2008 Obama’s Speech at the FOX Sports Grill
posted by August 28 at 20:38 PM
onI couldn’t believe it when I called this morning. A manager at the FOX Sports Grill said that they would be showing Obama’s speech “on the big screen with the sound on.” Really? I’ve got to see how this crowd reacts.
Paneled with hardwood and flat-screen televisions, the FOX News Sports Bar is a dugout man club. At the bar were 15 guys but only seven necks. Trying to emulate the build of their on-screen icons, the fans replaced the bulk they lacked in muscle with sliders and lager. There were 19 televisions.
At 6:45 p.m., the bartender told a cute, dark-haired guy to my left that after a football game finished playing on NBC, the big screen would stay tuned in for Obama’s speech. “You’d think that the loyalty would be to FOX,” said the guy drinking Miller Lite. “I came here so I don’t have to watch that shit.” A guy on my right ordered a “Tiger Woods.”
Less than a minute into the pre-speech video, anti-Obama murmurs rose from the crowd—the other 18 screens still showing football and baseball would not be enough! “If you’re going to show the convention, I’m out,” said the lager quaffer. “I got to get out of here—I can’t handle this.”
And then, just as Obama stepped out and everyone at Inveso Field screamed, the screen flicked away from a performance that would direct the future of the United States, and switched to an ESPN football game that would have no ramifications. The crowd shattered into applause.
I approached a hostess, who said there was a screen on Obama in a back room. “It’s going to be a little secluded over here,” she said. Indeed. I had my own private viewing theater.
“I want to apologize,” said the manager on duty, Chad Depuy. “I had everyone yelling at me… I had to.” I don’t blame the guy. I was surprised he even tried.
Comments
Idiots for freaking out but at the same time it's a sports bar, plus the customer is always right.
Maybe the other patrons had read http://twitter.com/barack and know that he panders for votes as much as any other politician.
Yes, yes, @2. I'm sure that's exactly where they got their information.
Welcome to today's America. As long as we are kept fat and the shiney fast objects continue to twitter our monkey brains, we don't care if the cow bonker awaits 30 seconds down the road. We deserve to lose all of our freedoms, suffer for it, and regret our stupidity for many generations. The icon of the no-neck neocon will be the focal point of many future dartboards.
That place is a shithole. I went once for lunch, had lousy service and diarrhea for a week (plus they don't like people in wheelchairs despite having an elevator). The only spors bars showing it must have been paid up front by sponsors.
Did they show it at The Ram or Sport?
Awesome, now I know where to look for the guys who beat me up.
Why the hell did you go there for the DNC? people go there to get away from their responsibilities (for whatever reason), its their lives, thats what makes this country great. You could have gone anywhere but you went there to prove a point.
Anyone could have told you that sports guys would rather watch sports than O's speech. Just gotta be a smart ass dont ya?
Of course your name is Shane...
7: I don't ever want to meet you. You're insipid and typing out of your ass.
People who don't care about historic moments or the political decisions that affect us all-- they're who make this country great!
Were they really anti-Obama or anti-convention? Go back to the same bar during the McCain speech and see if the crowd is cheering. I bet you they'll want the channel changed then as well.
Personally, I'm a pretty political person who happens to find conventions incredibly boring.
Please. The customer is seldom right, but needs to be steered towards thinking that they are, and that they have been appeased.
Personally, I would have kept it on, and turned up the volume, telling people that it was an order "from corporate" (That would have really freaked them out)
Dominic, dude, you are one butch MF.
It's a sports bar, albeit a crappy one. It shows sports. Get over it.
Do any Stranger staffers own their own TVs?
@13, Dominic's angle was totally valid and they told him the convention would be broadcast. He didn't walk in and demand they change the channel, and he apparently was perfectly happy to be flexible and watch on whatever screen was available.
Piss off, douche.
I'd really be interested in knowing whether or not they are interested in hearing McCain's speech as well.
Yes, a free country in which people are allowed to watch whatever they want to watch is a horrible, horrible place. If the idle minds would rather watch the pigskin then let them. Of course their uneducated vote doesn't help move this country in an intelligent direction but what they freely choose to DO is what makes our country great.
And yes, I did watch the speech. At home. And I changed the channel when it was over. Because I chose to...You dont go to a bakery to buy a steak.
One time we went to Norm's in Fremont and asked if we could watch the MotoGP race on Speed TV. The waitress talked to the bartender and then they came back and said yes, we could watch on the TV in the back. So we sat down, ordered drinks and food, and then the race coverage began. Then the waitress comes over and says some other people want football on that TV too, as well as every other TV in the place. So they switched it back to football. If they had just said so in the first place we could have gone somewhere else and seen most of the race.
Fuck Norm's Eatery and Alehouse in Fremont. Fuck them.
Hahaha. I've been there. Once. Your description is perfect, and the scene went down exactly how I picture it would in that place.
I have to agree with a couple of others who suggest you try the same thing for McCain's acceptance speech. I, too, suspect the same reaction. They are not so much anti-Obama as anti-politics of any sort. Modern neanderthals.
No speech at a political convention is "historic" or "direct[s] the future of the United States". Calm down.
Fuck the Fox Sports Grill, and Fuck Their Patrons.
It must be great to write something... while drinking whisky/cokes... and then have all these people tell you what's on their mind... what's right and wrong! I'd say that article was fair, for the most part, from what I remember... On the opening day of college football, they shouldn't of promised the DNC on the bigscreen, with sound, if they weren't gonna do it... but they did... and that was stupid! It was busy, football fans were happy, and the only person, besides me, who wanted to see the Obama speech on the big screen, with sound, was the guy who wrote this article... it didn't happen... and he still tipped great. I'd say it was a good night... Obama/Biden 2008!
Sports bar? You sure that wasn't the Seagals' tryouts?
@14, um, ok. Feigning surprise that patrons of a sports bar would rather watch sports than a political coronation is ridiculous.
Yes, I would also be very interested to see if they would watch the RNC or if they are just generally anti-convention. Please check in and report back.
Shane's (@7 & 16) point is valid. Same with @19.
It's just the convention, nothing surprising happened, we all knew Obama would walk away with the official nomination. Attacking people for understanding why the typical FOX News Sports Grill patron isn't interested in watching the convention sounds carries tones of zealotry and bigotry to me, and I thought that's what we hated about the far right.
So these guys are to be villified because they don't want to watch a pre-packaged, made-for-TV commercial for a political party?
At least nobody's pretending the football game is anything but a game.
This is incredibly lazy journalism. Going to a sports bar and then whining about it when no one wants to watch a speech?
Stop the presses! They're showing football at the sports bar!
It's hardly fair to paint college football enthusiasts as politically ignorant neanderthals because they'd rather watch a game and have a drink than listen to a politician.
I get frustrated because I know that I am better than these fools, but can I quantify it? Are they happy? Am I happier? Is ignorance really bliss?
grr
Politics is a game.
Some people just watch The Game.
Some people watch the whole days pre-game shows and sportscasters,etc predicting the winners.
Which are you?
Comments Closed
Comments are closed on this post.