Whenever the BS staff gets together, you just know brilliant ideas abound. So when we were alerted to this letter to the Exponent by reader Ross (proprieter of Bad Idea Blue Jeans), it was more than a little interesting. Letter-writer Jason Tindall, take it away:

Please for the love of true traditions stop playing "Shout." We might as well call it "Reach" for the underwhelming and largely silent reaction it stirs in the stadium. "Shout" is actually a pathetic rip-off of two other traditions: Wisconsin's playing of "Jump Around" and the Chicago Cubs' celebrity-introduced seventh inning stretch. This "tradition" peaked with last year's return visit from Drew Brees and hit rock bottom with this week's hackneyed spell-a-thon by Sameer Mishra.

I have no problem trying to get folks out of their seats, dancing, and making noise. Why not do it with the Quad City DJ's "C'mon Ride the Train"? It's at least more fitting and noise-worthy than "Shout."

We're fairly certain Jason wasn't holed up in the back of the Boilerdowdmobile or hiding in his basement that night, but we all discussed the very topic of "Shout" and possible replacements.

Not that discussing "Shout" and its suckiness doesn't come up pretty frequently... but we even got into a discussion about how if we're going to play a non-current song as a way to "make it our own" and get everyone up, why not be semi-original and play something like "Come on Ride It" by the Quad City DJs? It's goofy and dorky, but hey, these are a bunch of white people we're talking about here. Goofy and dorky would be funny because it would be our own thing. And what team would a train-related song apply more to than the Boilermakers?

The good thing here is that other people are noticing the lackluster effort of, well, everything, at Boiler home games right now. We need to be more energetic and more original. And, oh yeah, the team should play better, too.