Being a sports fan means having a blind and loyal affection for your teams. Whether it’s a pro franchise that represents your city or the teams from the university you attended, we love our teams…sometimes too much. Sometimes WAY too much.
Fan is nothing more than a word short for fanatic, but lately it can be interchanged with the word psychotic. And here are a few examples that prove it.
Last weekend the Boise St. Broncos and their fans saw their dreams of playing for a national championship end when Nevada upended them in an overtime thriller. The fact that the game was close probably wasn’t as much of a surprise since both teams were ranked in the top 25. What was a surprise was how the game ended and the events that took place in the days that followed.
Dealing with missing two field goals in Boise State's loss to Nevada is difficult enough. Now Boise St. placekicker Kyle Brotzman is having to endure an endless stream of taunts and barbs on social networking sites.
The senior kicker and leading scorer in school history missed a game-winner from 26 yards with two seconds left in regulation then minutes later misfired again from 29 yards out in overtime in the Broncos' 34-31 loss Friday night against Nevada. The loss spoiled the ninth-ranked Broncos' unbeaten season and even bigger hopes of playing in a BCS bowl or possibly even for the national title.
Within hours, the Ada County Sheriff's Department got a report about callers leaving obnoxious, harassing telephone messages with a woman thought to be related to Brotzman. Then dozens of Facebook pages emerged, some filled with ugly name-calling, jabs and taunts at Brotzman. It was a rare moment of futility. His 425 career points make him the leader for scoring among active players in major college football. At one stretch he nailed 118 straight extra points.
Then, on Saturday, the several Nebraska Cornhusker faithful, part of the self-proclaimed classiest fans in all of college sports, decided it would be neat to send Big 12 Conference commissioner Dan Beebe and his family threatening emails.
Big 12 Conference administrators did not send any representatives to Friday's Nebraska-Colorado football game in Lincoln because the league feared for their safety.
Nebraska fans flooded the Big 12 office with negative e-mails and voice messages this week, some of which Beebe said were threatening. Those messages were turned over to authorities, he said.
Beebe himself received more than 2,000 e-mails from Nebraska fans after Saturday's game at Texas A&M, when fans and coaches were upset with the officiating in Nebraska's 9-6 loss.
Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said he wished not to respond to Beebe's comments.
"They got whatever they got, and they decided not to come," Osborne said. "That's OK. I don't have anything to say about that. I've said all I'm going to say. I've had all kinds of e-mails over the years. It's not a problem."
When did sports stop being about sportsmanship? When did fans decide to take it far more serious than the participants? And why? Are our lives so pathetic that we literally have to live and die for this?
People need to step back and realize it isn’t just a game anymore, it’s now just entertainment. It’s expensive entertainment, and it’s something that we have entirely no control over what the outcome will be. What we all need to come to grips with is how to live with that outcome regardless of whether or not mistakes are made.
I’m a huge sports fan. Always have been. But I’ve been able to separate what’s important to me versus what is truly meaningless. And although I watch as much sports as I’m allowed to watch, I know it’s truly meaningless. The problem, I fear, is that I’m in the minority.
Well said Brian.
ReplyDeleteYou're not in the minority-it is just that stories of messed up people always grab the attention. I think a lot of people's lives are so miserable that, whether they realize it consciously or not, their sports teams' games are their ONLY escape from that sad reality. When that alternate life also doesn't pan out the way they'd hoped they turn into fools.
ReplyDeleteThere are people who still go to the airport to welcome back the Chiefs after a road game-win or lose. While that seems a little odd to even a fellow sports nut like me, it reminds me that they are there to lend support to the human beings that make up the Chiefs roster and organization. The result of the game is meaningless to them as well. THAT story hardly ever gets the headlines, though.