Fan revolts out of control, one wanted to fight UGA player
Braves fans littered Turner Field with beer bottles after bad call. (Curtis Compton/AJC)
The Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines fan as: 1) an enthusiastic devotee (as of a sport or a performing art) usually as a spectator; 2): an ardent admirer or enthusiast (as of a celebrity or a pursuit).
As with anything, definitions can often be broadened. The boundaries of this definition just seemingly shouldn’t stretch to home fans cheering when their quarterback crumbles to the ground with a concussion. Or throwing bottles and garbage on a baseball field, endangering other fans and players, in protest of an umpire’s call. Or egging and toilet-papering a home known to be rented by five college players out of disgust, merely because the team lost a football game. Or effectively challenging one student-athlete to a fight on Twitter.
Yes. One “fan” actually did that last week to Georgia’s Christian Robinson.
“There were all these people saying stuff about me on Twitter, it got personal,” Robinson, a senior linebacker, said about the aftermath of last week’s loss at South Carolina. “I had to start blocking people Sunday. I think I blocked about 30. One guy really started coming at me. I’m like, ‘Why are you talking to me like?’ Then he started giving me an address, saying, ‘Yeah, come meet me,’ and I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’”
So this is what it has come to?
That there is a lunatic fringe in sports fandom is not a revelation. In ancient times, a chariot race at Hippodrome in the year 532 CE, organized to raise support for overthrowing the emperor, ignited a riot that led to the deaths of 10,000 to 30,000 fans. But at least there was the backdrop of political and social issues.
A house rented by Christian Robinson (45), Aaron Murray (11) and three other Georgia players was egged and toilet-papered after a loss. (AP)
Lost perspective has reached moronic proportions. Kansas City Chiefs fans cheered last week when Matt Cassel was concussed because their team stinks, and they wanted Brady Quinn in the game. Chiefs linemen Eric Winston responded appropriately, saying, “We are not gladiators” and called it “sickening. It’s 100 percent sickening. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life to play football.”
Hundreds of Braves fans threw bottles and garbage after an umpire botched an infield fly rule call in the Wild Card playoff game
Fans cheered when Matt Cassel went down with a concussion, and one teammate called it "sickening." (AP)
against St. Louis. The next day, when Chipper Jones was asked why he didn’t respond to a plea by fans for a curtain call following the final game of his career, he said he wasn’t aware they wanted him out there, then joked, “I thought they were still throwing bottles.”
Then there is what happened in Athens. A house rented by five Georgia players was egged and toilet-papered following the Bulldogs’ 35-7 loss at South Carolina. The masses vented on social media, particularly Twitter, some taking personal attacks on players.
As if perspective hadn’t already been lost, the idiocy became magnified when it was learned that the father of quarterback Aaron Murray — one of the home’s tenants, with Robinson — had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was about to undergo surgery.
“People can hide behind [fake screen names], especially when alcohol is involved,” Robinson said. “I understand people get emotionally involved. But you hope they realize that there are bigger deals in life than Georgia football, especially when you see something like what happened to Aaron’s father.”
The Athens police department will begin making frequent checks of players’ homes during road games. It’s sad that it has come to this, especially on a college campus.
Sports sociologist Jay Coakley, author of “Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies,” believes a number of factors have combined to embolden sports fans more than ever, including: a growing belief that they can affect the outcomes of games with crowd noise, increased ticket prices that grow their sense of involvement; and the growing platforms for their opinions, including message boards, blog commenting and sports talk radio.
“There is a sense of entitlement, but it goes beyond that,” Coakley said from his home in Colorado Springs. “It’s also a sense that you can get away with it. I don’t want to blame it all on talk radio, but those narratives have become pretty extreme. The boundaries for what’s acceptable and what’s not have been pushed, even to the point of egging the home of your own quarterback.”
When asked for a solution, Coakley said it would help if athletes, particularly on college campuses, were less sheltered from the public and allowed to make an off-the-field connection with fans. He added, “It also would be nice if somebody in the stands stood up and said, ‘This is is not acceptable.’ Point people out. Maybe the message would start to get across.”
The Athens eggers have not been caught. Robinson laughed when asked what he would like to see happen to them if they ever were brought to justice.
“I think if they ever get caught, just the public knowing who did that would be worse punishment than anything else,” he said. “They would be complete social outcasts. That would be enough.”
By Jeff Schultz
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432 comments Add your comment
DawgNole
October 14th, 2012
11:57 am
Just in….well not just in…but
October 14th, 2012
1:32 am
SC LOST, TN LOST, MO LOST, FL ATL LOST, BUFFALO LOST….every team GA has played lost today. Buffalo killed, FL Atl killed, MO killed.
