Nerds and wannabes

Have you noticed the latest fad? Evidently, it's about wearing nerd glasses.

You know, those glasses with the thick black frames that remind some of us of kids we went to school with? The same ones that got straight As, and captained the chess and debate teams? The same ones that could give you the entire history of a sport, but when choosing up teams on the playground for a game, were always reluctantly taken somewhere after a couple of the neighborhood dogs?

Perhaps there's more to this "revenge of the nerds" thing than I thought. But timeout.

Maybe people like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and other famous sports personalities can get away with wearing those glasses, because they could probably wear a tutu coming and/or going from the stadium or arena, and it would be OK somehow, as long as they keep winning. Yet it doesn't make sense.

When they're shown on camera, they normally have some sort of "tunes" plugged into their ears. It's not like they're attempting to read the fine print in their contract. So what's with the glasses? Besides, when those folks actually play the game, they have to have eagle eye vision. Maybe some of them possess natural 20-20 eyesight, and maybe others wear contacts, but there haven't been any nerd glasses since Kurt Rambis of the LA Lakers a few decades ago.

Are they trying to make us think they're smart? That will only work on the dumb people. Humble, and an everyday sort of person? Don't think so, when one of their game checks is more than the average John or Jane makes in a year or two. But they can get away with it as a fashion statement because they're famous.

What gets ridiculous and downright comical is watching other people that follow them do the same thing. Whether it's talking heads on TV, or sports columnists -- seeing them try to jump on the "bandwagon" of being cool comes off as not only decidedly uncool, but laughable.

Look at it this way. If you're reading this, you're a sports fan. That means you're no doubt familiar with a few columnists and talking heads in your area. I can understand a columnist using glasses to read the small print in the box scores while doing their homework, but the public never sees that. When he/she presents an on-line video for their readers, and they've never worn glasses before -- then staring into the camera with those same glasses makes them wannabes. Don't be fooled. It's a subtle thing, but it's there.

And who's kidding who here? The talking heads can shuffle all the papers they want with their nerd glasses, but they're reading their lines from teleprompters.

Fads come and go, with groupies and wannabes always not far behind, trying to get a piece of the action, and hopefully this one is short-lived.

I could never beat them at chess or debate either.

But I owned them on the playground.