During the Colorado vs. Colorado State football game, Henry Blackburn (CSU) delivered a late hit on Travis Hunter (Colorado). CSU was flagged for unnecessary roughness and Travis Hunter was injured on the play. This kind of play happens quite often in football. A defensive player runs hard to deliver a hit on an offensive player. Sometimes the defensive player gets there too late and delivers a hit a split second after the play is over. If this happens, referees call a penalty. Players understand that this is part of the game and it sometimes happens.
What we don’t often hear is the reaction from the fans. Some fans are overzealous and take things too far. They find the email address of the offending player and send nasty emails. Sometimes they post awful things on social media directed at the player. Sometimes these comments come in the form of death threats.
Coach Deion Sanders, head coach of the Colorado football team, heard about these death threats. In his press conference after the game, he tried to put this into a proper perspective.
“He does not deserve a death threat over a game. At the end of the day, this is a game. Someone must win, someone must lose. Everyone continues their life the next day. I’m saddened if there’s any of our fans on the other side of those threats. I would hope and pray not, but that kid was just playing to the best of his ability, and he made a mistake.”
Joe’s Perspective: Sports means a lot to many people in America. We identify with our teams. We take pride when they win and we suffer when they lose. We take things personally. We judge and we criticize from the outside. We post on social media and call radio shows. However, fans should not be crossing lines. At a professional football game last week, a fan punched another fan and killed him in the stands… over a game. That’s just wrong. Likewise, fans should not be attacking players and placing death threats. Again, this is just wrong. I applaud Coach Sanders for setting the record straight and for publicly forgiving a player from the opposite team. I hope the fans that needed to hear these comments, heard them, loud and clear.
Your Turn: As an athlete, what advice do you have for fans or parents who attend sporting events and take things too far?
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I’m happy Deion sanders was able to understand that it was just a football play and he didn’t mean to do harm to his son.
I feel that it was not okay for home to get a death threat over a game. It’s just a game. It doesn’t determine you. But what does matter is that you try. And he did try. He did all that he could. That’s what matters. And we play games for fun, right? And we all know it’s not fun to lose. But that’s part of the journey.
I think it is silly to take a sporting game so far that someone gets hurt. In the end, we must remember that this is only a game and winning or losing really does not have long term affects on anyone. If you are a fan or spectator, just watch and support nicely.
As an athlete you understand the game on a different level than fans do. Even if the fans are die hard and will watch every single game they still miss a part of the sport that isn’t shown on tv or during a match. It is like a mental connection that the player has with the sport. I think the fans are being selfish and are trying to look for something to fight about because that’s what part of being a fan is, also considering the fact that as humans you feel the need to defend you opinion over others, but it should never go so far as the way these so called fans are acting.
I don’t believe that he should get death threats for the hit he did on to Travis hunter. Like Deion sanders said “ at the end of the day, this is a game. Someone must win, someone must lose”. The player was just playing football not meaning to hurt Travis.
At the end of the day it’s just a game and if you play a contact sport you can’t take it to far if you get injured if it’s a routine play
overall it’s just a game that people or playing cause they like to do it so there’s no need to take it to far or to hurt people
i would remind them that it’s just a game and they should calm down because there is no point in getting so worked up in it.
My advice would me to remind them that it’s only a game and they shouldn’t get so worked up about it.
I would tell them that it is only a game and they should not get so worked up about it
Stay calm
This is a kids sport, not something that a parent should be taking too far
Advice I would give to fans and parents are that parents need to enjoy watching their kid play the sport they love, not joysticking them or yelling at them during the game. In the end, it does nothing but hurt their kids and get inside their head. Unnecessary comments afterwards are unacceptable from fans to parents to players. So, if you have nothing good to say, don’t say it.
He shouldn’t get a death threat. It’s just a game and those plays happen all the time.
If you don’t know how to behave like a mature adult, don’t go and don’t say anything.
I think its really unnecessary to give somebody a death threat over a collage football game but what i would do is just all type of confrontations
Sports are sports sometimes callas are missed or people do something bad no one is perfect so don’t complain about it.
There was no reason for him to get death threats. It’s just a game and injuries happen in a contact sports like football all the time. He also didn’t mean to hurt him.
If I were to give advice to fans or parents who take things too far, I would tell them that winning and losing is a part of playing sports, and the parents should not be going overboard on mistakes or bad calls that might make them angry because there is a chance to correct them in the next game.
I think it is Good to be supportive but dont get involved in stuff you cant control keep it to your self.
Sports is a game that you can’t always control. You never know what’ll happen next, that’s the thrill of it. But you shouldn’t be criticized or given a death threat just because something didn’t go the right way for you. At the end of the day, there is always a loser and a winner, you can’t always win and sometimes things happen that make people get hurt. That’s just because people are playing hard and hopefully having fun. That’s what sports is about. Me, an athlete can give advice to all of the fans that have threatened players. Players don’t always control everything that happens. Well yes they do, but they can’t control what the other team is going to do, they just have to defend or stop them depending on the sport. I would advise people to become more calm and understand that mistakes happen.
Take a second to think about how hard the athletes work behind the scenes. Remember it’s not you in the game and just try to calm down when something doesn’t go your way
Just remember this is a game for entertainment and fun. Don’t take things so serious.
Don’t take things so serious
I think that if you’re not in the game you shouldn’t be saying anything to the players. If you do, do so in a calm fashion. Also, apologize when you do take it too far
To not always get mad because it just a game