Why some people hate ‘Swaggerville’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2011 (5396 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We are eight games into the 2011 Winnipeg Blue Bomber football season and I’ve come to notice that not everyone finds the spinoff of “Swaggerville” as amusing and entertaining as I do.

In fact, after studying the population of dissent and disapproval that is out there, I have been able to come up with five plausible reasons why some are turned off by this national phenomenon. If you are not an advocate of “Swaggerville,” or just put off by it, it is most likely because of one of these five reasons.

The first is the easiest and most obvious these days. You hate it because you didn’t come up with it. Like it or not, Swaggerville has become an independent, marketable entity. It has received unbelievable amounts of national television, print, radio, and Internet exposure, though it has no marketing budget. Its founding members are doing paid appearances on its behalf and people are lining up for their autographs.

“Swaggerville” is selling out of T-shirts, and is being piggy backed by other companies with “Swagger” type products — like all of the hair product merchandise that was sent to our locker-room last week. It has a Facebook fan page with thousands of members, a rap song has been recorded about it, and it is such a catch phrase on the football team, it even has its own stylistic language rights. My regular abdominal and pushup routine during practice has now been re-named “seven minute swagger abs,” and the 300-yard shuttles we often do are obviously now “swagger-shuttles.” It is no secret that people are often resentful and or jealous of other people’s successes, and “Swaggerville” is a marketing phenom that is no different.

The second reason some people don’t like this contagious beacon that began in the defensive secondary some time ago is that it is taking attention away from them. People take offence to “Swaggerville” because it’s not about them, they aren’t a part of it, and it is receiving huge amounts of press and airtime. One thing that has become very apparent of late is that when players around the CFL were asked their opinions of “Swaggerville,” they either hated it and took offence to it, or they had no problem with it.

The more self indulgent types probably took offence to it because it takes away from the attention they are receiving, while many of the others interviewed by TSN, thought of it as amusing and an interesting rallying point for an upstart team.

If you get off a plane in Winnipeg as a visiting team and immediately don sunglasses to mock what some have referred to as a “cartoon” stunt, this is attention seeking behavior that has obviously been generated to fill a void. If we went to Hamilton and pulled out work belts and clipped some hammers to it in reference to “Hammerville,” it would be pretty evident that we were feeling left out and in need of more media attention.

Thirdly, I assume some people have an aversion to “Swaggerville” because they don’t fully understand how it is being utilized or conceptualized. After all, if you base the idea strictly on its definition, swagger can be interpreted as, “conducting oneself in an arrogant or pompous manner.” Or, “to walk with an air of overbearing self-confidence.”

While professional football is a game that should be played with a certain degree of swagger, “Swaggerville’s” mandate, as defined by founder Jovon Johnson, is more of a buzzword for the defence and a description of the confidence and self belief its members play with. If you haven’t been paying attention, the players that ran with this catchphrase do their talking with their actions on the field and usually not in the press and papers before the games.

A fourth aversion to the “swag,” is that many people think it is premature to not only name yourself with more than half a season to go, but to give a name to any group or unit that has not been baptized in championship glory. While for the most part I agree with this standpoint, if you look back to the origins of the phrasing, the players did not anoint themselves with this name. From my recollections, it was a coach on this football team a few years back that implored the players to play with a “swagger” on the field, to believe in themselves and perform with the upmost confidence. They just ran with it and the rest is history.

Lastly, if this still does not adequately explain why you are not a fan of the concept or at least find it fun and entertaining, it may be because you are a traditionalist and we don’t play in “Swaggerville,” we play in Winnipeg and we are the Blue Bombers — a very storied CFL franchise with 10 league championships, and not a bunch of guys with “swag.”

No one on this team would argue with that premise and the swagger is not something designed to take away from the proud legacy of the football club, it is just an enthusiastic spinoff with positive community ramifications and a comical outlet to many others.

Doug Brown, a hard-hitting defensive tackle with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and even harder-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Winnipeg Free Press.