A fan speaks out on ‘fan’ behavior
October 23rd, 2009 | 
Author: By LARRY VAUGHT
Eric Hawkes, 30, a Hopkinsville native who now lives in Huntsville, Ala., became a die-hard University of Kentucky fan thanks to UK’s amazing basketball seasons from 1995-1998 when he was a student at Kentucky “cramming a four-year degree into five years.”
“I follow them passionately to this day. My wife, a UK grad as well, is just now realizing that this is not a ‘phase’ that I will out grow,” Hawkes, a vaughtsviews.com reader, said.
He sent me this message earlier this week: “What’s your take on fans chanting names and making signs for visiting recruits? How about when fans post on players Facebook accounts? Or when they go to opposing fans’ message boards and say things that make that fanbase look bad? Seems to me that being a ‘fan’ has taken on a whole new meaning. What is appropriate behavior for fans, where do they draw the lines with recruits, and what role does the NCAA have in punishing schools for the behavior of the fans?”
Great questions and no standard answers. So I thought it might be nice to see what Hawkes, a typical fan just like you, thought.
Here is how he responded when I asked for his thoughts — and I think they are insightful responses:
“My belief is that there should be school-level, not NCAA-level, policies and standards that clarify what is acceptable fan behavior. If the NCAA were to develop fan regulations, rival fans would pose as another school’s fan in order to get that school into trouble with the NCAA. Since there can be no rules without enforcement, the university must determine the standards and enforce them. Within the university, this responsibility must not be added to the coaches’ responsibility.
“Earlier this summer, Coach Cal implied, then clarified, that he would not walk out during the game if our fanbase reacted badly when Pitino came to town. If a fanbase behaves badly, the athletics director and the university’s president need to deal with them. The coach should focus on the behavior of his players; the president needs to focus and take responsibility for his students.
“Anyone who throws things, has inappropriate signs, or screams profanities at another human during a sporting event should be escorted out of the building. In a similar method, if a university were to clarify off-the-court fan behavior to include Internet interactions, which they badly need to, they could enforce it using similar tactics (i.e. denying attendance to sporting events). There needs to be standards of behavior without which the classless minority sullies the rest of us, not to mention the image of the university and the athletics program.”
Fans are fans. Some are more mature than others. Myself, I don’t like being mean. I can accept playful jabs, but not ones that are personal or degrading. But I don’t see how the NCAA can police fans. I am with Hawkes on that. Let local schools make their own calls because 99 percent of fans are terrific and it is too bad that one percent can reflect so poorly on others.
Let me know what you think.
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My biggest problems with the fans is the profanity. I am about as liberal thinking as they come, but the F-Bombs were aplenty at BBM. I felt sorry for the lady next two us who brought her very young son. We were closer to God than the court, and the kid was obviously living a big dream and as happy as he could be, but then the language kicked in. She kept telling him not to pay attention to it, but that would have been impossible.
That’s a great point Todd. I don’t like the profanity, either, and sure didn’t when I took my kids to the games. Still don’t when I have my wife with me, either
Check out the site above.
http://www.ncaa.org/sportsmanship
Sorry…this one…
Great site. Full of info. Had not seen it before. Thanks for sharing
There are plenty of ways to control fan behavior inside an arena, but you will never find a totally foolproof method. It will never be a utopia of well behaved, polite speaking individuals. There is a reason they are called “fans”. The very word is short for “fanatic”. The definition of fanatic is “A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause”. The word is usually associated with extremists who will die for their cause. In the case of a sports fan, instead of strapping a bomb around their chest, they strap on a jersey and face paint. The vast majority of these fans are there to do nothing more than cheer for their team, but a sports crowd is like a sociology experiment in action. You take the 99% of mild mannered, well behaved people and combine them with the 1% of obnoxious pinheads and sit back and observe. You will see a few of the 99% start to take on the traits of the 1% for the duration of the game. A sort of “mob mentality” will overtake some of them and make them do and say things that are not normal for them. A nicer way to say it is that they are “swept up in the moment”. Then the game ends, they walk out the arena doors and they are back to their normal selves. The rules that are in place to deal with unruly fans seem to work for the obvious violators, but the matter of foul language from isolated fans is going to be a lot harder to deal with. A few arenas have “report-a-jerk” phone lines for this type of behavior. You call and security comes to check out the situation. This is probably the best solution for that problem.
As far as controlling the activity on the internet, forget it, unless you shut the internet down. Since that isn’t going to be an option, we will have to live with the fans who make us look like idiots. The unfair part is that most of the fans that make bad comments are other teams’ fans posing as UK fans. Not to say we don’t have our share of jerks, but we don’t have near as many as it appears from the activity on the net. The individual player, who has accounts with twitter, facebook, etc., has got to be smart enough to ignore the bad comments and realize that the person making them might not be who they claim to be. I know that is easier said than done for these young people. Punishing internet violators would be a monumental task that no university will have the time or money to undertake. Most of the sites on the internet would require subpoenas to release the identity of their “clients”. Most of the personal info given to the site will be bogus, so even then you will not know the poster’s identity. Even if the info is good, unless it was obviously a student, an investigation would have to be done on who the person is. It could be someone in another state or country. 99.9999% of the time it is going to be someone the school has no jurisdiction over anyway, so nothing will be done. As nice as policing this situation sounds, it just isn’t feasible.
I have just one final question: Mr. Hawkes said that anyone who screams profanities at another human during a sporting event should be escorted out. In this scenario, are referees considered “human”? Just kidding refs.
Keep up the great work Larry. GO BIG BLUE!!!
As a fan, I think it is my god given right to say, make a sign, or yell out a recruits name if i want! The NCAA has lost their damn mind if they think they control what I say or do!
Jim, nice line about the refs. But you are so right about no way to control the Internet.
and I am with you Matt. Enough is enough. The NCAA is ridiculous. It’s just like we are not supposed to take photos of recruits on visits. Never mind that they are in front of 70,000 folks at fooball or 23,000 at basketball. Putting a picture in print for all to see is a big no-no. What a crock.
And you will like this about the SEC. There are no autographs at SEC Media Day. I have no problem with that. But guess what the SEC does? It has players and coaches that attend autograph basketballs. How hypocritical is that?
Larry, the whole autograph thing is just par for the course. The SEC and the NCnoUK both adhere to a strict “DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO” policy. They will turn around and use those basketballs for some type of benefit to the league, just like they do with the images and talents of the players. But, God forbid, the players or fans do the same.
There will always be big mouthed know-it-all idiots out there who speak louder than anyone else. We come in contact with them everyday with everyday subjects. You put UK basketball in the mix an BOOM. I truly believe the majority of UK fans are great. I do worry that opposing fans will pose as rival fans on players websites though. Given that we can all be anonymous on the internet some people say things they would never say in front of an audience.
Great point Lisa about fans posing as fans of other teams. Why there is no way to control the Net. Thank goodness we can all be sensible here