I’m a Pacers fan living in Cleveland (yes, I chose violence), and I’m in a fantasy football league with a bunch of Cavs fans. Trash talk is a given.
Last year, the Cavs fans in the league talked a lot of smack leading into the playoffs. Everything was "Let Em Know" this and "Cavalanche" that. I told them that they should be worried about the Pacers (who had been playing great since January 1 when everyone got healthy), but they mocked and dismissed me, and even went to a Pacers/Cavs game and started "over-rated" chants at Tyrese Haliburton…
…then, Haliburton and the Pacers ripped their hearts on national TV. Everything peaked when Hali hit a game winner over their favorite bench player and did the Sam Cassell big balls dance to celebrate.
From that point on, things got pretty toxic in the league. A few guys began sending me GIFs of Haliburton blowing out his achilles rather consistently. Any time I would say something about the Pacers or basketball in general, they would respond by making fun of one of the most brutal injuries in basketball history. Today, when LeBron’s 10+ scoring streak was snapped, I sent the following text in the group thread:
"The LeFraud streak is so dumb because it skips game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals when he got shut down by JJ Barea and scored 8 points in a 3 point loss that would have given them 3-1 series lead. LeChoke is just a stat padding attention whore."
Now, I think LeBron is the best player of all time (MJ is the greatest, but LeBron is the best, don’t @ me). I’m not a LeBron hater like lots of guys, and I honestly assumed that Cavs fans who have been spurned by LeBron not just once but twice would find this funny, especially since the cited LeBron game came during the time when LeBron was Enemy #1 in Cleveland. ("Mavaliers" was a real thing!)
Instead, they immediately responded by sending more GIFs of Haliburton blowing out his achilles, images of Oladipo getting carted off the court, and finally, PG snapping his leg in half for Team USA.
I wasn’t expecting them to cape so hard for LeBron, but if they wanted to, there were EASY responses that were right there for them. They could send me a video/gif of any one of LeBron’s THREE game winners over the Pacers if that comment offended them so badly. That’s THEIR TEAM beating MY TEAM on the court. Great. Totally admissible in the "Court of Trash Talk."
But no. Instead, it’s "Your team beat ours last year, so here are graphic reminders of your favorite players experiencing career-altering physical trauma hahahaha."
I feel like this type of smack talk (glorifying in injuries and sending GIFs of absolutely horrifying moments) are across the line. I’m in multiple fantasy football leagues and group threads where these types of moments would just obviously be assumed to be off limits.
So I left the group thread. The League thinks I’m overreacting and "too sensitive."
**AITA** for dipping out when the trash talk crossed into gore-compilation territory?
NAH. You’re just outnumbered.
I’m not going to outright call you an AH for not participating in a conversation that you don’t like, but I do think you’re being self-righteous. You’re drawing a line at physical injuries, but you’re more than happy to call players names.
So yeah, I’d say you’re sensitive about this particular topic. I’m old enough that I don’t want to see anyone injured on any team, whether I like the team/player or not, but I’m not necessarily a fan of the name calling either.
It’s pretty easy to draw the line at physical injury. I mean can you really not see the difference between someone being physically injured and calling someone else names?
NTA, I would’ve left simply because it sounds like there’s so much basketball toxic chatter in the fantasy football group. Make a new group thread if you wanna talk basketball.
What a privileged existence if this is a dynamic that someone struggles with and comes to Reddit for guidance on.
YTA – You can dish it but can’t take it. Plus, you keep reacting poorly to the same gifs, so they’ll keep posting the same things until you don’t react.
Reggie Miller would be ashamed at your lack of trash talk ability
MJ is the 🐐! Repeat. Threepeat!
I would say your kind of a 🐱, asshole no
YTA, it is literally not that deep and all in good fun dude. Like you’re genuinely thinking about this way too hard.
NAH. From a Thunder fan.
YTA why are you bringing basketball into your fantasy football thread. Why are you inflicting this on yourself and then complaining.