My Odd Sports Phobia Has Become A Cautious Political One

By Tony Mangia

I’ve lived a lot of the past few years of my life under the quirky maxim that when it comes to any sort of first time meeting where you put your finances, business dealings, networking or health into the hands and/or decision of another person, it is never wise to wear your team, city or school allegiance on your head, your back or your sleeve. It’s a peculiar ritual — or de-ritual depending on how you look at it — where I check my attire before encountering any contractors, work superiors, medical technicians, repairmen and even doctors hoping not to offend them with that affiliation.

Silly maybe...  and possibly bizarre, but what if your mild-mannered dentist — who, according to my rationale, unbeknownst to you, turns into a frenzied Rangers fan in the Blue Seats from October until April — just noticed your Islanders jacket hanging in the waiting room. Sorry, twenty-six years of frustration just turned that quick filling into an excruciating root canal. Now you know his pain too. I even check the diplomas at doctor’s offices just to make sure they aren’t Georgetown or Villanova grads in case I start yapping about my St. John’s teams. We aren’t very good right now, but we are still deeply-embedded rivals. 

I am not all consumed by this anxiety, but sometimes my half-serious idiosyncrasy does trickle down to even more casual encounters. I mean who knows if that deli counter worker making your sub isn’t a Knicks fan and they notice strutting in wearing a Nets game shirt emblazoned with Kevin Durant on the back. That could mean one less meatball on that hero sandwich — or worse, they add something less tasty. A psychological one-upsmanship on their part. How about getting a flu shot at CVS right next to your “Big Blue” Giants tattoo and noticing the pharmacist is wearing a Jets jersey under her smock possibly means that pinch of a needle just turned into a punch.

Okay, fit me with a straight jacket, but are these thoughts any worse than knocking on wood, avoiding walking under a ladder or crossing your fingers? 

Call it a silly phobia or even outright paranoia (I call it a sort of street smarts), but for quite a while now I’ve always speculated that wearing my New York Yankees cap could be seen as bragging to some parties and the difference between a reasonably-priced $400 brake job and the same one for $500, if the estimate comes from a mechanic who’s a die-hard Red Sox or Mets fan.

And while having the same rooting interest with this person could roll the other way as an advantage, I think many people these days are more hurtful to their opponents than helpful to those of their own allegiance.

Hell, while I always poured an honest shot into everybody's cocktails when I bartended, if you were wearing an Eli Manning jersey, well… let’s just say that bottle stayed crooked a little longer. 

This twisted notion of other people’s inner hatred of rival teams and cities might come from my own personal malice towards disliked opponents and their fandom, but my reprisals never go much  further than a good natured ribbing and moving on with my life. Cheer and let cheer, I say.

I don’t know if there is any evidence that my odd conspiracy affliction has ever been scientifically diagnosed (rivalitis? teamophobia?), but I can’t deny that at first glance of someone wearing an opponent’s jersey my initial reaction is about how much I despise that team and associate that person with it as well. It’s not a serious and savage hatred, but a loathing most sports fans can relate to — especially when your team isn’t doing well and theirs is. You sort of groan inside.

These days group bonding has become more than just about sports and has been taken to another level and a potentially dangerous one — political affiliation.

Except for that annoying Boston pal who always says “wicked Sawx,” I find that I can still hang out and joke about sports with friends who cheer for teams which I openly hope break records for mediocrity. I can’t say the same about political parties. And since I am a Trump supporter, in some circles during these times, I might as well have leprosy.

The division between the two political parties (Lefties and Trump really) has divided this country like we haven’t seen since the ‘60s… the 1860s. It’s Yankees/Red Sox, Jets/Patriots, Giants/Cowboys and Rangers/Islanders rolled into one.

Sure I’ve been razzed in just about any city, from every team when I wear anything Yankees, but never been physically threatened of harassed. The Bronx Bombers just might be the Donald Trump of sports — you either love them or hate them. And just like there are idiot Yankees fans, there are plenty of dopes on the Right, but the fervor and vitriol I see from the Left makes me almost want to hug Mookie Betts.

I’m not going to pretend that the Right doesn't have its share of dirt bags, but the the nastiness and calculated underhandedness of the Left is what I want to address from my position as a Conservative.

