Fan's Eye View ~ The Black Hat: Say "Hello" To The Bad Guy!6/25/2014 |
Tony Soprano. Dexter Morgan. Walter White. Piper Chapman. What do they all have in common? Well, for starters, they are all characters I
have seen on television from The Sopranos,
Dexter, Breaking Bad, and Orange Is The New Black, respectively. They are all also criminals, as Tony Soprano
was a member of organized crime, Dexter Morgan was a serial killer who killed
serial killers, Walter White was a meth-cooking out of work teacher, and Piper
Chapman is in the midst of a prison sentence for mule-ing
drugs from one place to another with her lover ten years prior to her
conviction. Beyond that, however, there
is one more thing they all have in common.
They are definitely “The Bad Guy,” but they are the type of Bad Guy that
you root for. Don’t get me wrong, in
real life I would have detested each in turn, as we all should, but when they
appear on that little glowing box every week, I couldn’t help but be on their
sides. There’s another guy out there that I like who has been
wearing the black hat, too, so to speak.
A lot of folks don’t like him because of things he says or does, and
some don’t like him because he’s successful, and some don’t like him just
because they choose to like others. His
name is Kyle Busch, and he is the one that many love to hate right now. Busch is rather polarizing when it comes to fan
appreciation. I think you either are a
Kyle Busch fan and would give him your kidney should he need it, or you don’t
like him at all and wouldn’t cross the street to relieve yourself on him if he
were on fire. I’m not sure there are too
many folks out there who would say, “Eh, Kyle Busch…he’s okay.” Those fans that love to hate on Busch would
certainly have and express to you their reasoning for said abhorrence. “Kyle’s a jerk on the track!” “Kyle’s a jerk outside of the track!” “Kyle wins too much in the Nationwide and Truck series.” “Kyle won’t talk to the media unless he wins.” “Kyle drives a Toyota.” Whatever that reasoning may be, they are someone else’s
reasons, and I wouldn’t dream of trying to take them away. Now, for those who actually like Kyle Busch,
you’re having a little bit of fun with this, aren’t you? Why? Because,
just sometimes, it’s fun to root for the Bad Guy! Come on…think about it.
Kyle Busch wins a race, and what happens? He gets out of the car after a few celebratory
burn outs, and does the worst possible, knife-twisting, lemon juice over paper
cut pouring, face in it rubbing thing he could possibly do. He does a nice bow to all the fans, cheering
and booing alike. For those who don’t
like Kyle, yeah, that probably hurts a little bit. However, if you’re a fan of Kyle Busch, that
little bow is just perfect for you to jab an elbow into the ribs of your Kyle
hating friends. It is a little bit fun,
and it’s because Busch is that
polarizing of a driver for fans. Now, believe me when I tell you that I did not just fall off
the turnip truck. The concept of pulling
for a driver not many others call their favorite is not a new concept. If social media existed in 1967, I guarantee
you would have seen a tweet from someone saying they don’t like Richard Petty
because he wins too much. Think about
Darrell Waltrip. That’s a man who was
nicknames “Jaws” because he couldn’t (wouldn’t?) keep his mouth shut, a trait
usually not well liked by some fans.
Then there was Rusty Wallace, who with one small incident on the track
in The Winston took the black hat off of Darrell Waltrip’s
head and affixed it securely to his own, thank you very much.
And then of course, there was that cat in that number No. 3 car.
I can remember when my buddy Nate and I used to watch the races together, and all through most of the early to mid-1990’s, Dale Earnhardt would win races and it would anger my friend something fierce, to the point where even later in the day, we would be out somewhere or doing something else, and he’s just say, “Stinkin’ Earnhardt!” My grandmother, who loved Dale like crazy, would make an exaggerated fist pump almost right in Nate’s face to rub it in. See, it is fun!
Now one thing you may notice about those examples that I gave you is that as time passes, a lot of those jeers turned into cheers, as fans softened toward these drivers as their careers progressed. All are in the Hall of Fame. Petty became The King. Waltrip never put the black hat back on, unless you ask the Allisons about Pocono in 1992, Rusty traded his in for respect as his career wound down, and Earnhardt…well, Earnhardt never took the black hat off, and black became the new black, so to speak and it was cool to root for the bad guy. Everyone who ever watched Earnhardt race is now a fan of his, doesn’t it seem? That is also true for Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon. Those two certainly had their detractors in the stands for years, but now, if Stewart or Gordon wins a race, it seems to be a popular win.
Could that also happen for Kyle Busch?
If five, maybe ten years down the road, Kyle Busch were to win a race, get out of the car, grab the checkered flag, and make the little bow, could you see a scenario where ninety percent of those in the grandstands were cheering, because Kyle had earned their support?
That’s a hard question to answer, but I do believe this sport is cyclical. It’s not like professional wrestling where the outcome is fixed and good guys become bad guys and bad guys become good guys on a weekly basis, and it is all determined by which guy “punches” which other guy. But things do come around in this sport, as proven by the examples I shown above. By the way, and as more proof, Nate and I were cheering like crazy when Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 in 1998.
See, it was fun to root for the guy in the black hat.
Feel free to leave comments below, and be sure to follow me @RaceFansJim on Twitter, because sometimes I give stuff away!