I thought some of you might get a kick out of an e-mail I received at my old Cauldron President account a couple of weeks ago....along with my response: On July 20, 2011 at 4:29 PM john haley <haleyji@yahoo.com> wrote: Hi Robert, I wanted to express my disappointment in your groups choice of calling the fan club area "Blue Hell". I love the ballpark and everything that you are all doing out at Livestrong Park, but I am surprised you would post such an inflammatory word on your stadium. I don't know what it gains the team, but I'm sure it puts off more people than look at it and I think it is a poor representation of our team, our fans, and our city, especially since it is visible to televised audiences. I doubt you are going to do much change from my email, but I still felt strongly enough about it to let you know of my disappointment in the decision of naming the KC Cauldron's area within the stadium. Sincerely, John John, Thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it. The fact that you took the time to send me a note indicates your support of Sporting KC & soccer in general, and I thank you for that. As for the name of the fan club area, we still call it the Cauldron. The banner "Welcome the the Blue Hell" has been with the section since the Arrowhead days, but has received an update in size and presentation. While I understand the image it projects may not be right for everyone, yours is honestly the first negative comment I have seen. As for what the name represents, I do not see a problem with the signage, based on the environment we are trying to create withing the Member Stand end of the stadium. Here are some definitions of "Hell" that go along with the mindset we are trying to achieve: Any place or state of torment or misery something that causes torment or misery to be unpleasant to or painful for. This is exactly what the Cauldron (or Member Stand) is wanting to create, an area of torment for opposing players/teams. And I think we are doing a heck of a job creating a "Blue Hell" withing Livestrong Sporting Park. Again, I appreciate your feedback and I will pass it along to the others leading the section. Keep up your support of Sporting Kansas City as we continue the push into the Playoffs!! Thank you, Robert Houghton
Really must be one of the few people that is offended by it. Every time my friend's seem to mention the team, the banner always comes up about how awesome and perfect it is.
No joke. "Blue Hell" banner is practically a fan to fan courtesy. My translation: 'hey friend, PG-13/R good times under Sign, no apologies.' (That said, I still hate YSA).
Point being, because hell is depicted as this awful place, somewhere along the way just mentioning it somehow became a bad word. I mean, Kabul and Detroit aren't considered curse words. I think that if an intelligent person really thought about it for a second, they'd realize that "hell" shouldn't be grouped with shit and the f-word. When I was a kid (around age 7), I was at my friends house across the street. I used the word "butt" in a sentence. While not a super religious family, they were strict. The kids stared at me in amazement that I had said that word. Their mom informed me that this was considered a bad word and was not to be used in their house. I informed their mother (at age 7 remember) that it was short for the actual scientific word, "buttocks" thus not a bad word. She got miffed and told me to go home. Thus beginning my long career of calling people out for being morons.
I was more referring to translation... there wasn't a term for hell back then, not our understanding of it anyway... most of the references to hell in the bible are translated into english that way, but the original word meant something else in greek or hebrew or aramaic or whatever depending on the book... usually referring to an actual place (gehenna) or an idea of afterlife that wasn't exactly hell (sheol or the greek hades)... our concept of hell is largely from paradise lost, not from the bible. so the translation of those other words into "hell" is kind of a mistake in my opinion, as it's pretty misleading. doesn't really matter anyway, god's not real or anything. just a talking point. similar experience with my cousins' family. i don't personally understand why any words are considered "bad" in the first place, but social norms in general escape me. I do support using Kabul and Detroit as curse words though, haha.
Seconded. Got a nice laugh out of that, picturing the banner in LSP, in Kansas City, as "Welcome to Detroit."
Hell. Well its strewn throughout the New International version which is the most popular England language translation currently and the new and old King James versions which has been the best sold versions of the protestant bible .... obviously the history of the KJ Bible should tell you how long that term 'Hell' has been accepted as the norm within scripture in the English speaking world. If it has been removed it is because some new age dandy has taken exception.
