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MARCH MEANNESS: The ugly voices of so-called fans
If you are of a certain age, you may recall The Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay’s unforgettable introduction: “The thrill of victory…the agony of defeat.” This was long before the internet and social media became the source for so many fans to have ‘their take’ on a certain player or controversial call. My, how things have changed. Nowadays, it has just gone viral…and deadly.
This month Ohio State University was upset in the latest NCAA MARCH MADNESS tournament. The reaction? One caller on a major national sports radio channel had this review: ‘They were cowards!” Cowards. Seriously? The host did not cut him off or chastise him for his attitude about college students playing a game. Ah, but it must be an outlier, one may think. Nope.
Ohio State basketball star E.J. Liddell, according to ESPN, “was rattled by a social media rant directed at him after the Buckeyes were upset by Oral Roberts in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday. Ohio State took the threats seriously enough to alert police, and Liddell decided to make them public via a Twitter post that has been liked over 223,000 times, retweeted more than 17,000 times and attracted national media attention.”
What was being said on social media to these players? Liddell explained, “I have pretty tough skin when it comes to criticism. But that…
