getting eliminated.
His second season last year was more of a struggle, and he was afflicted with the infamous sophomore slump, but still managed to get to the second round of the playoffs again before getting eliminated. And that brings us to this season.
Just about every NFL team made some off-season moves to make themselves better with trades, free agency signings, and the draft. Some were more successful than others.
The Texans didn't seem to change much, especially with the ineffective offensive line that caused CJ's slight decline the previous season.
All it has shown this season, as their defense is one of the best in the league, but they struggle to score and win games. Once again, it seems to be my motif.
If management can't respect me as a fan, I cannot respect the organization or stay emotionally invested. So I withdrew my fandom of the Houston Texans. So that brings me to now, many weeks since I gave up my Texans fandom.
Since I've done that, coincidentally my interest in watching all NFL games has also waned. Last episode, I said the previous two weeks had a bunch of terrible games.
And yeah, this season, it seems most teams have been inconsistent in their level of play, especially when it comes to offense. Others may say that defense has gotten much better in the league this season.
Regardless, even with my fantasy team doing okay, once I let go of my fandom, my inclination, drive or whatever you want to call it to continue watching has waned. Which brings me to fandom. It seems I'm not a typical fan.
Take for instance, Cowboy fans. How many times has Jerry Jones screwed up that franchise because of his ego and hubris, and yet they persist in their fandom?
I listen to a Cowboy fan who has been a fan since their dynasty of the 90s and he sticks it out. There is also a YouTube content creator called Scooter Magruder, who I follow.
I just saw him react to the Cowboys' last game against the Raiders, and now he's already deluding himself into believing the Cowboys are back and will win the playoffs.
He has this delusion every season, and it's uncanny how he's able to psych himself in this delusion. Fandom is like a cult of religion. It's probably the first or one of the first parasocial relationships between fan and celebrity slash athlete.
The ancient Greeks created the Olympics. The Mayans played a sport called Pach at Pach, which is deeply rooted in Mayan religion.
Football, what we call soccer, is a global phenomenon that is ruthlessly exploited by FIFA, and yet millions will go to whichever country is hosting the World Cup.
In Ted Lasso, you had a character called Danny Rojas that would always say, football is life. John Oliver did a segment 11 years ago where he talked about his love for the World Cup and his conflicting feelings because of the corruption of FIFA.
This segment goes on about how soccer is a religion to most countries around the world, which is what makes the World Cup such a big global event that causes mass fan hysteria.
Even I am not completely immune to this effect, as I always look forward to watching it and rooting for Colombia and Mexico. It's such an interesting phenomenon how emotionally people get attached to sporting events.
Objectively, if you look at sports, it's just a silly game played by others. Some are more physically demanding and some are more strategic. Some are very simple, some are more complex, but at the end of the day, it's just a game.
And yet, massive billion-dollar enterprises have been created on the backs of fandom.
People chose to make it happen with their hard-earned money, rooting for these athletes and living vicariously through them as they compete against each other and try to best them at the sport at hand.
It's even more mind-boggling to me at this very moment as my fandom has waned and I'm losing interest in the NFL.
If the majority can maintain their fandom of their teams, regardless of poor or done decisions by management, am I the weird one for being able to disconnect from it so easily?
I end this essay by saying at the very least, I won't be resubscribing to NFL Plus, and will only watch whatever games I'm able to record over the year. And that wraps up the show.
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