Fan Etiquette

I know I've fallen off of the blog game for a little bit but my life has been a little busy as of late. I'm in the middle of solidifying a ridiculous music collection, I'm patiently waiting for the Just Wright movie trailer to drop, our season has picked back up (with a not so friendly travel schedule) and I've developed a new addiction to Reality TV and Primetime shows. But those are no excuses and if you are patient I'll be back to my former self very shortly.

A lot of things have been going on but the thing I want to talk about today is Fan Etiquette. I'm all for fans taunting, heckling and badgering the opponents. It's takes a mentally strong athlete to be able to overcome constant banter from spectators and still excel on the court or field. I've dealt with my fair share of "crazy fans" during my playing days. Junior year at the University of Rochester was the worse (I wore knee pads and was told that if I didn't (insert explicit way to say give fellatio) I wouldn't need those knee pads). Well that was the worse until a recent trip to Cyprus where I witnessed what happens when fans take their verbal abuse (acceptable) to the "next level." Here is how it went down...

The Proteas AEL team has not lost a home game all season, and that's in both the EuroChallenge and their domestic league. The first time we played them, in Germany, we 30 pieced their asses. So obviously, they are going to be ready to stay undefeated at home and get us back for the whooooping we put on them. Unfortunately for them and their 250 fans we were up twenty points going into the fourth quarter. When they started to make their last push to come back and make a game out of it, their fans attempted to intimidate us with cursing (in German too) and screaming. It just so happened that we got some calls in our favor down the stretch and the Cyprus fans absolutely lost it. They were throwing coins and water bottles on the court but more than that they were spitting on us. That was when I thought to myself, the referees need to do something here, this is getting out of control.

Well my teammate Ben Jacobson went up to one of the refs...and the following dialogue ensued

Ben: Excuse me ref, these fans are spitting on us

Ref: Yeah I know, they are spitting on us too

Due to some clutch plays down the stretch we were able to leave Cyprus with a win and our lives but this just got me thinking about why some fans feed the need to cross that line? Is their loyalty to the team that strong? Do they not know any better?

I've had to chance to play for some great fans, the best being here in Gottingen and I would never expect, no matter bad the calls were, or how intense the game got for sensible fans to take it to that "next level." So to all of you people out there that will attend a sporting event of mine, the next person that spits at me or one of my teammates is going to get knocked the f*ck out. Haha I'm just kidding...or am I?

Do What You Do       Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...