While sports fans bring passion, maybe they are also bringing some stupidity to the realm of sports. Plenty of excitement happened over the break, including the final Bowl Championship Series National Championship and the National Football League Playoffs, where the Saints won their first road playoff game in franchise history. With every single one of those events came the rabid sports fanatics who have no filter and cannot see past their own bias.
Let’s start with a video that went viral. Saints fan and Nicholls tight end Nicholas Scelfo took a video of the game-winning field goal against the Eagles in Philadelphia. After the kick sailed through the uprights, Scelfo proceeded to cheer and holler for the Saints victory and then was approached by an Eagles fan that gave him a mouth full of saliva. At least, that is how Saints fans saw it. What I saw was a fan getting too carried away with a celebration away from the Saints’ home turf. It was almost as if he begged for something to happen. There is a certain way you act in certain situations. I am not going to show up to a funeral in a t-shirt and ripped jeans, just like I am not going to an opposing teams house and cheering obnoxiously. It has a tendency to cause negative attention and possibly incite a reaction. Scelfo clearly just wanted the publicity and he got it. He tweeted the ESPN and Sportscenter Twitter pages, as well as other sources with major followers, with an attachment of the video. There were featured articles on sites such as deadspin.com. He also tweeted saying that he got “3 or 4 good shots in until taken away by Philly police. Showed video and got out of it. #leggeaux.” Others on Twitter claimed they were there and a fight never happened. As cliche as it is, there are three sides to every story: one side, the other side and the truth. What this was is a case of two sports fans acting like idiots about a game that has zero impact on their lives.
While staying on the issue of Saints fans, reports recently put Darren Sharper in the limelight for several rape charges. While the details are still being figured out, plenty of adoring Saints fans took to social media, saying “innocent until proven guilty,” and some were befuddled by the idea that he may have raped women. Where was “innocent until proven guilty” for the Kobe Bryant (who is still listed on Forbes most hated athletes to this day) case, or maybe the Michael Jackson case? For most, it was not there because you did not feel a personal tie to those icons. I even saw people commenting about meeting Sharper or hearing press conferences and how they thought he was “nice guy.” Jeffrey Dahmer was supposedly a very nice guy. He just happened to rape, kill and eat other human beings as a hobby. Again, I do not know anything about the guy, he may be innocent or he may be guilty. I hope he is innocent. Colin Cowherd said it best: “Illuminate and reveal, not idolize and adore.”
The problem I have with the adoring sports fans is they are making an emotional investment in people you have never met. You spend your time watching and admiring their work and spend your money on their jerseys. The problem with making that emotional investment is when they succeed, you act as if you had something to do with it and when they fail you act as if they owe you something.
Fans spend too much time belittling and hating on athletes. Forbes.com ranked the 10 most disliked athletes of 2013 and they included Tony Romo, Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods.
Now let’s look at Tony Romo. Can you give me one good reason why you hate him? He has not had any off the field issues or done anything in his career except play for the Dallas Cowboys, a team many people despise. So you hate him because he plays for Dallas? Grow up.
Armstrong and Woods were part of two of the biggest mishaps in recent history. Woods was having an affair and Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). People were so outraged. My question is “why?” Woods was unfaithful. Well, according to statisticbrain.com, 57 percent of men and 54 percent of women have admitted to being unfaithful. You know who else had an infidelity problem? Michael Jordan, but we cannot say anything bad about the great “MJ.” Given the fact we live in a society where it is more unlikely for people to have self-control and not cheat on their partners, you’re surprised?
Armstrong won seven Tour-De-Frances in a sport who many believed was infested with PEDs. So we were surprised that he used also? Grow up. Let me get this right, people feel betrayed because of that fact? Perhaps you should have maybe put two and two together. And because he cheated in cycling (a sport that many people don’t give two rips about) we talk about how bad of a guy he is? Did we forget about Livestrong and the cancer research he helped fund? I think that outweighs the fact that he cheated.