What rights do we have have as fans of sports? Do we have to show class? Can we cheer when we want? Boo when we want? Can we throw things on the field to show our displeasure of calls made or teams performance? The apparent answer is yes.. but.. The word fan is from the word fanatic. All sports fans have fanatical behavior. Whether it is good behavior or bad, we as fans have a right to be anything we want to be because we spent a ton of money to go to a stadium and arena and watch a game. If we get out of line, which is our right, there are ramifications for our behavior. Someone can point us out to stadium security and have us removed. Someone can have us arrested. Someone can, yes folks, kick the living crap out of us if that is the situation. Someone can also move from their seat. Someone can actually join us in our fanaticism. We are fans and we pay the salaries of the participants on the field, so you cannot tell me how to behave.
Now if you believe that is how i truly feel, I have some swamp land property to sell you in Jersey that has gold, diamonds and oil on it. Eric Winston is 75% right with what he did and said. The only problem that i have with what he said is that he blamed all Chief fans and the city of Kansas City. Every person at the game said he overreacted and generalized when he gave his assessment of the cheering at the stadium. His point is simply no one should be cheering when someone on your team is hurt should be cheering. Matt Cassell has been trying like crazy to get back to the form that enabled him to lead the Chiefs to a division title three years ago. He was injured all season last year and the team fell apart. They have a great running game and he was a perfect compliment to that running attack. What we stupidly do in our society is lump the money he makes into the action on the field and we think that if he or she is a millionaire they are invincible. They can't get hurt because they are being paid 66 million dollars. They are not human. They are my property because I am paying his salary because I am at the the game. Fans are ignorant beyond belief at times. We have a God given right to cheer or boo when we ant to but we need to use common sense and decency. Matt Cassell chose a profession where people get hurt. We should n't boo even when the opposing player gets hurt. What is the point of sportsmanship if being fanatical is accepted behavior at inopportune times.
There is a story about a rugby player in England who this past weekend played in a championship game and ruptured and lost one of his testicles. Would you cheer that? His name is Paul Wood and not only did he rupture his testicle he played with the pain and injury for 20 minutes after he suffered the incident. Fans would cheer people like him because he was willing to lose his testicle in order to try and help his team win a world championship. He was asked today on the Dan Patrick show what was more painful, losing one testicle or losing the game. He said losing the game. My point with this story is that athletes around the world in all sports do whatever it takes to win in most cases for us fans to succeed. They sacrifice there body, minds, life for us to have 3 hours of an escape every time they play. Whether it is Willis Reed limping on the court in the sixties, Jack Youngblood playing a Super Bowl on a broken leg or Isiah Thomas on bad ankle scoring 42 against the Lakers, Micheal playing with 103 temperature in game 5 to help Bulls defeat the Jazz, or Matt Cassell going through rehab to get back on the field to try and help the Chiefs win a football game, fans need to understand the sacrifice and effort these people do for us. They deserve our best behavior and respect. Events of recent weeks indicate that we still that we have a say as to what happens on the field. Brave fans throwing beer bottles on the field because the umpire made a bad judgement call shows that more to me than ever before. I am no saint either, but at least I know when to draw the line.
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