Could the dildo who wrote the article have been more condescending? He had an agenda and ran with it. It could have been a good article but he wanted to see what he wanted to see and to hell with the facts.
I agree with Steve. This has an agenda written all over it. He joined the ranks for three games, paints us as wanna-be hooligans who wear Doc Martens, and neglects the 45 minute conversation I had with him telling him that we have nothing to do with hooliganism, that we're Ultras instead. I don't think I've ever heard anyone use a Cockney accent except in jest. This was certainly cheeky. But fuck it all, it's better than nothing I suppose. If you want to get a true feel of what ESC is about, there was a real good piece done on News 12 NJ last night.
I already saw one false reporting in his article. "Smoke Bombs" We don't have smoke bombs in the ESC. What a stupid idiot. I can't believe he actually wasted his computer program to type up a crap and useless article just so he can show his stupidity. I like Joe Benigo on the fan but he didn't have to go there and ask him this, or if he didn't ask him this and wrote it as a fake interview then that is horrible journalisium. Wasting our time and making us sound like we love to create chaos for no reason. He should go and see what happens in South America or just recently I heard Lazio supporters knifed a couple of Dinamo Bucharest supporters in Italy before a Champions League Qualifier. Let Mr. Levy check that crap out. We are not hooligan wanna be's, we are die hard supporters that love our club and we don't try to create problems. We stand, sing & cheer and if Mr. Levy or anyone else doesn't like it then here is the simple answer to a simple question. LEAVE US THE F ALONE! Stop trying to make yourself look so stupid.
The game he was at we did. I thought it was slightly condecending but overall it was an honest account. He wasn't there to promote us or blow smoke up his ass. Everything he wrote happened. Although there were parts i think he exagerated the spirit of the quotes. I didn't have that impression from the article When did he ever say we were hooligans? The only major critisism i have with it is he includes a lot of things that happened and quotes without putting the events that led to them into context. When we was talking about the Chivas game it wasnt the fans turning backs on the team it had to do with the crazy security issues that game whhich he failed to mention. But overall, he called it as he saw it. Personally i think he could have done a much more complete article based on the amount of info we gave him and the fact he was at 3 games. But maybe his editor wanted to go a different direction.
At least one observation seems 'spot on'! Perhaps the reporter needs to learn what 'taking the micky' means. Why, that was "18-year-old Daniel, wearing purple Doc Martins and a tight maroon polo tucked into jeans at a tailgate session" Considering the NY Observer demographic, perhaps this could be a "rough trade" reference. All-in-all, he's entitled to write what he wants, and we're entitled to have fun with it! I wonder if he ever profiled the Timber Army, those manly lumberjacks!
I've been part of the ESC for six years, and that article struck me as spot-on. We, like any other supporter's group, have a few folks who like to talk about how "hard" they are, have a few folks who are unabashed "nerds" (I'm one), and have lots of folks religiously dedicated to alcohol consumption and english-language vulgarity.
"playing hooligan" The only protracted ESCer profile other than MPF is the guy who boasts about having "clocked" three people the week before. The unexplained turning our backs. The author's premise going in was, it appears, based upon what he has heard about English supporters clubs and his viewing of Green Street Hooligans etc. While I have no doubt that he saw what he saw and heard what he heard, was it a balanced view of what he saw over the course of three weeks? If the thrust of his article was that middle aged over educated white guys make up the ESC and cited Jake, Brownie, and myself would he be wrong? No. Would he be completely accurate? Again no. A person reading this article who never heard of the ESC or seen us at a game would walk away with a belief that we look for violent confrontations. Does that explain why I believe the article was a steaming pile of guano?
I'm sorry to disagree with you onionsack. But this was a crap article. He did his job and screwed the ESC, just like NJSEA Security does to the ESC this man did it in a magazine/newspaper.
"I'm Middle-aged Man" http://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90cmiddleaged.phtml "I know where all my appliance warranties are."