Over the weekend, miscues by receiver Josh Morgan and kicker Stephen Gostkowski cost their teams the game. This is of course is a myth that comes from people needing to give a reason to why things happen. In reality, no one play costs any losing team the game. If the team played better before said play, then it wouldn't have come down to one play. Angry fans don't think this way though. Besides being angry, they are most likely drunk. Drunk and angry aren't the best of combinations and it usually leads to some crazy things being said, things like death threats. Now that we live in world of social media, we can get a message across a lot easier than in the past, and these crazy things become public. But what's even more stupid is the media shedding light on the death threats and other crazy things being said.
How is that the media doesn't show crazy fans that run across the field, but it will report every time a fan gives a player a death threat? It knows not to encourage people from storming the field, but it doesn't know to discourage people from giving death threats? At least there is humor in watching a person run across the field and seeing three or four security officers sprinting after him. The person, usually a man, then gets tackled and hauled off the field. The crazy fan is all pumped up and gets the crowd into it, and it's pretty good entertainment. There is nothing funny or entertaining, however, when you hear a player and his family get threatened because they made a simple mistake. No player intentionally decides to blow it when it matters the most. The fans know that, but some of the more inebriated ones still go and do something they'll regret in a few days.
I guarantee you if you interviewed fans that have left players death threats after the fact, most would say they didn't mean it and that they were very sorry. It's kind of like the chatter back and forth from players during the game. When you're in the middle of a dogfight and things get chippy, you say and do things that you normally wouldn't. The Cutler situation is a perfect example. During the heat of the moment, he got angry at his own lineman and gave him a shove. After the fact nearly everyone was badmouthing Cutler, but the lineman he pushed wasn't even offended. He knew it was spur of the moment and Cutler didn't mean to call him out. The same thing, and more, can be said about angry, usually drunk, fans sending unacceptable tweets.
Hate mail from fans has always been around. Before Twitter, players used to get hate mail at their homes via letters. If you ask me, we are lucky to have Twitter now for fans to (irrationally) vent. Sending players actual mail takes time and effort that drunk people probably aren't willing to do, which means that type of hate mail was from people that truly could have issues. Also mail is physical and something could be put inside to harm the player or his family. Twitter is over the Internet, and nothing can be done to physically harm a player or his family. Players can also choose to not be on Twitter and then never see the death threats, unless, you know, multiple media sources all over the world report them.
Yes, I know by writing this 'anti-encourage death threats' article that I am indeed giving attention to the death threats. I even defend the fans in some points. It's not fair that the media goes after these fans for saying such horrible things and nothing bad gets said about them for giving them unneeded attention. The bottom line is that people say screwed up things in the heat of the moment. They always have, and they always will. Reporting it almost every time it happens is not helping the situation. Let's do the right thing and not give them the time of day. Let's stop encouraging player death threats.
Resources
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8398834/washington-redskins-joshua-morgan-gets-death-threats-twitter
http://bustedcoverage.com/2012/09/17/25-nsfw-patriots-fans-wishing-stephen-gostkowski-would-die-f-bomb-tweets/
http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/8395148/jay-cutler-bumped-jmarcus-webb
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