Miami Conch Fan, Who Didn’t Really Violate NCAA Rules vs. Duke, Identified

February 19, 2010

Well, we found him…the Conch Shell fan who we spoke about on Thursday.

His name is Joey DiFrancesco and here is the e-mail he got in touch with us with, “I am Elephant boy, the guy who blew the conch at the Miami Duke game.  How can we blow this up?”

Pun intended perhaps? Here he is during the SportsCenter highlight and soon we will have the story underneath the shell:

After going through the 192-page NCAA Basketball rule book here is the only rules that this fan kind of broke:

“Rule 10 Fouls and Penalties – Section 2 Administrative Technical Fouls – Art 9. Team followers, as in Rule 4-27, shall not commit an unsportsmanlike act, including, but not limited to, the following:

a. Using musical instruments, amplified music or artificial noisemakers while the game is in progress, except timeouts and intermission.

Note 1: Before penalizing a follower(s) of a team for violating Rule 10-2.9, the officials shall have knowledge as to which team’s follower(s) committed the act.

Note 2: When the misconduct of the follower(s) is extreme or excessive, such behavior may be penalized by the official requesting home/contest management to eject from the premises the team follower(s) involved in the misbehavior. In such a case, a technical foul shall not be assessed.

PENALTY: (Art. 9) Two free throws awarded to the offended team. The ball shall be put back in play at the point of interruption.”

I’ve never seen a conch shell used in a band (so no on the instrument) and it definitely isn’t artificial…so, I think you are in the clear Joey/Elephant Boy/Conch Shell Fan.

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1 Comment | Crazy Fans, Crowd Noise | Permalink
Posted by Ben Meyers

Houston Texans Fans Know How to Make Noise…Uhhh Wait…

January 9, 2010

Last Sunday there was an epic battle in Houston between the Texans and the Patriots.  Okay, not really epic, but it was historic in that Houston won the game and came away with their first winning season since they joined the NFL (yes, I know about the Oilers, and no, I’m not counting them).

The fans in Houston must have read my previous post on how crowd noise can impact a football game, because they are trying to get the stadium loud with their N-O-I-S-E signs.  Oh wait, nevermind, they are just being NOSIE…sorry for the false alarm.

A golden rule of sign-making in the world of sports fandom:  If you are going to go with your friends to the game and have everyone hold a letter (or paint said letter on your chest), please be sure to stand in the right order!

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Leave a Comment » | Crowd Noise, Horrible Fans, Signs | Permalink
Posted by thatfan

“20 Things That Make You A Sports Doofus” #5

December 10, 2009

In case you haven’t seen it, a recent ESPN Page 2 article outlined the “20 things that make you a sports doofus”.  I am picking through the list one by one and giving my opinion on each of the 20 items, and then stating whether I agree with the author, or whether the author is the real doofus (you can read prior critiques here:  #1,  #2,  #3, #4). Please be sure to leave a comment with your opinion. By the way, who says the word ‘doofus’ anymore anyway?

Doofus item #5: Going crazy over giveaway T-shirts and burritos when you’re occupying $500 seats

Serious question here:  who complains about free stuff?  Better yet, who complains about free shirts of their favorite team?  Answer: no one who claims to be That Fan.  I’ve been in front row seats and I’ve been in top row seats, and you better believe that once the announcer mentions the word “free”, my eyes light up like Percy Harvin when he sees the kicker is the last person he has to beat.  When “shirt” is the next word after “free”, all hell breaks loose and I am out of my seat waving my arms like crazy, yelling for a shirt.  It doesn’t matter if I paid a scalper five-times the face value of tickets in the parking lot, or if I got free tickets from a friend who couldn’t make it, walking away with free team gear is a bonus to any game, win or lose.

Something I want to point out for anyone who read the original article (because the author obviously isn’t aware of this), but one of the main purposes that sporting events toss free items into the crowd, is to get that same crowd up off their butts and to make some noise.  The home-field advantage is huge (just as I explain in THIS post) so That Fan says if it gets the crowd excited, throw every piece of free team gear you can!

That Fan verdict:  The author loses his winning streak and is the doofus on this one!  Maybe he is either too short or can’t catch, so he’s bitter?

TShirtToss

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Leave a Comment » | Crazy Fans, Crowd Noise | Permalink
Posted by thatfan

College Gameday Contest & Notes

October 29, 2009

I mentioned earlier this week that College Gameday was going to be held in Eugene, Oregon, and that I would be holding my first official That Fan contest.  Basically what I’m asking is for someone who is going to be in the crowd to get That Fan some pub on a sign.  It doesn’t have to be on a sign all to its own, so you can do your sign making fun of USC (I’m assuming that there will be mostly Oregon fans there) and throw “That Fan” somewhere on the sign.  Better yet, make it large and throw it on the back of the sign.  I know, I know, “What’s in it for me?”