Many of my so-called friends stopped returning my calls — if only for the offense of having a choice and voting for Trump. Previous BFFs now consider me an FU. It seems hysterical Liberals have to throw the F-word around a lot to get attention. One day having drinks together and now, within those same assemblages, I am about as welcome as AOC ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. I still don’t remember this sort of separation or exile during the Obama years. It was a rare time when Obama and politics came up at all in the company of people and I don’t remember any instances of assault or retribution against anyone wearing an Obama “Hope and Change” t-shirt  during his eight years as president if it did. And I surely never dumped a friend for voting for Obama.

Never mind the main-stream news media, you can’t even read a single Sports Illustrated article these days without the sportswriter somehow finding a way to slip in a subliminal or outright anti-Trump smack down. What really concerns me is how this misguided aggression by the left is affecting every day life of regular US citizens. This unbridled wrath from the Left leads me back to my original hang-up and how it now affects showing your political leanings in public.

It’s not so far fetched to think wearing anything “Trump” or even anything red could lead to an impromptu confrontation made even more dangerous because of today’s political climate at any time and in any locale. It’s in the news all the time. I’ve now begun to take my assumptions in a more serious light. Affiliating yourself with anything Trump puts a target on your back and has become dangerous in a public or private venue. 

Forget about Liberal lightweights who turn into anonymous mean girls on Twitter, I’m talking about how easily some crackpot Leftists get triggered by a word or go ballistic on MAGA hats in public. Normal pacifists, who never had a street fight in their lives, turn into wild-eyed lunatics at the mention of Trump. I’ve witnessed this phenomenon in person. They become the drunken Eagles fans of politics. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen Lefties gang up on politicians inside restaurants and physically intimidate Trump supporters leaving some of his rallies. Presumed Trump supporters are also at risk. Fast food employees have not only refused service to law enforcement officers, but who knows how far a deranged Never Trumper will take it considering what some of these cowardly burger-slingers could add to the take-out before they say, “Here’s your order, sir” with a sinister grin.

Despite how much the Right likes to think that these Liberal kooks only come out of their mommy’s basement to wreak havoc in public every so often, the fact is they are in our midst, on our streets, in our businesses and workplaces everyday.

So why wouldn’t I question how far some lunatics will take it? 

Is it possible some people have flunked an interview, lost a job, were refused a bank loan or got left waiting on a hospital gurney a little longer just because the attendant doesn’t like President Trump and the person under their watch had the audacity to express a different political view with a hat, pin or flag within their sanctum walls? 

Who knows what is considered offensive and could set a Leftie off these days? At the drop of a sneaker, the Betsy Ross flag was made racist by Colin Kaepernick and his plantation owner Nike. The international hand sign for “OK” now mean white power when held at a certain angle and who knows what new words or symbols Liberals will decide is a conservative “dog whistle” when they wake up and hashtag it. You'd better watch your P’s and Q’s. Oops, isn’t Q some sort of radical right-wing conspiracy group?

I’m not an activist and a torn Clash t-shirt was probably the most political thing I ever wore in my life ... back in the 80s. I don’t wear a Trump shirt or hat out of choice, but don’t like the fact that it can provoke a scuffle which could escalate into a full out brawl or worse — a viral tweet — if I did. I don’t need the hassle of some loudmouth pipsqueak who I could probably slap down in a second getting in my face. Who needs the aggravation? Nowadays, I continually find myself muting Fox News when I call my credit card or cable company in fear a bitter representative would hear it in the background and put me on an even longer hold or do something computery in order to make my life a technological hell. When I see a MAGA 2020 sign on somebody’s lawn these days, I instinctively take a quick glance around to see if some cowardly dirt bag is sneaking up to stomp it, then wonder how long it will be before they do. 

The possibility of anti-Trump sabotage is not so far-fetched. Thank about it. If these so-called progressive miscreants — so bent out of shape about refusing to accept Trump’s victory in 2016, — are frenzied enough to spit on an unsuspecting Trump supporter exiting a rally or harass an elderly couple going to a conservative meeting in public, what’s stopping a rotten few from stealthily defiling a meal or sneakily creating havoc in the guise of a company representative just because you don a Trump 2020 campaign shirt?

