Matt Kalil has had a fairly rough season this year, even though he didn’t play awful against the Panthers. Of course, not playing awful isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, but when you’re Matt Kalil, it just might be! Especially when you’re probably only liked because your mother is a total looker.
Either way, by this point, most people are aware of what has been stupidly called #HatGate. This was when – after the Packers game in which the Vikings kind of maybe almost won despite Matt Kalil’s greatest attempts to make them lose – Kalil flipped some guy’s hat outside of the stadium. Look, here’s video of it (Check in at the 0:35 mark):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hSpnmpLJiw?rel=0]The rest of the video includes an interview with said guy that got his hat flipped. I didn’t bother watching it because who really gives a shit. There are essentially two sides to this story, neither of which I think is wrong.
SIDE 1: Matt Kalil has been bad, and he should feel bad. He’s a top ten draft pick, as *acted* like a top ten draft pick in attitude and demeanor, but not in performance. So, that is pretty frustrating for fans, who see a guy strutting around, chatting on his phone, looking all dapper, flipping hats, acting like he’s aloof at just how disappointing he’s been this year. If he gets heckled a little bit because he’s had a bad day, he should man up and take it and play better. OR! Get cut soon!
SIDE 2: Why are you heckling a 300 pound man? First of all, this is NFL football, the most distilled and uninspired sport outside of baseball. That’s not a compliment. Who gives a shit about the NFL enough to yell mean things at a guy – to his face – after a game? Why are you even surprised that the team lost that week, let along that Kalil played poorly? This is all pretty standard stuff. Second of all, the fact that a 300 pound guy that is mad at you ONLY flipped your hat means you probably lucked out.
In short, while I’d like to be up in arms with Kalil over this, I have no remorse for fans that act like jerks to people in their face. We want to be snarky and have some laughs on the internet? Fine. That’s what the internet is for, being stupid. You want to do that in person? Then receive a hat flip, I guess. In conclusion, meh, whatever.
Deadspin also has an account of what else happened via Twitter exchange. Check that out.
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