Sports Fandom Hits A New Low

dailycaller.com ^ | 11-22-2014 | JOHN STEIGERWALD

[servo1969]

Sports fans can be idiots.

This is nothing new but they continue to go where no fan has gone before.

Take Tony Williams, for example.

He intercepted a pass on Sunday at the Superdome (or whatever it’s called now) in New Orleans during the Saints game with the Cincinnati Bengals. Tony doesn’t play for the Saints or the Bengals. He’s a 70-year old Saints fan who intercepted a pass intended for a Bengals fan who was sitting next to him in the end zone seats.

She (that’s right, SHE) was wearing a Bengals jersey. Bengals tight end Jermaine Gresham scored a touchdown and when he spotted Christa Barrett’s orange jersey, he went to the back of the end zone and flipped the ball to her.

Williams jumped in front of her and snatched the ball away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OAzrHfJpJ8

When Barrett smiled and asked him for the ball, Williams shook his head no. Then she begged him to give her the ball that was intended for her and Williams still said no.

There has been way too much violence in stadiums these days, much of it precipitated by one moron in his favorite player’s jersey picking a fight with another moron wearing the jersey of a player from the opposing team. And that really needs to stop.

But this was one time when it would be hard to blame Jarrett for a violent response.

There were several men seated around Jarrett and Williams and not one of them stood up for Jarrett and demanded that Williams give the ball back.

Apparently, chivalry really is dead.

Of course, the video of the incident went viral and Williams was trashed and ridiculed around the world, but it didn’t seem to phase him. He said he wanted the ball for his grand baby.

And won’t his grandbaby be proud when 20 years from now, the video of his grandfather shamelessly stealing a ball from a woman is still out there?

This is no small thing.

It’s another example of just how far sports fandom has fallen, but, more than that, it’s a prime example of where the human race is headed.

There was a time when a man would be not only ashamed to do what Williams did, he would be afraid of what other men in the vicinity might do to him if he didn‘t give the ball back.

He still has the ball.

And this 70-year old man still thinks he did the right thing. I hope he lives long enough to explain how it was the right thing to do to his grandson.

You would think that any adult working at a major TV network would condemn and/or ridicule Williams for what he did, but 34-year old Mike Smith, co-host of ESPN’s His-Hers said, “I’m not gonna sit up here and judge Mr. Williams for being a true fan.”

“You’re a Saints fan and you got a Bengals fan trying to celebrate a touchdown and getting a souvenir ball at your home field. This is called creating a hostile environment. So, yes I would allow it.”

“She put on that jersey…you take on that responsibility of being a fan, you don’t get no kind of double standard involved here. No. You don’t get the ball. Not next to me.”

This is a grown man, working for the world’s number one sports network as a commentator and he’s telling fans that they have a right to “protect their house.”

When Smith’s co-host, Jemele Hill, asked him about chivalry, Smith said, “Hey, man, this ain’t a game here. All’s fair. This is war. You’re in the Superdome, you’re a fan. You’re a grown woman, you got a [Bengals] jersey on, you’re the enemy. Simple as that. She’s a fan. She’s the enemy. You are not there to make friends with her. You’re not there to watch her enjoy her stay.”

Once again, this is not a drunken fan in a sports bar. It’s a network commentator saying that a person rooting for the visiting team in a stadium is the “enemy.”

He said it with a straight face.

Is this the prevailing attitude among sports fans in 2014?

If so, how pathetic is that?

[servo1969]

“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

[C. Edmund Wright]

In the case of Mike Smith, someone made a man without brains. What a little boi he is.

[Organic Panic]

It begs to be said who surrounded the scoundrel. But I dare not mention.

[PghBaldy]

What a shock. There is no shame in his family, I am sure. He probably did it for Michael Brown.

[verga]

Is anyone really surprised that Smith would say this?

[Vermont Lt]

I always laugh when I see people getting all worked up about “their” team.