You see it all the time on social media where anonymous trolls, who never stepped into any sort of fight ring in their lives suddenly grow bold behind the keyboard of a computer, then spinelessly defame or dox people who have opposing political views. The radical Left seems to find joy in disrupting other people's lives more out of spite than principle.

They have taken their angry attacks and disruptions out of the political arenas — rallies, forums and town hall meetings — and taken it to public domain. Senator Mitch McConnell’s wife getting harassed at a restaurant or Vice-president Pence getting booed in the audience of a Broadway show. Just look at the outrage after Liberal darling Ellen DeGeneres had the gall to sit next to President George Bush in a private suite at an NFL game. Her own people cannibalized her.

But they are public figures and it’s frightening to think that someone could get beat up in a California bathroom just for wearing a MAGA hat (in Russian yet) like what recently happened to a man in a Hermosa Beach restaurant or a conservative  journalist being attacked by Antifa radicals in Portland before actually being portrayed as the criminal by left-leaning media. Even in good old tolerant and inclusive New York City there have been more a few cases of regular citizens going about their own business being publicly attacked for the triggering offense of wearing a MAGA hat or, like at a private party in Tennessee, being punched for just wearing a red one.

Just proving there are some serious cases of TDS out there and that the incidents aren't just isolated.

Take for instance a few disturbing and violent anti-Trump attacks which happened on three corners of the country in recent weeks.

In the first case in point, a video shows a peaceful group named "Students For Trump" at Arizona State University being confronted on campus by a wild-eyed man who yells obscenities and screams "slash their throats" in front of the table they were seated at before the creep slithered away.

Then, in New Hampshire, police arrested another joyless Never-Trumper for assaulting three people outside a polling station, but not before the 34-year-old bully slapped a 15-year-old boy across the face outside of a tent occupied by several Trump supporters.

Trump-hating man arrested in New Hampshire.

Last, but not least, another unbalanced Trump denier, according to police in Jacksonville, Florida, took his hatred to a higher level after he purposely rammed his van into a tent of pro-Trump volunteers who were registering voters in a Walmart parking lot. Luckily, no one was injured in the sinister act which could have spilled much blood.

After he was arrested, 27-year-old Gregory Timm tried to validate his four-wheeled assault by saying, "Someone had to do it." Timm is free on bail.

We’ve heard all of the perceived reasons the Left has so much hatred towards Trump. They have labeled him as racist, anti-LGBTQ and thuggish — using only the media’s slanted fake news stories and Twitter troll hashtags as evidence — as well as bombastic, childish and narcissistic (The last three of which I agree) and then tag anyone who supports this president in the same perceived way. I’ve noticed the recent violent tone in many of my old friends’ social media posts regarding Trump. One time acquaintances who I know never have, or couldn’t have, punched their way out of Elizabeth Warren’s paper teepee, now talk like the original Teflon Don, John Gotti, setting up a Mafia hit.

It isn’t hard to see where the disgruntled Left is getting its cowardly cues. Look no further than the sneaky Democrats in Congress and their partisan, closed door impeachment inquiry inquisitions… I mean “sessions” in the basement of the House.  Or the schools indoctrinating children by changing or erasing history to fit a Liberal agenda.

And then check out your institutes of higher learning. Wasn't it some anarchist college professor at NYU who organized his brainwashed lemmings into storming Grand Central Station with their confrontational anti-cop stance last month?

Call it precaution or paranoia if you’d like, but it’s not like I’m over-exaggerating the possibility of more troublesome scenarios. I grew up in and around the grittier streets New York City past and learned simple things to avoid confrontation early on — like never flash a wad of cash in public or make eye contact with that brooding loner on the subway. I didn’t walk down a darkened alley in a rough neighborhood just looking for trouble. I still follow those same rules now — even on safer NYC streets. The real threat nowadays to me isn’t homeless psychopaths or getting jumped, it’s getting mugged by Liberal mobs with iPhone cameras — the same annoying twerps who never threw down one-on-one in their entire lives now gang up on someone for having a different opinion. 

And just like I don’t go around robbing people, it doesn't mean I don't know how a hold up is done. Self-preservation is usually all about seeing a situation before it plays out. 

Nobody ever wants to say why didn’t I see that coming? 

Just ask the Democrats about 2016. Look what they've turned into.