Well, if I can see the sign on TV for even just a few seconds, I’ll give you a $25 gift card to anywhere of your choice.  If the sign gets major airtime, I’ll up it to $50.  If it is a particularly good sign I’ll just send you the money via PayPal.  You will also get MAJOR pub on this site of course!  That might not sound like much but considering I’m funding this out of my own wallet, and assuming you are more than likely a college student, its drinking money you didn’t have previously.  How do you claim your prize?  Send me a picture of you holding your sign, and I will compare it to the sign I saw on TV to make sure it is the same sign.  Easy as that.  **Just an FYI, if a miracle occurs and I see 20 signs showing up on the broadcast, I reserve my right to provide gift cards only to the best signs!**  Examples for your sign, although I encourage creativity:  “I AM THAT FAN”, “THATFAN.COM”, “blog.thatfan.com”, etc.  By the way, I will run this contest every week going forward so if your school is hosting Gameday in the future, keep checking the site for details.

Enough about the contest for now.  Duck fans, if you are wondering where Gameday will be filmed, it will be at the Casanova Center parking lot that is parallel to Martin Luther King Blvd. and north of the Casanova Center.  The show airs at 7 a.m. (PDT) and the gates are expected to open to spectators & That Fan contest winners at 5:30 a.m.  More details can be found HERE.

Being that Oregon has been the topic at hand, I wanted to post a fantastic article talking about Oregon’s homefield advantage at Autzen Stadium.  This only gives further credibility to the post I wrote several days back about the importance of making noise at football games.  You can read the ESPN article HERE.

I’ve heard rumors that Oregon is telling everyone to wear black for Halloween, thus making the game an official black-out game.  Might want to be careful, blackouts haven’t gone so well this year!  Can any Oregon fans confirm?

A few final notes:  I hope to see at least two Washington State flags like I have every week so far considering how close you are to Oregon.  Jenn Brown is supposedly going to be on Gameday this week.  Don’t forget to vote for your favorite signs from last week’s Gameday at BYU!  Lastly, my “team of choice” (who will continue to remain nameless until they prove on the field that they deserve the publicity) has a game at 3:30pm ET, so I may not get the signs up until that night, but I’ll do my best to get them up as soon as Gameday is over!

BlackOregonHelmet

Will Oregon Black-out USC?

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Leave a Comment » | Color-Outs, Contests, Crowd Noise, ESPN College Gameday, Football, Stadiums | Permalink
Posted by thatfan

Why You Should Be Loud At Football Games

October 12, 2009

I ran across a great article from former NFL offensive lineman Brian Baldinger that basically supports one of the main theories of this site…good fans taking the right actions can help impact the game.  If you want to be a better fan, bookmark this site and check back frequently.  This was taken from the 12/12/04 issue of The Sporting News so I owe them the credit for this article:

When I played for the Eagles in 1992, we went to Dallas for a divisional playoff game. I played left guard, and though I was right near him, I never heard Randall Cunningham call a signal all day. The Dallas crowd was so noisy, the best I could do was keep one eye on the ball, the other on the tackle I had to block, and wait for the snap. We scored 10 points and lost.

Don’t let anyone tell you home field doesn’t matter in the playoffs. It does, especially to offensive linemen. When you can’t hear, you lose the advantage of knowing the snap count. You’re slower off the ball, and you’re not as strong as you’d like because you start every play with some indecision and doubt. You’re never really in attack mode.

Psychologically, the crowd can be such a boost for the home team. The roar gets the adrenaline pumping so much that you feel like you have a reserve energy tank. If you’re the visitor, the crowd can sap some of that energy out of you.

This is the core reason you see players motioning to the crowd to get loud on 3rd downs (technically they should be doing it every play, not just third downs).  This is also the same reason you will see the scoreboards say “Make Some Noise!” (or something similar).  Any fan should have an accomplished feeling when the opponent gets called for a false start penalty after the crowd went wild in the huddle…someone obviously didn’t hear the snap count (or lost their concentration in the madness).  The flip side of this is that making all that noise when your team has the ball might do some detriment by not allowing them to hear the play call in the huddle either…however, Brian makes a good point by mentioning the added adrenaline when you hear the home crowd roar.  Take a look at how the crowd amazingly impacted this Notre Dame/Michigan game:

**In case you were wondering, the NCAA eliminated the rule that penalizes teams if their crowds are too loud, or what I like to call, the That Fan rule (see the last bullet of the NCAA article)**

Over time I will be developing the That Fan 10 Commandments of Fandom for each of the main sports…making insane amounts of noise when your opponents have the ball will be a key item on the football list.  Just some more future That Fan foreshadowing…

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3 Comments | Crowd Noise, Football | Permalink
Posted by thatfan

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