To boo or not to
boo, that seems to be a question that sport fan think of. That is an issue
professional athletes speak about. It is something that may never end.
However, is it
right? Should you be able to boo?
It was kind of
weird that I was thinking of writing this article all week after my girlfriend
(who I have to give a shout out to because she reads my writing) brought up how
in argument about “Baseball's Best Fans”, that Cardinal fans don’t boo their players
as much as Cubs fans do.
Then the Chicago Bears (Brian’s lock of the week)
played a game that may have hurt them for the rest of the year.
Jogging off the
field at half time, trailing the Miami Dolphins, the Bears found themselves
down 14-0. The fans decided they needed to show the players how they felt and
booed them as they jogged into the locker room.
After the game
was completed, starting Right Guard Kyle Long said it was “unacceptable” to boo
when a team is only down two possessions “especiallywhen there is not a lot of noise being made on third down [when Miami had theball], period.”
So was it the
wrong time to boo? Did the fans deserve to boo after the game?
The Harris Poll conducted earlier this year, which polled adults ages 18 and over, has football as the most popular sport in America. It is easy to see that NFL is very popular when you realize 26 out of 32 teams valued at 1 billion dollars or more.
This money is coming from many different resources. TV contract, sales in advertising, and the fans.
Yes the money the fans put towards parking, season tickets, jerseys, memorabilia, etc. does go towards the teams and their players.
My favorite
quote of “Boo-gate” (can we call it this whole week “boo-Gate” ? it works
right?) is from Chicago Bears tight End Martellus Bennett. Bennett pointed outwhat makes watching football so much fun, the entertainment it bring people.
“It's an entertainment business. We are all entertainers.
If you go to a bad show, most people boo. I think they had the right to do
that. If I want to boo at fans, I can boo at fans, or whoever it may be. They
pay for their tickets, and the show wasn't up to their liking.”
While
painting them in a different light, it is true that these athletes are
entertainers. They are entertainers in a game that brings them joy. When they
play well, they put on a show that makes so many people happy. When they go out
the field and under perform, those people won’t be happy. It is pretty simple.
One
last thing to remember before I get to whether fans should boo or not is something
that kind of goes off of Bennett’s quote. The reason many people find this
entertaining is because it is a game. Underneath the contracts, the ticket
prices, the tv deals, all of that, this is still a game. That is why these
athletes started playing and the reason they still play it. They enjoy the game they good at it.
So,
for the last time, should fans boo?
I
won’t give some bs “Yes and No” because I feel there is a true answer here.
The
answer is yes, the fans should boo.
If
the NFL wants to treat everything like a business, so let them. They make
billions off of this simple game and people continue to buy tickets to games,
jerseys of their favorite players, and foam fingers because a regular hand
indicating “ we are number one” just won’t do.
In
any business, when large amounts of money are on the line, people are expected
to perform at a certain level. When others that put money towards those people’s
salary notice that they are not performing to a certain standard, they deserve
to be told they are not playing well.
It
comes with the territory. If players are going to demand such high contracts, fans
are going to demand they earn that contract.
If the NFL wants to make dance around issues and then say it is a business decision, why can't fan's state that "booing" is the same thing.
So
go ahead and “boo” players. If you don’t want to “boo” , don’t. Just don’t feel
like it is wrong to “boo” millionaires that, in part, you help fund.
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