I like reading John Gonzalez on Philly.com because I think he does a good job of communicating some things that the average fan is feeling.
I think he hit it on the head this morning with his column about the fans throwing snowballs out there at the Lincoln Financial Field yesterday.
He said it wasn’t a big deal and most of the fans in the area would want it to be treated as no big deal. However if they caught a player doing the same behavior it would be a big deal.
Usually most of the people in the sports media are moralizing about the behavior of a player who celebrates too much after a big play.
The sports media does more judging than any Pastor or Priest nowadays. They’re always trying to put the scarlett letter on a player.
Players are condemned for being a bad person because they dance after a play or don’t like talking to the media.
They’re also accused of not being good role models for the kids if they don’t sign every autograph that’s asked of them.
If they express any type of dislike for a fan or the media, they’re immediately criticized. Some of the criticisms are legitimate but some of them are silly and nothing but cultural differences.
Here you had millions of youngsters watching a football game on television and all those “role model dads and moms” were out there throwing snowballs.
Sure somebody could have lost vision in an eye if they were hit by a snowball but that should be overlooked because so many people who judge the players, never judge themselves with the same yardstick.
I don’t think throwing the snowballs was a big deal but it was wrong. If a player is judged by everything they do, then judge the fans too.
I’m not going to tell fans that everything they do is fine because it’s not true.
To most of the guys in the sports media, everything fans do is right but many of the players are bad people who are morally wrong.
All I can say to everybody who spends all day and night judging players, LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
