I am a huge football fan. At times I am too big of a football fan. Family and friends make fun of me when they see me watch a game due to my swearing, jumping, screaming, cries of agony, and so forth. I like to talk trash to the TV and joke with friends of mine that root for teams I despise, its all in good fun and they know that. Sometimes I like to read stories online and check out the comments, for the most part they are filled with fun banter, dirty jokes, and excellent comebacks. Occasionally, I will see some people get into it, but it typically doesnt last more than a few comments back and forth.
I wont lie, if I had to pick one team that I despise more than any other team, its the Patriots. I don't need to get into why, that's a story for another day. This doesn't sit well with most of their fans, why? I have no idea. Yeah my team is the Rams (save it, I know they aren't good and haven't been for a while), and yeah the Patriots beat us in the Super Bowl. If you know me I have probably baited you into my Rams VS. Patriots Super Bowl speech, if you haven't heard it I'm sure someone knows it by heart.
Before I go any further I need to explain the purpose of this post. This isn't about me crying, or not being able to take it. This isn't about sympathy and this isn't about every single fan out there. This is really about how far people think they can go when disagreeing with someone. The protection of being in their home, for whatever reason, makes some people think they are invincible. I think in a moment some forget that we are actually talking to another person on the other side of that invisible wall. This was a snippet of what happened today, over the span of a few hours.
Some story pops up on my new feed about Tom Brady saying "everyone fucking hates us, lets win it all next year" after getting booed at the Super Bowl. I made this comment "Soooooo he hasn't been trying to win every other season? This shows what an idiot he is". Thats it, yes I'm guilty, I called Tom Brady an idiot. These were some of the responses:
You had shown how stupid you are
You're fucking retarded
Attention Whores doing what Attention Whores do best
Brittany you really are retarded. Saying I have forgot more about football implies that my information I forget cause I know so much exceeds your small peanut brain. Not talking about the stuff I know.
I'm tearing into this bitch
I love when women try and act like they know something about football.....it's called motivation....
You're a cunt Brittany I bet you can't even make a sammich
Why are people like you allowed to reproduce is beyond me, Brittany
Remember, I didn't threaten to kill his family, wish him ill will, beg for something bad to happen to him, or even swear. I called him an idiot. I've called a lot of people idiots before. You have called people idiots before (and worse). I started off replying sarcastically thanking people for their comments, but it really just got worse. It made me wonder just why someone would get so incredibly offended by someone making such a small comment. If you can believe it, there were worse ones than above. It is a perfect example of people that can't distinguish fantasy from reality. If someone says something you see as mean about a celebrity you adore go ahead and shake your head then move along. I love Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, I see lots of nasty things written about both of them daily, do I sit around and defend their honor? Uh, no they are adults and I'm pretty sure they don't care what people have to say, they are too busy with their nice houses, cars, vacations, etc. I love the Rams, do I sit around and defend them against every person that says they suck by telling them I hope their mother dies? No because that's something psycho, but people do it. Would I call Brady an idiot to his face for sending that text? Yeah I would, it was an idiotic thing to say, almost implying that you only really want to win it all next year because everyone hates the team (but I'm pretty sure they were booing just him). Isn't that kind of the goal in the NFL for every team? To win the Super Bowl? Yeah exactly
How do all of these people know I'm not some cyber terrorist with a fake profile that could ruin their life with a simple click of the mouse? Or that I'm not some psycho killer? Did I expect some backlash? Kind of, I assumed someone would tell me to shut up, or my favorite "get back in the kitchen" (which I did get a lot of this one being my favorite actually, very creative)
Was it nice of me to call Brady an idiot? No it probably wasn't. Was it really that horrible to warrant the response? Not even a little. I don't even worry about me and how I handle it, I worry about my kids getting on the internet soon and encountering things like this. I cant imagine being a kid and reading things like that being said about me. It honestly opened my eyes to what is possible out there, and why some kids (and even adults) cant handle it. People have killed themselves over things like this. Would you really want to be responsible for something like that because you just couldn't help yourself?
Like I said before, I'm not crying about it, I can handle it. Some of the comments were actually funny. I'm more just saying be careful before you really lay into someone on the other side of the internet, especially if you are a "fan" trying to defend a celebrity (someone you don't know). I can guarantee that celebrity isn't at home writing thank you cards or sending you tickets in the mail for calling someone a "fucking retard" or a "cunt". Actually Tom, if you are reading this and would like the names of your truly dedicated fans let me know and I will get them to you, I left their names out, because contrary to what a lot of them think I'm not that mean. It really is best sometimes to not even say anything. It may seem fun (to some?) because it is the invincible internet, but you just never know. Have fun and banter, some of the best conversations I have had have come from disagreements and sarcastic back and forth jabs. Talking to someone like that, especially on the internet, doesn't make you intimidating or a badass, it makes you look like a fool that has nothing intelligent to say so you resort to the lowest level. We are always going to disagree, its part of being human. Dont let someones opinion ruin your day! Take a deep breath, I promise it will be OK, but maybe think before you type
