AFTER Tragedies Every Sports Team Has the Best Community

I am going to start this post by saying the issue I am covering can be really sensitive for people and I hope that no one will take offense to this, but will rather think about it before the emotional reaction. Yesterday it was reported that a man wearing a Texas football t-shirt was nearly castrated at a bar in Oklahoma by an Oklahoma Sooners football fan. Yes you heard that right it took 60 stitches to repair a man’s “area” after he was attacked in an Oklahoma bar. And this reminded me of something I have been thinking about a lot lately.

I am an avid college football fan and love watching games. On the first weekend of the games the largest ESPN college football show went to Virginia Tech and there were endless stories about how VA Tech was the nicest community in the world, and the head coach was saying they’re America’s team now. They weren’t going to let one person destroy their community. At the Clemson vs. Florida State game there was a story about a Clemson player who had to adopt his younger brother to get him out of a negative home environment and then the town of Clemson raised money to help him get the things he needs. That night it was Clemson that had the best community in the country. Obviously in these situations I think it’s great that football can bring people together etc. and I’m happy that people turn to this to heal, but I really wish people would stop saying communities are the best AFTER a tragedy. Shouldn’t we focus on being good before a tragedy?

Here’s another example. Virginia Tech won their first game and played at LSU last weekend. LSU honored Virginia Tech by playing their alma mater before the game instead of LSU’s and two of LSU’s top players asked their fans to show respect to the Hokie fans at the game. So when Virginia Tech was introduced the LSU fans didn’t chant their usual “Gator Bait,” instead they either cheered or said nothing. All nice things, but why would people be compelled to do this only after tragedy? Why would large football communities continue to treat people like this all year round, unless of course something terrible happens? Trust me I know that for a large majority of people at these games it’s just all in good fun to chant or cheer for your team and a little yelling or harassment rarely turns into castration, but I just find it fascinating that announcers are just endlessly commenting on how amazing of a community LSU has to treat the Hokie fans this way, when next week a team that didn’t happen to have the largest school shooting in the history of the country will come in and they’ll be “gator bait” and booed.

Is it too much to ask for people to treat people in a humane way all of the time and not just after something terrible happens? In the same train of thought would it be too much for Extreme Makeover to not just take a ton of money and build one house for one family, but take the same amount of money and build a neighborhood? Or do we just feel better when we have one instance to look at and smile and say what a great world we live in?

Now I know there are a lot of amazing people at all of the schools I mentioned in this piece and many more. There are a lot of fans who don’t fight, don’t treat people with disrespect and some of my views here may be coming from the few people that get focused on and seem to ruin a lot. So if you are one of the good fans, then maybe we need to start making our voices heard louder and larger than those who give schools and communities a bad name.