Written by Gene Zarnick
| 01 October 2009
Theres a lot of condemnation in sports. Officials condemn players and coaches. Coaches condemn officials, players, and the media. The media condemns officials, other media, coaches, and players. Players condemn coaches, officials, media, teammates, and other players. All this condemnation is terrible, but none of those groups are the worst. You know who are the worst? We are!
Fans are the worst people in sports. We not only want to condemn every single group stated above, but a day later we can praise the same people. One week we can praise someone on our own team and then the next week we will boo them. Now the booing may be justified in our minds, but why as fans do we love to hate? Now hate is a strong word and it shouldn't be used lightly so in that case then we as fans are definitely haters. Maybe it just comes with the territory. We hate our rival teams and rival fan bases. We hate when something bad is said about our players. We hate on players who screw up on our teams. We hate when our coaches don't call the correct play calls. We hate on officials if they make a "supposedly" bad call. We hate athletes that screw up in society. Most of all, we hate to lose. Almost every reason we hate is because we hate to lose. We need some sort of justice to losing. Now the reciprocal to this is we love winning and we praise the people that help us get there. There's no other groups of people who are more hypocritical then fans on a daily basis. It may seem bad, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I think people always look at being hypocritical as a negative, when many times it's a positive. Sometimes it just means that we are giving something a second chance. It's not up to me to decide if you believe that everyone should be given a second chance. There are situations that are so inhumane that people shouldn't give second chances. The most divisive second chance situation this year is Michael Vick. Everyone knows what he did was wrong. Michael Vick not only went to prison for over two years, but he also lost over $100 million because of his misjudgment of his friends, his situation, and most importantly, himself. Everyone thought that when Michael Vick would return that there would be huge protests against him and the organization. It didn't happen. Everyone thought that he would just put on an act and would express an insincere sympathy. So far he has expressed remorse and is giving speeches about his wrongdoings to kids around nearby states. We won't know for sure if Vick is a changed person until he shows us for years down the road that he has been rehabilitated, but I know I was a naysayer that is happy now that he is getting a second chance. Now you may not be a person who believes in second chances, but just remember that we as fans give second chances to people everyday.
