Calling the new “Nerd Chic” fashion trend for athletes is an insult to the nerds I know.

Def: Nerd [nurd] is a derogatory stereotype of a person typically described as socially-impaired, obsessive, or overly intellectual. They may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular or obscure activities, pursuits, or interests, which are generally either highly technical, or relating to topics of fiction or fantasy, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities.

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So if you watch basketball like I do, or maybe have caught a glimpse at your most popular basketball players from the last couple of seasons, you may have noticed a disturbing trend that has been happening. It all started innocently enough with Kevin Durant and his backpack.

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I don’t think that I have ever been a nerd. I do know that I am definitely not smart enough to be considered a nerd – at least a nerd like we see on tv. But that is one kind of nerd. There is another kind of nerd that we all know about too … and thats the billionaire nerd. You know, the Bill Gate’s or Larry Ellison or Google guys types. They are the guys that we all hear about and read about because they are billionaires and control the fucking planet – but those aren’t the kinds of nerds that I am talking about that athletes are insulting. I’m talking about real nerds. The nerds you dont know about. Nerds like the guys that you call when your computer at work goes on the fritz. Or the nerds that you talk to when your blog is messed up or the nerds you call when you can’t link up your Facebook and your twitter and your pinterest to your wordpress site and/or you have no idea what a widget is. Nerds like the guys that are part of Blacks In Gaming … or the guys who went to Cleveland State in the middle bumfuck nowhere but work in the IT department at your company. Here is the thing about those guys. They are cool. They are hip. They are smarter than you. They make waaaay more money than you. and at the end of the day, I would be willing to bet that when its all said and done, those guys will have more dough 10 years after they retire from their work, than 90% of the millionaire athletes that you see on tv dressing like “nerds” five years after they retire from their work. I always say, calling people nerds and dogging them out in high school is the worst mistake that anyone can ever make because when you are grown, nerds run the fucking world. They do. The star quarterback didn’t come up with the iPhone. The staring point guard wasn’t programming mozilla or angry birds.

You know what else is crazy??? The guys get signing bonuses just like pro athletes. These guys get contracts – three year deals, four year deals, options… but the best part about these nerds is that they get a share of the profits. they aren’t just playing for the team. If you win aka produce a title that is the shit and sell a ton of units, usually the company breaks bread with you and you get a nice fat bonus check for your troubles. You would never know the writers or the designers or the game Call of Duty: Black Ops. Here is a state that would blow your mind: “Within 24 hours of going on sale, the game sold more than 5.6 million copies, 4.2 million in the U.S. and 1.4 million in the UK” ….. thats at like 59.99 a pop. Just do the math on that. I don’t care how many Super Bowls you win or NBA Finals games you have… athletes don’t produce that kind of revenue. Games do. Nerds do.

Sometimes I literally think back upon my life and I say damn, if I had only known… those days that I was running suicides and impressing chicks with my six pack back in the 10th grade, I should have been drinking diet coke and learning how to program some code.

If no one else will say it, I will be the one to say it, “YOU GUYS LOOK LIKE IDIOTS!”

LeBron reading the hunger Games before playing in a playoff game is a big deal?

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Fuck looking up to athletes. They aren’t the shit. We are impressed on some level because they can do dramatic feats athletically that we could never do because we weren’t born 6 feet 8 inches tall with the agility and quickness of a man 5 foot 11… but in reality, we should be looking up to legit nerds who can do dramatic feats intellectually. Its stuff that we probably can’t do either really, but at least it IS closer to being attainable. All you have to do is crack open a book. Not The Hunger Games so that you look cool and not like a traditional athlete with your beats by Dre headphones on, but a real book like Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ … because at the end of the day, that is what this world is going to be. That is something you can rest your hat on. There is a much better chance that you can be the next Sergei Brin or at least get rich working for the next Sergei Brin, than there is a chance of you being the next LeBron James.

Category: Feature, Letter from the editor