The best thing about August is the start of football training camps. Of course, there are other good things (the countdown to the end of 90 degree weather, for one) but I also enjoy the little soap operas that are all coming out of Vikings camp. Who needs to watch the semi-scripted crap that is reality television when you’ve got drama, political backbiting, scandal, and utter disappointment that is a training camp to follow!?
Naturally, teams have picked up on this and are doing all sorts of crazy stuff to hype their team and what’s going on without giving away too much about their plans for the upcoming season. They rely on little tricks and flash-bang marketing boondoggles to try and get people interested, even those fans (like myself) that don’t live there.
Case in point: the Minneapolis Star Tribune runs a “Camp Cam” that is an interactive webcam that you can use to view the goings-on at the Vikings training camp. You can also post images from the cam on a public photo album that anyone can see. It’s set up to run 24 hours a day, so you can log in anytime you want and see what the practice field looks like at 3 AM if you want to.
The camp cam is easy to abuse though, since there seems to be no real editing of what images get taken or posted on the public album. If last season was any indication, the most popular images posted on the album will consist of the following:
- Popular Vikings players (Culpepper and the rookies)
- Coach Tice (identifiable by the big yellow wood pencil he usually has behind his ear)
- Any and all remotely attractive females in the audience – particularly those in low cut shirts or short skirts.
Honestly, it seemed as though 70% of the pictures from last year were weirdos spying on hot audience members. This season it looks like they’ve restricted the camera so that it can’t look down on the picnic tables as easily, but I’m sure that the weirdos will find another way.
So, all you hot Vikings fans planning on going to camp (and let’s be frank, we’re all incredibly good-looking people) make sure that you keep your eyes on that camera before you flash for beads. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, glacierman.
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