We Can Do Better
Jun 1, 2021, 1:10 PM | Updated: 1:16 pm
(Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
As sports fans we demand so much from our teams and the athletes themselves. How about we as fans do a better job of representing ourselves.
Over the last week or so the sports world has given us so many terrific moments but like most things we can also spoil the good with idiotic behavior. Fan bases in different sports, and in different cities have been behaving foolishly and quite honestly makes us all look bad.
Foolish fan behavior isn’t new at all but our reaction to this appears to be.
I have vivid memories of the worst of fans over the years. I remember Monica Seles getting stabbed while on the tennis court, streakers in all sorts of sports, the malice at the palace, a knife being thrown at Wally Joyner in New York, and Royals 1B coach being attacked while on the diamond.
There are far more examples to throw out there meaning that this has been going on for years.
Why is this happening so much now? Tough to tell but it could be a biproduct of being couped up for the better part of a year due to Covid 19. Who really knows but it is happening at an alarming rate right now and it needs to stop. If you go back to the malice at the palace where the fans got too involved and ultimately players like Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson and a few others were now involved in fighting the fans.
This can’t happen. It is bad for everyone.
So how do we fix it? That is a tough question to answer. Most of the time alcohol seems to be involved in these situations. It isn’t always the case but most venues aren’t going to stop selling alcohol because money makes the world go round. It appears that a lot of these cases also revolve around a bet or a dare and so that means people are together and egging on the participant.
We need to be better as fans. How are we acting at games? Who are we bringing to games? What can we do individually to make the experience better for everyone?
These things are going to happen, but can we make them more of a rare occurrence than the norm? Sadly, fans fight in the stands, in the bathrooms and in the parking lot. The field, the diamond, the rink, the pitch, the court, and all the other places need to be sacred to the players and coaches.
Off limits, non-negotiable. It needs to be this way. It’s not funny, it’s not cool, it just can’t be a place that fans get to or throw something to. Individually and collectively let’s be better and the only thing that we should get fired up about is if our team is winning or losing, that’s it.