I actually wondered if there would be any negative feedback to the sign. Personally, I love the sign. I love the coloring and the design of it. It is one of my favorite things inside the stadium. If someone is offended by it the need to grow thicker skin. When I was in high school, I got sent to the principal's office for using hell in the classroom. The secretary for the principal I was going to see asked why I was there and I told her. She went and and spoke with the principal and she came back out and told me to go back to class because they didnt feel I needed "disciplined." I went back to class and he asked me if I had gone to the office and I told him what had happened and he wasnt happy. He made me sit in the hall for the rest of the class. He was the teacher in charge of the Christian Athletes group and I later asked him if he would have sent me to the office for saying heaven instead. He was taken off guard by the question and never provided a response. I felt it was a perfectly reasonable question.
Ya, I never got the "hell is a curse word" mantra. Now, I think that if I had a kid who kept walking around the house saying, "Hell, hell, hell," I'd say something to him about it. But still. That probably wouldn't happen anyway. I do believe however that we need some swear words. We need some words that are off in their own category that have a negative connotation. I don't agree with people that say "they're just words." They are words, but they carry more weight than that, whether you like to admit it or not. Culturally, they just do. When you are mad, you might yell, but when you are really mad, you might add in the negative swear. How would people truly know the level of your anger if the f-word was just as common as any other word? As a kid, if a neighbor said, "Get off my lawn," I'd chuckle and gingerly make my way off the lawn. If someone said, "Get off my ********ing lawn," I'd hurry up and get the ******** off the lawn. When I was a kid, the only time I ever heard my mother drop an f-bomb was probably the most mad I had ever seen her. Sure, I had seen her really mad, but that particular time when she used the f-word has stuck with me to this day. And that vocabulary choice has cemented that particular situation in my mind forever. If my mom routinely used the f-word and I got desensitized to it, I would have never known how truly pissed off she was at that particular moment. And I probably wouldn't not remember that moment to this day. It's okay to have swear words. It's okay to use them. It's also okay that people get offended when they are used in public. So, people shouldn't get so miffed when another person doesn't want to hear it. Just think, because of those "sensitive" people, the f-bomb you drop at Taco Bell when they don't give you any sauce carries way more weight because of them. As I've said in the past, I personally don't care. Swearing is swearing. Whatever. The only time I will say something to a person is if they're us using racist or overtly sexual words with kids around. Hell, however, I think is roughly in the same category as fart and booger.
I got ejected and suspended from the 14-15 year-old baseball league, whatever that is called these days, for saying "Goddammit" as I walked back to my bench from second base. I was upset because I was caught stealing for the first time, it was in the playoffs, and I was under the impression that I got hosed somehow. The reason has escaped me. When the coach asked why i was ejected, he said "that's a chickenshit reason to toss someone."
In all my years playing soccer, I was red carded only once. Playing the field rather than in goal in an indoor league up at the Dome years ago....reach for a ball and slipped, the ref whistled me for slide tackling. I turned, and in disgust yelled the f-word.....not at the ref, just in disgust. The ref threw a yellow on me. I turned and walked away and yelled the f-word again, once again in disgust....just the single word.....and the ref threw a red card on me. As anyone who knows me will attest, that certainly taught me a lesson about inappropriate language....lol Years later, I learned in ref training, that you have to just ignore that kind of crap....unless it directed to you or another person....this kid must have had really thin skin.
Yeah... poor language on a soccer field? Never! Heck, you can catch John Spencer dropping the f-bomb on tv during the game. You don't see his face, but you certainly hear the Scottish accent and the word coming out. Classic. I don't remember, but I think he may have been talking to a ref. Certainly not the first nor the last foul word from either side. Even Ned Yost dropped the f-bomb (and it was picked up by the mics) when he got ejected over the ridiculous Gordon ejection (it was so dumb, Gordon didn't even argue, just walked off). Sports bring out a lot of passion in people, good and bad. Sometimes when you're so angry, you just can't help but to let the words fly out. If you don't have thick enough skin to understand that, you really should not be refereeing sports. You absolutely have to have incredibly thick skin because when all is said and done, pretty much everyone hates you for doing your job.
Well, I received a response from John: Robert, In light of our conversation earlier in the week, it seems as though the Cauldron is creating an environment of torment and chaos for the wrong team... I'll keep rooting for the team, hopefully we keep pushing for the playoffs! John No sure what it means, unless he is somehow linking the whole bobblehead incident with the Cauldron, but oh well.