Faceless fans

Don’t like the coach? Voice your concerns on a message board. The same goes for a player at any college institution.
Now more than ever, fans can vent out their frustrations without picking up the phone and calling a sports call-in show. They can sit behind a computer, develop a screen name and have at it, most of the time without using their true identity.The plus side to sports call-in shows is that most of them are screened usually and a name is given when he/she calls in.
Some of the comments on the internet are good. Other times they are bad. Really bad. It’s not that having an opinion one way or another is bad, it’s the way it’s presented that gives message boards and some sports call-in shows a bad name.
Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings addressed the issue during the SEC teleconference earlier this week. Stallings said the callers have appeared to turn it up a notch when it comes to criticism.
“I think with the whole thing of talk radio and internet blogs and all of (those things), people can write, call and say things now in a very faceless manner,” he said. “It’s probably gotten worse, because of that. I think it’s becoming more routine and more common. My call-in show is awesome. Our people are terrific here, even when things are bad, our callers are very good. I don’t have many problems that way and honestly don’t know many coaches that do. I do think it’s becoming more common for people to call and be negative than maybe it used to.
“I think it’s more common to call and be negative than they used to do. We have a very tolerant fan base. That’s where I attribute the goodness of our people to, our people are just very tolerant.”
Tolerance and not reacting in the heat of the moment are the keys to holding restraint. I wonder how many people would really make a comment – good or bad – with a true identity. I was raised to treat your neighbor as you would yourself. Same goes for athletics. Treat other coaches and players as you would do your own favorite team.
And while I’m at it, don’t make excuses why your team lost a game. Congratulate the opponent and move on.