In thinking about the Marcus Smart incident, I remembered my son's reaction to his beloved Raiders losing a game when he was in grade school. "I don't want to go to school tomorrow" he would say. And, of course I told him he had to but asked why. "Because everyone in school will be mean and tease me about the Raiders losing" was his usual reply. And I said, "That's nonsense. Their teams will lose too off and on. What happens then." They'll get teased, he said.
I went to t-ball games with my kids where parents were far too invested in the outcome. We had one dad who routinely was ejected from his daughter's softball games. We saw coaches screaming at kids who were playing "for fun". My same son, who was pretty talented, dropped out of basketball because the "coach screamed all the time."
We have fans who are "famous" for their taunting. For them, it's clearly a sport and perhaps the primary reason they go to games.
Then I remembered my childhood. My father was the sports editor of a newspaper, so we went to every sporting event imaginable. Especially when we were young and he was a sports reporter. They frequently didn't have money for a babysitter and so we all piled in the car and went to gymnastics and wrestling meets, hockey, basketball and football games, track events. My father wore a suit and tie and my mother wore a suit, hose and heels. Ask me about the Northwestern football game he took her to in December some time. She still wore her suit, hose and heels.
My father taught us that fans cheer and clap for their team. They pretty much ignore the other team. We were not allowed to boo the refs or any players. At the end of the game, everyone shook hands. It was simple, it was fun, it was clean-spirited. Sports were uplifting, not a reason for controversy. I miss that.
I hate sitting by hecklers. It ruins the game for me. I can only imagine how the players feel. They take the fun out of sports, IMO. What is wrong with us that this is considered a normal behavior for a fan?
Then I hear people touting "freedom of speech". When freedom of speech was included in the Bill of Rights, it was designed to give the minority a voice. It was a reaction against suppression of political thought that had occurred in Britain. I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would think about heckling during a sports event. I think we've taken the Bill of Rights far beyond anything that was intended. I'm not an originalist, but I think that sometimes we emphasize freedom of the individual so much that the rights of the community are ignored.
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