Too many “fans” think the price of a ticket entitles them to ridicule players from visiting teams.
In the late 1970s, I was witness to the ugliness that can sometimes happen during sporting events. The team I coached was locked in a battle with another team at a wrestling tournament. Some of our parents were especially vocal as our team battled for the team title. In this case, many of them cheered against any wrestler of our primary competitor.
That vocal response grew and continued into the finals. Then the headmaster of the host school walked to the scorer’s table, took the microphone, and announced to the crowd: “No wrestler should be booed. Ever!”
He calmly walked back to his chair and sat down. Lesson taught. Lesson learned…at least that day.
As I read about the ‘Cameron Crazies’ at Duke University and their antics during the recent game against the University of Pittsburgh, I recalled what that headmaster did that day long ago. Making things worse today is that you often have mostly white crowds verbally abusing players who are mostly not. Mistakenly called cheering, it’s really more like mob behavior.
At Duke. Coach K picked up the microphone and lectured Duke students just as my colleague had to do decades ago.
Too many “fans” think the price of a ticket entitles them to ridicule players from visiting teams. I once knew a man who purchased pro season tickets behind the opposing team’s bench so he could “rag on the players” from other teams.
Before yelling at athletes or coaches on another team, remember the words of President T. Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man (sic, person) who points out how the strong man (person) stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man (person) who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.”
Fans: cheer for your team, not against the opponent.
