Sporting

The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns on Friday night in their home opener in front of a sellout crowd. In attendance was one Blazer's Edge ...

If you’re swearing to the point that lots of people you don’t know can hear you and you have no idea of the contextual lens they’re interpreting it through (like having kids or having bad prior experience with those words), then whatever you’re swearing at may be less of a problem than you are. I don’t listen too carefully to pregame announcements at the Moda Center, but I believe there’s a blurb about appropriate language in there somewhere. If Damian Lillard fumbles the ball on the break and you want to say he’s lost a step, go ahead. At that point it starts to go over the line for me. The weight of those unknown dozens should be heavier than the need of the one to speak. It might well cost him less to tamp down the profanity than it costs that random person two rows in front of him to deal with it. He was the kind of guy who commented on everything and everything he commented on was accompanied by a lot of words that I didn’t appreciate hearing. If that swearing happens over and over, I think the person doing it is making potential withdrawals out of banks he hasn’t deposited anything in. We do have a list of words I never, ever want to hear coming out of their mouths. That’s not an ethical statement as much as an admission that it’s the only power you really have. Assuming they weren’t racist/sexist/orientation-phobic (because you didn’t mention any of that), there’s nothing inherently wrong with the words coming from your fellow spectator’s mouth. At a certain point, though, I just accepted that swear words are part of our culture.