FIRE NICE BOY RICHT NOW.
____________________
Don’t forget Vandy; the commode doors also lost–again.
Eddie Ray
October 14th, 2012
12:02 pm
Does anyone remember the Falcons game where fans cheered when Chris Chandler went down to allow Mike Vick to play QB
DawgNole
October 14th, 2012
12:02 pm
Thomas Brown 5 yrs of losing
October 14th, 2012
6:10 am
Zach Mettenberger, against the same South Carolina defense Aaron Murray did NOTHING against, drove LSU up and down the field on South Carolina, exactly as I stated all week before the 2 teams played last night on national TV for us all to see.
___________________
You’re also the same dolt who has predicted “four or five losses” for fla this season. Enough of your lame-brained commentary.
5150 UOAD
October 14th, 2012
12:03 pm
A real SPORTING event with a real Hero.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrIxHhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrIxH6DToXQ&feature=g-sptl&cid=inp-hs-bul6DToXQ&feature=g-sptl&cid=inp-hs-bul
Skydive from 120,000 feet to let a Human break the sound barrier.
5150 UOAD
October 14th, 2012
12:10 pm
dWagnole…….UF looked bad early in the season. A lot of questions to start the season too. When Akriesaw the Vols and Auburn Suck you know the SEC is a lil weird. Miss St is actually pretty good WTF? lol
DawgNole
October 14th, 2012
12:13 pm
GT
October 14th, 2012
8:31 am
Miles is as fun to watch as Spurrier, lots of personality.
______________________
Kinda like Mark Richt?
DawgNole
October 14th, 2012
12:18 pm
5150 UOAD
October 14th, 2012
12:10 pm
dWagnole…….UF looked bad early in the season. A lot of questions to start the season too. When Akriesaw the Vols and Auburn Suck you know the SEC is a lil weird. Miss St is actually pretty good WTF? lol
____________________
Weird is right. And yes, I’m casting a wary eye toward fla–up to no. 3 in the latest AP poll. Nothing could be finer than my two favorite teams ruining the gators’ dream season. We’ll get our chance, obviously; just gotta step up and take advantage of a great opportunity.
Dawg Tired
October 14th, 2012
12:44 pm
CHI TOWN – How did those rednecks in Chi Town respond when the guy interfered with an attempt to catch a fly ball? Yes, you can find rednecks in Winder and Athens. You can also find them in Chi Town, Milwaukee, New York, Detroit, LA, etc. So what’s your point, redneck from Chicago? Or do you not even know? I suspect the latter.
Ed
October 14th, 2012
12:56 pm
This type of behavior is lunacy, but the frustration underlying it is understandable. Win or lose, blocking and tackling people on the other team would go a long way towards settling the fan base down. Silly fans, we expect Georgia to be competitive at least against a team we’ve owned historically and which Vandy and UK had no problem hanging with for much of their games. Knowing the game was over by the end of the first quarter was a bit of a buzzkill, an all too familiar feeling during the Richt era. Really, since Dooley’s retirement.
TROTTINGHOME
October 14th, 2012
1:24 pm
2 picks for ryan
TROTTINGHOME
October 14th, 2012
1:24 pm
going to be a long day
Thomas
October 14th, 2012
1:49 pm
Jeff- you combined a lot of scenarios in your article. The Braves frustration is one of the umps had many chances to correct the error but baseball umps consistently act like they are not responsible to anyone. The left field umpire clearly thought he was at third base. The other 72 umpires that MLB had on the field could have easily reversed and didn’t. They protect each other like sorierty girls protect their sisters. The debris was a bunch of plastic bottles. Shouldn’t be done but what is the penatly to the ump? Nothing as always. For the love of the baseball gods make the umps responsible…..
The UGA fans (hooligans) committed an egregious act- completely different.
Also, no Auburn fan, but the wrestle tackle on top of the defender needs to be changed. Too cutesy to be taken down (which would be points in a wrestling match) and have the offensive player get up and run. For the love of football gods- the player is down.
TrishaDishawareagle
October 14th, 2012
5:19 pm
I reserve egging peoples homes to political opponents.
SiddyBoy
October 14th, 2012
6:02 pm
I like A.D. better Jeff !!! The Day of the Lord says it all to me !!!
Really?
October 14th, 2012
6:55 pm
No offense Schultzie but this story is ironic considering the ajc blogs are notorious on other sports sites for allowing and even encouraging the same type of fans you are condemning.
Also it only takes a few minutes of skimming the comments here to find many “fans” of any given team who obviously are not fans. As petty and hate filled as many of the regular posters that live on the ajc are, do you REALLY think those same morons would hesitate to create a twitter account just to pose as A Georgia fan?
