I was disappointed when Larry Johnson allowed himself to be baited by a fan on twitter. This ended up with Larry using homosexual slurs and basically making a jerk of himself. I am not personally a fan of his...never have been. He has always been quick to say what is on his mind and usually, it seemed, it was not nice or positive. For a while here in KC he was dubbed a cry-baby. He wanted to be a super-star his rookie year and complained consistently. His father also was vocal about how he felt about his son's lack of snaps. Most recently LJ criticized the coaching staff and implied his father was more qualified to coach the Chiefs than Todd Haley.
Regardless of what internal struggles are occurring, a professional should remain above the line and handle disagreements and complaints within the organization. Johnson showed his lack of integrity by calling out his coach in the media and offending much of our community. I signed the petition to have him cut from the Chiefs and yesterday he was finally released. On a side note...if anyone is looking for a running back who can only carry the ball on his right and has no stiff-arm to speak of there is one available. You may want to know that the hole the offensive line creates must be large enough for his physical body, his huge ego and the unearthly chip on his shoulder.
Over the weekend I heard rumblings of a fan undercutting Blaine Gabbert of the MU Tigers and his performance, blaming him for ruining the Tigers' entire season. If you actually look at the statistics from the game Saturday he had a solid performance, not one to be ashamed of by any stretch of the imagination. This disappointed me as well. I enjoy Twitter and Facebook. I like to see into my favorite athletes and friends' lives and I am always upset when people abuse the access they have to the target of their comments and the countless others out there looking and reading. This "fan" was uber-critical of Gabbert and the Tigers and was generally classless. Not only is it just a jerky kind of thing to do, there is an inherent difference in attacking a professional like Larry Johnson and a student athlete like Blaine Gabbert.
I wasn't surprised to find that the person responsible for baiting Larry Johnson into his own demise was associated with the author of the tweets trashing Gabbert. In response to the unfair criticism someone began a movement on twitter called #imwithBG11 and the flood gates opened. RockMnation also had some comments and once I looked into it a little I learned who was behind the Tweets...Austin Huff...FORMER MU TIGER. Who does that? As a fan if you don't like what is happening with your team there are many ways to express yourself in the media, on twitter, facebook, blog...whatever your poison. Get your facts straight first. Don't be jerky. Be honest. Give credit where it is due and provide constructive criticism. Maybe point out specific examples. TheAHuff did not do this and was completely amateur in his Tweets and posts.
Now I am going to follow my own advice and give Austin his due credit. He posted an apology and it seems very sincere. I am impressed with his ability to swallow his pride and publish such a raw, emotional response to what has transpired the last few days. Congratulations Austin on a classy move! Here's a link: http://www.rockmnation.com/2009/11/9/1123975/a-message-from-gabberts-online
Kudos to Austin and rockmnation.com for handling this as well as it could have been in the end! Happy Football!
No comments:
Post a Comment