The Sad State of Sports Fans

"The Sad State of Sports Fans"
 

By, Ryan Nootz

 

I’ve dedicated as much of my life to sports as the next fan has and I couldn’t be any more bewildered in the fact that a sports fan is considered a homicidal maniac and that’s devoid of loving your team.  For as far back as I go in my sports memory, which dates more than three quarters of my life, sports fans have been: passionate; dedicated; and void of brutality, but this is not the case today.  

Today we see a fan beaten into a coma for the jersey he wears, guns pulled over the team you’re cheering on and a taser being used inside a stadium.This isn’t to say I’m oblivious to the fact that riots have always happened after championships, words and cocktails have led to shoves and punches, or on any given day a heated argument may result in never speaking again.  I’ve listened for years to people talk until their blue in the face about how elite their team is compared to mine and for every fact and stat I have to counter them with it won’t change any opinions but that doesn’t mean the only solution to your methods is flattening your opponent with a bevy of arsenal weapons. 

 It’s stupid, poignant and above all degrading to the level of integrity that is deserved for ones loyal support to a cause.  I don’t have all the solutions because I can very well tell you it isn’t easy to keep control of emotions when all the elements add up to that boiling point of explosion, I’ve felt it plenty in the love of sports.  I do know that fans of any intelligence, background, race and alliance have to realize this will never change the results on the field and it definitely doesn’t result in success off the field.  You make your team look malicious when you brandish a gun to the opponents, you sentence your city to a reputation unwanted and you, yourself are labeled a criminal which is nowhere to be found in the meaning of fan.