Dear Threatening, Weirdo Fans, Get a Grip!

I’ll be the first to admit that all these things leave me walking a fine line between average fan and total whack job. But even with my, ahem, “eccentricities”, I know that it’s just plain ridiculous to threaten the life of an NFL player or his family on Twitter because he made a bad move during a game. In fact, even considering such a thing might qualify you for a Xanax prescription…or a straight jacket.

Which brings me to the recent online attacks launched at Washington Redskins wide receiver Joshua Morgan. In case you missed it, Morgan (sort of) cost his team the game on Sunday when he got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for throwing the ball at Cortland Finnegan. The penalty happened during the Redskins’ final drive against the Rams. The team went on to lose 31-28. Morgan recently told the media that after the game, fans took to Twitter and let him have it!

”I heard everything, especially when they get you on Twitter and are sending you death threats and wishing you bad things and your firstborn. You see it all, you hear it all. You never let it get to you, especially with me being from D.C.”

As a fanatic, I realize there is almost nothing worse than when a game appears to slip through your team’s fingers on one bonehead play. But as a human, I also realize that the appropriate response is not to spew my vitriol on that player’s Twitter page. Sure I might stick a pin (or twelve) into a makeshift voodoo bearing his likeness that I fashioned together using common household items. But at the end of the day, I realize all I can really do is sip a glass of wine and move on with my life. Partially because there’s a good chance the player who messed up wants to fight himself way more than I do but mainly because…I’m not an idiot.

We NFL fans love us some football! That’s what makes us so awesome. But when it’s all said and done, I’m pretty sure that the appropriate response to a player’s stupid act on the field is not for me to commit my own stupid act from my couch. Oh, and might I mention that it’s only week 2, people. Get a grip!