I need some input from you guys on an issue that's been bothering me a bit the past few weeks.
My goal for this year has been to make it to the gym a bit more routinely, which I'm happy to say I've done a fairly good job at accomplishing. But my increased presence at the gym has given rise to another problem, and I'm curious if it's just me being easily annoyed or whether I'm fairly reacting to this.
Now, I want to preface this question by noting that I played my share of sports, so I'm not unaware of how the locker room operates. But there's a difference between a team atmosphere and what happens at the gym, and frankly, I'm concerned that there is simply too much nudity going on in the gym locker room.
In just the past two weeks, the following things have all occurred:
- A guy sitting on the couch in the locker room, legs propped up, wearing nothing but a loose-fitting towel while watching TV, in no rush to put clothes on.
- A guy standing on his towel in the dead center of the locker room while combing his hair, otherwise completely naked.
- A guy standing in the locker room fully nude with his cell phone ear piece in, having a full conversation.
- A guy having a conversation in the locker room with a towel wrapped around his head, but none wrapped around his waist.
Again, I'm aware that people are going to shower at the gym and these are the realities of the locker room, but am I wrong in thinking there should be some level of social decorum upon which you try to minimize being naked in front of complete strangers? I mean, practical nudity is one thing, but this seems like celebrating it. Am I wrong here?
OK, with that, let's get to some links that involve virtually no male nudity whatsoever...
-- Georgia finished 2009 with the sixth highest average attendance in the nation in college football, second only to Tennessee in the SEC. (BTW, that's an awful lot of disappointed Michigan fans.)
-- Chris Low has a good synopsis of the key issues surrounding each SEC East and SEC West team this spring.
-- Low also held an SEC chat over at ESPN.com yesterday, and while there weren't many UGA-related questions, he did say this about the 2010 Dawgs:
"To me, South Carolina and Georgia have the best chance to knock off Florida in the East this year. But doing it with a first-year player at QB is always tough. The good thing is that everybody else is back on offense. Grantham is a solid coach, but it may take some time to adjust to the 3-4 and the Bulldogs also need to recruit to that defense. Georgia will be more equipped to make a run in 2011, but Florida should also be a lot better that season once its young talent has a chance to develop and mature."
-- Some early primer on 2011 recruiting: Chip Towers has his top 10 players on Georgia's radar for the coming year.
-- Dean Legge looks deeper at Georgia's running back situation in 2010 ($$$).
-- The Senator has some interesting comments from the Texas AD about scheduling more conference games and fewer cupcakes. It's even more interesting since Texas is one of those schools that schedules an awful lot of cupcakes.
-- I linked to this story from The Senator's site, but I found it interesting -- not just because Texas is the key to a very tenuous situation with the Big 12, but because it's fascinating to me how much different "socialist" economic theories are perceived by the public within the landscape of sports as opposed to the real world.
-- And speaking of fascinating reads I stole from The Senator, here's another one -- a study on what the roadblocks are for black coaches hoping to advance their careers.
-- Keith Arnold's Notre Dame blog brings up something interesting: The Irish seem to have just about as much recruiting talent as Florida does at this point.
-- Clemson self reported 17 NCAA violations, all of the secondary variety.
-- The Red & Black talks about the new home-court advantage for Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum.
-- Of course, the Dawgs' next game is on the road, where they haven't enjoyed much success in recent years. (But note David Paschall's lead -- UGA has passed North Carolina in the latest RPI numbers. Who woulda thunk that back in early November?)
-- Bleacher Report has a story about the rising draft stocks of two of Georgia's top hoopsters.
-- If you've been too busy watching the Olympics for the past week or so, T Kyle King gets you updated on everything you've missed that didn't involve snow. (And the best part? I'm linking to Kyle's links, which linked to my links from the other day, which also included a link to Kyle. And, with that, we have now reached the nexus of the universe.)
-- David Spade talks to the New York Times about selling out and the negative reaction to his DirecTV commercial with Chris Farley.
-- The LA Times has a great interview with one of my all-time favorite comedians, Bob Newhart. His "Saturday Night Live" monologue when he joked about being the security guard at the Empire State Building when King Kong attacked remains one of the show's best.
-- And finally, speaking of SNL, it sounds like Betty White will get her shot to host, and Pearl Jam will be the musical guest in a couple of weeks.
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28 comments:
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2008/08/18/dictates-of-proper-gymnasium-use/?cp=all
That is so funny...trust me bro that is not how it is where I work out at all. I work out at a fairly large gym and no guys fit that description. Keep up the blogging great stuff!
Quick question off the subject.... Know you are tired of talking about recruiting, but Scout shows that Davaris Daniels has not been offered a scholarship. What are we waiting for?
David,
totally with you. At a gym I went to a few years back I witnessed a man (think grandfather) standing in the middle of the locker using a communal blow dryer to...lets just say he's probably a teabagger these days. I think some people seem to think anything goes, and trust me, that is not the case.
You mean you haven't seen the naked guy standing in front of the mirror blow drying his naked body yet? Just you wait...it will happen.
Carter, hilarious link. Keep up the good work Hale.
Yo Dave, me lad, don't drop the soap in that gym-you have hooked with with the old 'Light Loafers Iron Man Coalition'.
David,
Spent a hell of a lot of time in a lot of locker rooms (being both an athlete as well as the son of a pro player), and I can tell you that kind of behavior should be frowned upon outside of a team locker room- teams are a little different because you basically spend so much time together you may as well be blood relatives...
but a regular gym? You gotta at least wrap a towel around your butt.
