Sports fans: Tweet your son or daughter before you send some hate mail to your favorite team’s linebacker, punter, forward or shortstop.
That should be the takeaway from a Saturday story by Times Free Press reporter David Cobb about the social media fan backlash that all too often is battering 18- to 23-year-old college athletes.
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* Social media fan backlash often bruising for college athletes
Take University of Tennessee linebacker Colton Jumper, for instance, who after he garnered a couple of holding penalties during UT’s loss to Oklahoma, saw things like this: “Colton Jumper is a B****. Get his a** out of there. And ” you shouldn’t be allowed to live in Knoxville.”
Or Michigan Wolverines punter Blake O’Neill who got death threats after a disastrous play that ended in a last-second touchdown by Michigan State over the weekend.
The Washington Post this week reported on some of Michigan’s so-called “fan” vitriol:
“@blakeoneill go to the equipment room and start chugging that bleach my friend,” “jump off of a cliff into a pool of spikes and cyanide,” and “you might as well cut your hands off.”
The undeniable fact is that online bullying says more about the senders than the players, but that doesn’t change to pain and possibly damage to these still-very-fragile young people.
Thirteen of 37 SEC players responded to a CBS Sports survey and said they receive social medial harassment “very often.” Another nine said they were occasionally harassed.
Some colleges have increased social media training and coaches usually tell players to tune out external distractions. But who’s coaching the fans?