The NFL Twittersphere has collapsed on itself in one glorious singularity that has engulfed the sports universe. The super nova was caused by, perhaps, the worst call since the Tom Brady Tuck. In case you missed it just tune into ESPN today and watch them dissect that final prayer from Russell Wilson, which was intercepted by a Packer, then re-cepted by Golden Tate, then ruled a touchback, then a touchdown, then reviewed, then called wrong, then the extra point mayhem – HOLY CRAP WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS?
It was a train wreck. A beautiful, beautiful, train wreck, where the only casualties were the hearts of Packers fans and the next buffet Mike McCarthy sees. Also, all those people in Vegas that had Packers -3.5 and, perhaps, a few fantasy owners who were beaten on that last play…Ok, so maybe there were a lot of casualties. I’ll actually give McCarthy credit for not turning into the Incredible Hulk and going on a rampage through downtown Seattle. For a second there his skin hue started to match his jacket.
The best part of this? All of us that had no stake whatsoever in this game were able to sit back and laugh at the NFL. After the lockout last year and “Bounty-Gate” this year, it’s nice to see such silliness on the gridiron. And, above it all, it is moments like these that transcend sports for a brief flash. In this case the flash will last until Thursday night when the Replacements get another shot at glorious failure.
Even before the final decision was made people were weighing in on the immense ridiculousness of the situation. The collective nature of social media was on full display as the mob mentality took over. We are lucky we live in a day and age where people are just lazy enough to type 140 characters rather than flip cars, break shop windows, and set stuff on fire.
Actually, that last sentence is false. It just seems that sort of behavior might be a little bit more justified in this situation rather than when your team WINS a championship.
On a side-note: is it not a bit ironic that this happened to a team from Wisconsin, where the battle over unions and collective bargaining took center stage just a couple years ago? Karma baby! This point was duly pointed out by several politicos on Twitter. I am getting off topic.
It is in these moments of universal shaming when Twitter really shines. It was an event so outrageous that the collective rage of anonymous users, pundits, and celebrities alike, was directed at a single entity. This was like the final scene from 300 where millions of arrows descend on the last few Spartans, blotting out the sun. I can’t imagine that the Commish actually takes anything on Twitter seriously, unless the league can wring out some fines and there will be plenty of that after tonight. What I do believe is that we all just had a collective “OMG” moment together, and that is awesome.
I was lucky enough to be logged into Twitter at the time of that final cornucopia of weirdness and I basked in all its glory. People were shocked, outraged, hilarious, depressed, frustrated, insightful, and it was good. For your reading pleasure I have compiled some of the best tweets of the night. Enjoy!
(Header photo courtesy of ESPN)