David- it's not just the men. Believe me. You would think that women would be a bit more body conscious than men- especially at the gym- but they let it alll hang out.
men should never be nude, under any circumstances. The female body is a work of art - no one wants to see the flabby, sweaty , hairy disgusting form of the male of the species.
Find a new gym.
David if you are properly equipped you could drop the towel and intimidate the entire group........that should put a wrap on it.
Dave you working out near Tech?
Anon 11:02
From what I can gather Richt is wanting to make the offer in person to Daniels. They have had conflicting schedules when it comes to getting Daniels on campus. I am trying to find out of Daniels will be at the Junior day this weekend in Athens. I will post any findings I have on my blog
http://dawgsopinion.blogspot.com
"Spent a hell of a lot of time in a lot of locker rooms (being both an athlete as well as the son of a pro player)"
Joeski, seems like you may have spent too much time in those "locker rooms". You should know better.
I have been struck by the amount of nudity in my gym as well. There's a difference between changing and having to play Dodge D. Plus I work in Midtown Atlanta...Yeesh.
I can honestly say that the behavior of 99% of the people in my gym annoys the crap out of me. For a point of reference, I'm 30. First, as you point out, old guys are always naked. Then the 40 to 50-ish crowd is always putting on so much cologne that you feel like you just drank a bottle when you leave the locker room. Then you have the guys you feel the need to grunt on every rep. And of course no one racks their weights properly. It really amazes me that no one has gone postal in a gym yet, particularly since many of us are exposed to this sort of thing first thing in the morning.
David,
You're spot on about the Gym. I've had several horror experiences, including and most disconcerting, a man with his foot proped up on the sink, blow drying his nether area. also, why have the towel draped over your shoulder as you approach the shower?? It's there for a reason.
Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?
My favorite gym locker room story...
As I was sitting down on the bench putting on my shoes, an older man (maybe 60's) put one leg up on the bench next to me and proceeded to later up his area with vaseline. Thanks for doing that right in my face, I appreciate it.
Did you see the "moon landing" and "splashdown" jokes on Modern Family last week?
Today I get to the gym and there is an old guy naked sitting on the bench reading the newspaper. 90 minutes later I go back to my locker and he is still there. They need to turn the heat down in the locker room so folks will want o bundle up more.
btw, I used to see this guy milling around the locker room all the time:'
http://www.beaconcastmedia.com/crime/Alpharetta-Police-Make-Arrest-In-Child-Molestation-Case-1576
Hey David, What's up? If nothing is, I wouldn't worry about the locker room. Maybe these guys are proud? I don't have that much to show except two objects halfway to my knees(I'll be 70 this year). Laugh, you young punks, yours will hang too! I'll have to try the drier. What's the minimum distance? How do you get the crack and the taint dry? By pulling the edge of the towel through? How does that make you look? The drier sounds more sanitary.
Have you considered that most of these guys may be Greek?
Years ago, Johnny Carson had Alex Karis(?)( who played line for Detroit ) on his show. When asked if he knew of any other Greeks playing in the NFL, he replied ,"Yes, quite a few judging from the look in their eyes when someone dropped the soap in the shower.". He and his staturesque hollywood wife later starred on their comedy show with an adopted kid. His sense of humor was legion as a standup comedian.
Did you ever consider that these nudists were waiting for you to leave? Start worrying if you see empty KY Jelly tubes lying around. Do any of them have pseudos like Ivan Yackinoff, Ben Dover or Harry Suh? Did they find the gym on Craigslist? Do any of them cup their breasts after workout? Do any of them approach you and ask if you would like to fit right in? Does your gym have the word "Turkish" anywhere in it's name? If the answer to these questions are ,"NO!", then I wouldn't worry about it. Their narcississtic egos probably just want someone else to comment on how ripped they look.
How odd-My word verification is dapack.
The secondary word verification was "wfuress". If an "a" was in the place of the "e" then I would question who provides your word verifications.
Is our homophobia done for the day?
Please pardon my name.
"a guy standing on his towel in the dead center of the locker room while combing his hair"--which hair? Its OK, he was in the DEAD center.
"A guy standing in the locker room fully nude..."--as opposed to partially nude or clothed?..." with his cell phone ear piece in,...."--in where? ...", having a full conversation."...as opposed to a half-assed conversation?
"A guy having a conversation in the locker room with a towel wrapped around his head...."--which head?
"A guy sitting on the couch in the locker room, legs propped up,..."--propped up with what?
...."wearing nothing but a loose- fitting towel..."--loose fitting on what? As opposed to a tight-fitting towel?..."while watching TV..."--is this a contortionist joke?...",in no rush to put clothes on,"--so this guy was doing all of this slowly, eh?
David, you've had too much gym. Try wrestling.
Now the word verification is "exicid"! This is too much coincidence. Your word verification guy has been in the gym too long!
Once again I apologize for my pseudo name.
Now I'm certain. My secondary word verification is "gunbeac".
I wouldn't lead this article off with the word "input". Had enough or did you imply something else?
There's that ole word verification again--"crailyr".. crail yer what?
It sounds like a homophobic word for "up yours!".
Just havin' fun.
Anybody else think that cajones little diatribe of comments is giving off a creepy stalker vibe. I'd watch out David.
Life insurance salesman- get your head out of your actuarial charts and get a sense of humor.
Yup, Cojones skeeved up this comment thread. I'll bet he drives a panel van and is legally required to introduce himself to his neighbors.
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