Yesterday, my estimable colleague Duane Rollins laid out some concerns he is quite correctly feeling about the intricacies of cheering in the pressbox.
Duane is making the big move this season from the front row of U-Sector's beloved Section 113 to the journalist's treehouse in his role as game reporter for mlssoccer.com.
As a fan-journalist, and five-year veteran of life in the clouds, I humbly offer a few tips that do -- in fact -- allow for cheering TFC under the haughty noses of the Fifth Estate:
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1) Channel most of your cheering into low, under-the-table fist-pumps. These are largely undetectable, and open to multiple interpretation.
2) If you get one syllable into a loud reflexive "Yahoo!" you can always rechannel it into a fake sneeze. Drawback: this requires a level of self-awareness most of us leave in the parking lot when we come to games.
3) If you must "Yahoo!" do it as whole-heartedly as you possibly can. The goal here is a general response of "Oh, that's just Ben. He's like that." An odd form of acceptance, perhaps, but useful all the same.
4) Never, ever, ever, ever cheer within ear or eyeshot of Gerry Dobson.
5) Best solution of all: get the heck out of the pressbox, and on to either of the adaecent terraces. There, you can yell your liver out for 90 minutes, and no one involved with the allegedly higher art of journalism will give a sideways blue fandango.
This is all time-tested, field-proven gold, Duane. I look forward to whatever new strategies you will soon be adding to the fan-journalist arsenal.
Onward!