The Gripe Report: Over-Used Movie References, Championship Shirts Over Pads, And Airpods

One of the fun things about this job is that you never really know what will come up, and sometimes that includes surprise Gripe Report material. 

One day this week, I was starting to wind things down, when a discussion about raccoons broke out on the company Slack channels.

This was a lopsided debate with everyone taking anti-raccoon stances. Those poor rodents were getting absolutely dummied. 

Considering I had a good experience feeding an apple core to a raccoon while visiting the Bahamas about 10 years ago, I thought I’d step in and do a little white-knighting for the raccoons.

Have a gripe? We all know you do! Send it in!: mattreigleoutkick@gmail.com

But then I thought about every other run-in I’ve had with them. It usually involved neighbors leaving their trash out overnight and they started tearing through it, living up to their nickname, "trash pandas."

There were also times that I saw them in broad daylight. 

"Oh no," I always think. "Better steer clear, only rabid raccoons are out during the day." 

I don’t know that that’s a hard and fast rule, but it’s probably best to live by it. It’s the same reason I always check bunches of bananas for tarantulas before I buy them. I heard about that happening one time and now would rather just be safe than sorry. 

There's also the matter of their dextrous paws. I've always said, that if any animal is going to overthrow the human race, it's one with some degree of manual dexterity.

That's why apes are the betting favorites on this front, but there aren't any apes that live near me. So, the animals with the most manual dexterity that live near me? Raccoons.

I don't know. I think I may have turned the corner on raccoons. Be sure to send me your thoughts on this topic as well as any other gripe that may be eating away at you: mattreigleoutkick@gmail.com.

Since we started with an intra-OutKick debate, I say we keep things right here for this week and change it up a little bit.

Certainly keep those emails coming, but knowing the folks who work here, there’s a deep well of complaints to pull from. We need to let them vent before complaints and grievances start spurting out like an Old Faithful of griping.

We’ve got a pair of guest gripers from under the OutKick umbrella, and one of them even double-dipped.

We all love movie references, but <i>some </i>should be retired because they've been run into the ground. (Getty Images)

Over-Used Movie References.

We'll get rolling with a gripe from OutKick's Dan Zaksheske, who as I'm sure you're aware, does a ton of great work around here.

I got this very to-the-point message from him:

Gripe Report

I’m tired of people re-enacting this.

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I like Step Brothers. You probably like Step Brothers. But he's right, let's find a new reference.

Sure, some references are timeless. Who doesn't shoehorn in a Nigel Tufnel "These go to eleven," reference if given even half a chance? 

I've even been known to say "F--cking Catalina Wine Mixer" even if someone mentions Catalina dressing, but using "Did we just become best friends?" with a mock-up of the movie's poster is old hat.

We should vote in Hall of Fame movie references that get to stay, but every ten years we should have to hang some references in the rafters.

I think first ballot references would have to be "You talkin' to me?" from Taxi Driver, "I'm gonna give him an offer he can't refuse?" from The Godfather, "You're gonna need a bigger boat" from Jaws, "Run, Forest" from the (overrated; yeah, I said it. What of it?) Forest Gump, any line from Airplane!, and finally, the aforementioned "These go to eleven," from This Is Spinal Tap.

Let me know your first ballot Hall of Fame movie references and which ones you think need to be retired: mattreigleoutkick@gmail.com

For some reason, players can't be bothered to take their pads off and wear properly-fitted championship shirts anymore. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images)

Giant Championship Shirts Over Pads

Anthony Farris — a longtime member of the OutKick family — brings us the kind of petty gripe that I guarantee none of us have ever thought of that The Gripe Report was created to highlight.

Take it away, AF:

I despise the trend of the last decade-plus of conference/Super Bowl championship winners putting the XXXL t-shirts over their shoulder pads. It looks ridiculous. They never did this before. They took the 30 seconds to remove their shoulder pads and toss a t-shirt on like a respectable adult. Now they all look silly. Drives me nuts...

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I never noticed this, but thinking back, this is absolutely the case. 

Why did that start? Because he’s right it does look a little goofy. 

I have no clue what the real answer is, but I’m willing to float a conspiracy theory. We all know that there are two sets of shirts printed up, but if you think about it, they can’t take players’ sizes ahead of time. Well, they could, but in the post-Super Bowl chaos, there’s no way for them to properly distribute the shirts.

So you go one size fits all, a nice big 3X. That works just fine for the linemen — hell, it might even be a little tight — but the DBs and skill position players will be swimming in them.

No one wants to go onstage looking like a child who got a free shirt a mascot shot into the crowd at a minor league baseball game, and so, they throw it on over pads to fill it out.

This is the only explanation I can think of.

That, or they have to pay the team if their pads get lost in the celebration.

Again, I've never considered this until Anthony mentioned it, but now, it's all I'll see moving forward.

AirPods are the only earbuds that practically live in people's earholes, causing awkward moments for idiots like myself. (Photo credit should read JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

AirPods

Anthony had another gripe. We talked about people talking on the phone in gyms a few weeks back, but he touched on something that needs to be discussed, and that is the use of AirPods:

The other is people who talk on their phones (generally via AirPods) while in the gym. Unless it's an emergency, completely unnecessary. And even in that instance, go in the lobby or outside for a couple of minutes and finish your call. Don't bulls--t around while standing in front of the lat machine you're never going to use.

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Couldn't agree more. I'm not sure when the gym became people's office with dumbbells.

But, I'm going to do a tangential gripe springboarding off of Anthony's gripe. We need to address the overpriced earbuds in the room: I'm sick of AirPods.

My problem with them is that they're the only earbuds that people will seemingly leave in 24/7. I've got a pair of JBL earbuds that I got from Target because I'm a man of the people, and those puppies only go in my ears if I have to listen to something.

I've been in stores where the sales associate has the AirPods in their ear the entire time. It's weird, and I've been burned more than once answering someone who I thought was talking to me but was actually chatting away into their Airpods.

How am I supposed to know when you're using AirPods and when you're not if they never leave your ear holes? They should come with an "ON-AIR" light like a radio or TV studio has to keep morons like me from holding one-sided conversations with Airpod people.

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Whew… I'm parched after that Gripe sesh. Be sure to send any gripes you've got my way and we'll hit them over the next couple of weeks: mattreigleoutkick@gmail.com