Sure it’s fine to be a fan. But they don’t own the team and they don’t work for the team. They sure as hell don’t play for the team. You simply pay the team.

[tomkat]

You noticed that too, ehh ?

(and most of 'em were smiling/chuckling)

[C. Edmund Wright]

he’s unwatchable he’s so stupid, all the while pretending to be an intellectual with those vanity glasses.

What a maroon.

[txrefugee]

If these commentators were’t Black, they wouldn’t be on TV. It certainly isn’t for their expertise, just as in the case of the president.

[exPBRrat]

I’m not surprised ...there wasn’t an existing standard of excellence that wasn’t lowered to accommodate the perfect voting negro.

[Hyman Roth]

I wonder who this man voted for?

[TalBlack]

“Hey, man, this ain’t a game here. All’s fair. This is war. “

The utterer of this is an absolute and complete FAGGOT.

[Wolfie]

Hopefully there is enough outrage to get the dumb f*** fired, but I’m not holding my breath.

[wally_bert]

I have help but laugh at the super fans who apparently live aND breathe for some ball team or player. What’s funny and kind of sad to me is the chicken (gamecock) worship on any game day. The only good thing is that my wife is a ball nut and I am generally left alone.

[Iscool]

I imagine this jerk will brag to his grandchild that he stole the football from a white ‘B’...

[xrmusn]

I always laugh when I see people getting all worked up about “their” team.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
I was working for a guy in the early 80’s (Before announcing you were a Vietnam Vet in public was the fashionable thing to do) and I had either AL or VFW license plates, couple of VN stickers and a USN sticker on MY trucks rear window.

The guy comes up to me, shakes his head and says “All that stuff and not one Redskins Decal”

I just ‘looked him in the eye’ and said

“I never played for the Redskins”.

At the time, I was a Redskin fan but even today I won’t wear a hat or shirt etc of ANY ship or unit I wasn’t stationed aboard the ONLY exception may be is the Nationals.
It is a stretch but I once had a tryout with the Washington Senators so maybe a National thing (by extension) would be ‘ok’. <: <: <:

[SamAdams76]

Unless you are under the age of say, 15, you look pretty stupid wearing a sports jersey of a professional sports team. Unless of course, you happen to be a professional athlete and you are actually on the field playing for such team. In which case, you would have your own name on it and not somebody else's.

Otherwise, you look like a total buffoon.

Especially when you are a grown man and you are wearing an overpriced sports jersey with the name of another man on it. How pathetic is that? Yeah, like people are going to think YOU play for the team!

And I'm not kidding when I say overpriced. I'm talking $150 an upward for the privilege of wearing an "official" jersey with another man's name on it.

Grow up you stupid overgrown kids. Grow the hell up. You didn't make the pros and you never will. Now take off the stupid jersey, go get a job and find yourselves a woman.

[Vermont Lt]

I do wear sweatshirts for the college sports teams I worked for.

That’s the extent of my “fandom.”

[mmichaels1970]

This is no small thing.

It's a small thing. I believe 99% of fans would have given the kid the ball.

It’s another example of just how far sports fandom has fallen, but, more than that, it’s a prime example of where the human race is headed.

Turning a stupid act by a stupid person into the downfall of civilization as we know it seems to me to be a bit melodramatic. Jerks have been around for ages. When I started going to games in the 70's, they were burning effigies in the stands.

In the 80's or early 90's they were peeing on the walking ramps that took you to the upper deck.

I remember a guy with a balloon that said "Jump Art" (Art Modell) that he would hold by the string and raise it up right in front of Modell's luxury box. (Although, that was more funny than "jerky" imo).

[Don W]

I own exactly ONE team jersey. I bought it in 2011 on my way in to work the night of the Boston Bruins/Vancouver Canucks game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. No player’s name on it, but it still cost me $150.

It was SOOOO sweet standing in the doorway at work, handing out crying towels to my co-workers wearing my Boston Jersey.

< BG >