It is one thing for fans of other schools to take shots at Lubbock when talking about Texas Tech. That comes with the territory. However, it is different when members of the national media do so.
That's exactly what ESPN's Treavor Scales did this week on an episode of SportsCenter. While interviewing two members of the Houston football team, Makhi Hughes and Amare Thomas, Scales decided to take a subtle but obvious dig at Lubbock.
"I imagine it's going to be deafening in Lubbock," he said. "Ain't a whole lot going on, so they will show up for that, if nothing else."
What a shock. Another national talking head is trying to run down Lubbock by saying that there's nothing else going on besides Texas Tech athletics and pointing to that as the reason the stands will be packed for this top-25 matchup.
At this point, it would be refreshing to simply hear a different criticism of Lubbock. If you can't help but take a shot at the city, at least come up with something new.
Point out how the wind always blows, and when it blows in the wrong direction, the foul aroma from the feedlots drifts into town. Take a moment to comment on how flat it is; so flat, in fact, that you can watch your dog run away for hours.
Make fun of the streets that flood after just an inch or two of rain. Laugh at the fact that there are so many churches that the only traffic jams in town occur on Sunday mornings.
There are plenty of things to ridicule about Lubbock, and Texas Tech fans are good-hearted enough to laugh along with you. But be creative. If you just can't keep from running down the Hub City, then do so. But come up with something new.
Of course, that would require people like Scales to have some kind of actual knowledge of Lubbock. To be creative in making fun of it would suggest he has actually spent meaningful time there. Instead, the Harvard graduate and former sideline reporter for the CW is just using the same tired talking point to put down the home of the Red Raiders.
Besides, what is there to do in other places that you can't do in Lubbock? Get stuck in a 45-minute traffic jam? Inhale so much smog that your lungs petrify? Be on the local news for being the victim of a random mugging as you walk downtown? If those are things people in large cities appreciate about their lives when compared to life in Lubbock, then so be it.
There really isn't anything all that significant in life that you can't do in Lubbock. After all, I live in a metro area of over three million people, and I never once sit around and think, "Thank God I don't live in Lubbock because I wouldn't be able to do this amazing recreational activity that I'm doing right now."
Texas Tech fans are tired of the Lubbock is America's Siberia narrative. Why don't people point out that there's nothing to do in Ames, Iowa, Manhattan, Kansas, Eugene, Oregon, or Tuscaloosa, Alabama? What do those college towns have going on that give them infinitely more recreational options than Lubbock has?
For some reason, it is cool to run down Lubbock more than almost any other college community. (Where is all the Boise, Idaho slander?) Apparently, it's now cool for even low-rent ESPN personalities who are trying to look hip to jump on the tired, rickety Lubbock is boring bandwagon.
At some point, maybe a new town will emerge as the nation's punching bag. Until then, Texas Tech fans in Lubbock will just have to sit around twiddling their thumbs while waiting for the next Red Raider home victory. Fortunately, those seem to be popping up with regularity these days.
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