When Giants running back Brandon Jacobs received a death threat via Twitter from a disgruntled Fantasy Football owner, it brought the hobby some rather dubious attention. The tweet threatened Jacobs’ stating:
…BRANDON IF YOU DONT RUSH FOR 50 YARDS AND 2 TOUCHDOWNS TONIGHT ITS OVER FOR YOU AND YO FAMILY N*****
The Fantasy Football owner followed that tweet with another tweet reiterating his intent as follows:
FULFILL MY ORDERS STATED IN THE PREVIOUS TWEET OR THATS YO LIFE BRUH AND IM NOT PLAYING
Some fans are taking sports way too seriously, and Brandon Jacobs thinks that Fantasy Football has made things worse, and that some fans’ obsession with it has become a “huge problem”. Earlier this season, angry football fans confronted Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub at his home, forcing him to call security. Hometown fans also cheered when Schaub was injured on the field and had to leave a game against the St. Louis Rams.
While it is not clear whether the Fantasy Football manager who threatened Brandon Jacobs and his family had any plans to follow through on his threat, the mere fact that he tweeted it does raise some concerns about player safety. American Sports fans do not have a history of assassinating players for poor performance, but the word “fan” is, after all, an abbreviation of the word “fanatic” and sometimes, sadly, the label fits all too well.
In 1994, Andres Escobar, a Colombian Soccer player who inadvertently scored a goal against his own team in a World Cup game, was murdered outside a Medellin restaurant. He was shot a dozen times while the killers taunted him by shouting “goal” after each shot was fired.
Fans need to keep Fantasy Football in perspective. NFL players put their bodies on the line, facing the risk of concussions, spinal injuries, and broken bones, when they suit up to play on Sundays. They don’t need to also be looking over their shoulder to make sure they don’t get shot by a crazed fan who is upset because the player had an unproductive Sunday performance.
As for the Twitter user and Fantasy Football Owner who was so competitive that he was willing to kill to win his league, one has to ask if Fantasy Football is a matter of “life and death” for him, why is he putting a New York Giants running back in his starting lineup anyway? Hasn’t he seen them play?
Edited by SS
