The Gripe Report: Live Game Tweeters, New Year’s Gym-Goers, Health Food Critics

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Can you believe it? We’ve arrived at the first Gripe Report of the Year of our Lord, 2025.

What a time to be alive. I hope you have a great, happy, and healthy new year… not too happy though, I need those gripes…

Got a gripe? Send it in!: mattreigleoutkick@gmail.com

We’re going to get this year started with a couple of guest gripes.

But first, it’s my turn…

A couple of weeks ago, my fiancée went to the grocery store and returned with some salmon. There’s nothing goofy about that, but the story she told me about how she got it was.

She told me that she walked up to the seafood counter at our local Publix as per usual and told the guy behind the counter that she wanted two 9 oz. (I have a theory that all problems could have been avoided had she just said 8oz. Instead of 9, but that’s another story). She said this guy — who I’m not saying looks like a Russian mobster, but if you were casting a movie and needed someone to play one, you’d give him a callback — had his brain scrambled by this request.

The reason? Where he comes from, they don’t do ounces.

I get that. Most of the world goes metric because it makes a lot more sense than our system (although, I think it makes too much sense. I like our system where down is up, up is down, and for some reason, there are 5,280 feet in a mile), but I couldn’t believe that a guy who works at a fish counter would have his mind blown by this.

Did no one tell him beforehand that this was ounce country? That no one here — drug dealers aside —  knows or cares what the f–k a gram is?!

Credit to this guy, though. He tried. He slapped some salmon on the digital scale but broke out his phone to do some conversions.

Guy, it says it on the scale!

I don’t know if she caught this guy on his first day or, if until my fiancée walked up to the counter, people had only ordered whole fish, but this guy’s inability to measure fish at a place where his entire job is measuring fish, melted my brain.

I tagged along on the next salmon run hoping it would be the same guy because I wanted to see this first hand, but unfortunately (by which I mean fortunately) the guy seemed to have brushed up measuring, and I didn’t see any conversions happening.

He did mess up our order by giving us a one-pound slab of fish when we asked for one pound cut into two filets, but hey, baby steps.

People Who Live Tweet Games

Our first gripe comes to us courtesy of the great Anthony Farris, who recently rejoined the OutKick team full-time (glad to have you back, AF!

I mean the occasional tweet or during a game, but the stream-of-consciousness-style tweeting is so annoying.

I’m with Anthony. We live in a time when people need fewer reasons to look a their phones, not more.

Personally, I love anything that gives me a break from social media. That’s why I love driving and can’t figure out the people who can’t put their phones down behind the wheel. It’s a perfect excuse not to be connected, and you’re missing out!

That’s how watching a game can be.

Sure, I think there’s an argument that this makes watching the game a communal experience, but if you’re just flinging every thought you have at peoples’ timelines the way a chimp flings its feces (both have about the same value) that’s not exactly communal. That’s you flinging s–t at people.

Fire off a tweet or two (preferably if you’ve got something funny), but yeah, maybe put the phone down.

New Year’s Resolution Gym-Goers

We’ve got another guest griper this week, and this time it’s my future mother-in-law!

She sent me a very timely gripe about the influx of New Year’s resolutioners who flock to gyms across this great nation of ours for about two weeks and then up again until next year: 

Maybe you’ve covered this but a New Year gripe I have is all the “New Year gym members ” that usually only last a month or so. But for the next couple of months when I go to the gym all the equipment is taken by the new “get fit for 2025” wannabes. 

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On one hand, I always commend people who are trying to make themselves healthier (more on that in a bit), but on the other, I hate that the gym regulars have to have their routines messed up every year.

I think people need to have a better sense of their follow-through capabilities. Like, if you’ve got a closet full of equipment from various hobbies you thought you were going to get into but then gave up after a couple of weeks and never touched your golf clubs/guitar/fishing rods/tennis rackets/woodworking tools. I don’t even waste your time or the people at the gym’s time by going for two weeks and then bailing.

Just don’t go. I know you’re not going to stick with it and so do you. 

Also, why does everyone think you need a gym to workout? If you are a New Year’s Resolutioner, why not do some crunches at home, go for a walk, and if you’re feeling extra determined, maybe buy some resistance bands?

This way, you get a workout, but if the resistance bands join all of that other equipment in your closet, you won’t have spent two weeks annoying people who go to the gym 52 weeks a year.

People Who Give You Guff For Eating Healthy

Everyone knows that going to the gym is just one part of staying healthy. You still have to eat properly Alan has a gripe for us that has to do with a bizarre side effect of eating healthy:

I have a couple of gripes related to food. The first one is why do people give other people a hard time for eating healthy? I am not a health nut, but I try to eat a reasonable diet. It never fails if I eat something healthy in a group setting, I get a hard time about it from someone. Two recent examples. I was at a networking event last week for lunch. The event had catered food with some sandwiches and salads. I got a salad, and some idiot had to make a comment. “Oh, you’re that guy.” I had a work lunch meeting a couple of months ago. I got a salad. And of course the guy I was meeting for lunch had to make a comment. “Health nut hey?” I brushed it off. What I really wanted to say was, “No, I am not a health nut. I never order anything I don’t actually like to eat. Maybe if you ate a salad occasionally you wouldn’t be so fat.” Like, why do you care what I am eating? Did it occur to you that I actually like the salad I am eating? (Which I did. Greek salads done right are really good.) And if you are going to make comments, why is it when I eat something healthy? I never get a hard time from anyone when I eat unhealthy foods. I don’t know why anyone cares what someone is eating, but if they do it should be the exact opposite, but it isn’t.

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 I recently had to clean up the ol’ diet when the cholesterol numbers were no bueno, and I’ve experienced this exact thing a little bit, and it is a strange phenomenon.

I never begrudge anyone for doing something that’s in the best interest of their health. I think we all know what is healthy and what isn’t. Look, I’d love to pound cheeseburgers morning or noon at night, but I’d also like to not die at 50. So, salmon and Brussels sprouts.

Is it fun? Not really, but if you want to not die early, you’ve got to make the trade-off.

So, what I think is going on in situations like the one Alan described is people trying to do some mental gymnastics to make themselves feel better.

If the options are burger or salad, eat whatever you want, but we all know the healthier option. So, I think the people who didn’t go the healthy route are just trying to make themselves feel better by goofing on the healthy eaters.

Eating right is tough, and it’s a lot easier to goof on the dude in great shape eating greens than it is to pass up a nice Italian hoagie.

This does work the other way. Sometimes healthy eaters will get annoying about their diets. 

However, I think this just means they’re a douchebag full-stop.

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That’s it for the maiden Gripe Report for 2025!

It’s going to be a great year for gripes, I’m feeling it.

So, be sure to keep ’em coming!: mattreigleoutkick@gmail.com