Are fans' actions getting stoked up by social media?
Sports fans are passionate.
Wait, we need a qualifier here, so how about if we say that applies to most fans?
If you think that’s still too strong, we’ll downsize the adjective to “many.”
There is no argument, though, that these games and events we watch can mean a lot.
Some more than others.
Bad behavior among sports junkies has happened forever, I suppose.
My dad took me to my first San Francisco 49ers game when I was 12 — this was a million years ago — and then had to rush me out of harm’s way when a surly group of guys began throwing uppercuts in the stands.
So what I’m suggesting today is not that sports fans are just now getting around to acting like fools.
What I do believe, however, is that social media has put more people on opposite sides in touch with each other, and just as in politics, the name-calling and insults have ramped up among sports partisans.
FACE IT: When you have supporters of one team arguing with followers of another team able to call each other names with the touch of a few buttons, the tone of things can get ugly.
And what we’re starting to see is that surly attitude expressed on phones and computers being carried to actual events.
Add alcohol to the equation, and the result is pretty predictable.
Again, I want to say that Twitter isn’t responsible for idiotic acts at games and matches.
I do think, though, that social media has raised the overall temperature.
Just in the last few weeks, we’ve seen fans run on to two heavily patrolled soccer pitches in England.
One of them, a man simply losing his mind over a crosstown rivalry between Birmingham City and Aston Villa, raced out and assaulted Villa captain Jack Grealish.
Fortunately, Grealish was not seriously hurt — despite being completely blindsided — and went on to score the winning goal.
Lest you think this is simply a soccer problem (or more likely, a European problem), please recall the “fan” who recently went ballistic at a Utah Jazz game and, from just a few feet away, showered Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder with horrible racist obscenities.
Westbrook responded by threatening the man and his wife, but thankfully the exchange did not become physical.
THAT LAST incident was so bad, and so well-publicized, that Jazz owner Gail Miller felt the need to take a microphone to center court at the team’s next home game and read a public statement.
Basically, she asked Jazz fans to behave.
The theme of the statement was she hoped the notoriously loud crowd in Utah would cheer furiously for the Jazz — but never demean an opponent.
The question here is simple…
Are we getting uglier in our support of the men and women playing games for our entertainment?
You would hope not, but social media seems to make all fires burn hotter.
That’s obviously translated to politics, and now perhaps we’re seeing it in sports.
Fans should not have to be reminded that athletes are entitled to basic human decency, even if you happen to be rooting against them.
And needless to say, the playing field or court belongs solely to participants and officials.
That’s a line that should never, ever be crossed, although…
In the current social climate, I’m afraid I fear the worst.
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.
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