Buzztinloose
October 14th, 2012
11:33 pm
Total lack of class by uga fans. Sad but not unexpected. Some of them have to dealwith the fact their life is owed for the rest ofhe year nice they will not go undefeated AGAIN this year and won’t be MNC’s yet again….
uga is not, nor will they ever be a national program for all their spending and recruiting and chest thumping each year. No one outside of the Southeast cares about uga football….
Florida Dawg
October 15th, 2012
3:35 am
I know its just a ballgame…so why pay a head coach millions of dollars a year? It’s just a ballgame.
MC
October 15th, 2012
7:13 am
Sounds like some of these keyboard wannabe warriors talking tough about kicking some other countries butt butt they never served nor intend to. Same class…same ilk.
DawgnMD
October 15th, 2012
8:08 am
AM and CR in a couple of years will more than likely be in the big bucks while the rest of us sit stunned after a game wondering if we’ll ever beat a top 10 team again. Not condoning egg and TP but do understand it. Growing up in Athens (one of Kelly’s boys, selling programs at the stadium, etc) and watching much less talented teams do way more on Saturdays, it just makes me sort of sick to see the product on the field these days. Go Dawgs
Devildog
October 15th, 2012
9:14 am
Richt and that good for nothing coaching staff are the ones that needs the ass whipping…! UGA makes 5 star prospects into one star players…….!
Hahahahahahaah
October 15th, 2012
10:22 am
I guess GT D-bags are tired of articles about addition by subtraction and how firing their geriatric loser DC and promoting another loser is going to change things, so they are here. You paid serious cash to get humiliated at home by a Sun Belt team. Buhuwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Keep running the triple joke and that bend and also break defense.
Plenty of elbow room at your games, enough to run back and forth, until you fall off the bleachers.
C King
October 15th, 2012
11:53 am
UGA= OVERATED!!!!!!!!!
Its Me Again Ethel
October 15th, 2012
1:31 pm
“Yepper, it is just a football game and there are more important things in life.”
Anyone saying that does not/cannot lead and those not leading should not be part of the team. Tell me, has progressive liberalism taken over UGA football or is it piousness? No wonder UGA cannot win a National Championship it has wimps leading the charge. Are there any real men out there who can coach UGA football?
CamdenMark
October 15th, 2012
3:39 pm
Sad about the players catching all the flak.
Coachs are the ones at fault,lets roll their yards and fire ‘em.
CamdenMark
October 15th, 2012
3:42 pm
In life we have winners and losers,UGA football has been in the poorly led and coached loser bracket for years.Since coach Dooly retired.
CamdenMark
October 15th, 2012
3:46 pm
Sad to see all that talent wasted on such sorry coaching
If St Nick instead of St Richt had been our coach all these years with our talent level,I think 3 NC’s at least
urahippocrit schultz
October 15th, 2012
4:15 pm
As if you really care!! All you and your cohort Bradley live for and on is the number of hits you get on your blogs – your only purpose in life is to fire up the fan bases of UGA an GT. Don’t try to come across as someone who gives a damn how people act!!! Way too hypocritical to suit this fan!!!
WinderDawg
October 15th, 2012
4:36 pm
CHI Town – This behavior is not typical of UGA fans! I live in Winder and have gone on many occasions to Athens and really think that 99% of the fans would not condoned this behavior! Now looking at your post name you must be from Chicago, just a few years ago a fan of the Cubs had to have protection from other Cub fans for catching a ball that could have been caught by a Cub! So I guess typical redneck Cub fans exist!
ha
October 15th, 2012
4:41 pm
Good old UGA class. Trash Trash Trash.
Rocktown dawg
October 15th, 2012
8:38 pm
I saw the dawgs practicing today… They were being taught to roll over, sit up, and not cover wide recievers….. Murray was workin on his specialty..” pick six” and “fumbleruski “drill… and also throwing the ball over their heads and getting them batted down.. Bobo said he really has stepped up his game… Big John Jenkins was practicing on getting pushed back by the smallest guy on the team… Jones … Rambo practiced on getting burned by recievers.. Offensive line was sitting on butt eating cup cakes.. Bobo wearing his clown costume, Grantham was cussing out the water boy…CMR was found diving of the board….. so this is why I pay 150 to see them play…
RHall55
October 16th, 2012
8:33 am
C’mon man….it’s not the players to blame….it’s the inadequate staff @ UGA….poor hires and poor keeps for CMR!!! Look it took CMR so long to get rid (or forced to) of CWM…now he has, CRG, CMB, CWF, CJT, and CDVH to deal with on being incompetent!!
Florida Dawg
October 16th, 2012
9:00 am
If it’s just a game, why do you pay Mark Richt 3 million a year?????