Bianchi might have actually just nailed one....

[ZeroBullChip]

OrlandoSentinel.com

Idiots giving real fanatics a bad name

Mike Bianchi

SPORTS COMMENTARY

September 19, 2008

It is time to take back sports from the Idiot Fringe.

Everywhere you turn, everywhere you look, everywhere you go, the idiots are taking over. They have infected our stadiums, infested our message boards and infiltrated every nook and cranny of sports with their filthy, crude, disgusting, idiot ways.

"Some idiot [fan] of ours, every time a KU cheerleader walked by, he yelled a sexual slur over and over to each and every one," University of South Florida quarterback Matt Grothe told the Tampa Tribune in the wake of USF's idiot-marred victory over Kansas last weekend. "Yelling at a cheerleader? Those poor girls don't know why they're getting yelled at. It's like me going up to that guy's mom and calling her [those names]. Is he going to like that? They should just be happy with us winning games."

But they can't be happy because they're idiots. And you know the idiots are getting out of control when a college football player starts ripping his own idiot fans.

The boorish behavior of some USF fans at the Kansas game became such an issue that the Tribune wrote an article about it, quoting several fans who said they were sickened and saddened by the behavior of the Idiot Fringe.

Pat Porzelt, a 1987 KU graduate, said she was accosted before the game by one drunken thirtysomething USF fan who stuck his finger in her face and yelled, "Go home, you [expletive] Jayhawk [sexual slur]."

"I expect to hear profanity, but it was the in-your-face hatred behind it that was different than any other stadium I've been at," Porzelt said.

With all due respect to Porzelt, I don't believe USF's stadium is much different than UCF's or UF's or FSU's. I believe every team in every sport has a growing number of drunken delinquents and noxious nose pickers who make up the Idiot Fringe.

Before UCF's home game with USF just a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of UCF fans somehow got Grothe's phone number and inundated him with vile voice mails and text-messages. Grothe's father even received a threat on his phone that said, "Watch your backs. We can't get to your [expletive] son, but we can get to you."

That ominous message came before UCF played USF. It was after the game, following several questionable officiating calls, when a van carrying the referees had to be protected by police from an angry mob of UCF fans.

And on this week when the University of Florida plays its annual rivalry game with Tennessee, let us not ever forget one of the most despicable cases of idiot fandom of all-time. It happened a few years ago at Florida Field where Vicky Fulmer, the wife of Tennessee Coach Phil Fulmer, sobbed uncontrollably after being heckled, harassed and doused with a cup of urine by a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal dressed in Orange and Blue.

"It was the most humiliating experience of my life," the coach's wife said through tear-stained eyes after the incident.

Back then, I was convinced there were just a few of these idiots running around, but now I believe they are spreading like a computer virus. All you have to do is read the nasty, profane repulsive stuff these imbeciles call each other each and every day on Internet message boards.

Nobody's immune from the verbal abuse. Not the coach's wife who attends the game, not the quarterback who plays in the game, not even the sports writer who covers the game. A few weeks ago, on a Sentinel message board, one reader posted this comment after one of my columns: "I mean it when I say I hope you die of AIDs, Bianchi."

Who are these people? Why are they so angry and miserable? Are their lives so sad and pathetic that their entire sense of self-worth is determined by a questionable officiating call, a sports column they don't agree with or an opposing player who throws the winning touchdown against their team?

Do any of these people have children? I always get this disturbing mental image of a little boy looking over his father's shoulder and saying, "Daddy, why are you writing such bad words and mean things in that e-mail? And, Daddy, why aren't you using your real name?"

Daddy shoos his son away and keeps on typing his vile, vulgar garbage.

Let's hope the kid doesn't grow up like his old man.

One generation of idiots is enough.

Mike Bianchi's Open Mike blog can be read at OrlandoSentinel.com/openmike, and he can be reached at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com.

Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel

[ZeroBullChip]

I especially like this line

Who are these people? Why are they so angry and miserable? Are their lives so sad and pathetic that their entire sense of self-worth is determined by a questionable officiating call, a sports column they don't agree with or an opposing player who throws the winning touchdown against their team?

[Bullschmutz]

Naturally his column should get heckled.

I was about 15 seats away from The Mangino. I made sure to ask him if he needed a few cheeseburgers while I was getting up. I'm pretty sure he heard me.

[JerseyBull06]

and I have had sexual slurs yelled at me while I'm rollerblading on bayshore, and I'd take a guess they were probably much worse than whatever happened at the game Friday...why doesn't he write something about that!

just find it funny that HE's writing this story...and that it wasn't an issue that warranted a column after the USF/UCF game (unless I missed it) but now after KU/USF it's necessary to write an article about the 'idiots' that have infiltrated college sports (like this is something new this season or only an issue at USF, UCF, and UF)

I do believe that at USF football games the growth of our program so quickly has created some issues in terms of fan behavior...at the same time I think that we are now looking at every "incident" under a magnifying glass and that some things are getting blown out of proportion - I wish there were no issues at all at sporting events, but that's not going to happen with over 60,000 people whether alcohol is involved or not

I actually saw a picture today that a friend took of the guy who's face was covered in blood (I believe this was the usf on usf fan incident some mentioned)...now seeing that disgusted me

- respectfully my 2 cents, Noel G (No relation to Mike G )

[windbane]

Congrats to Brett for getting himself publicity by drawing attention to a minor issue.  This badly named "respectabull" campaign is nice, but the fact remains that these things are going to happen everywhere.  The only reason it looks bad is when all these fans that have supposedly attended the game want to tear a school down.

Bianchi is a joke and will remain one.  UCF fans were terrible compared to the events described in the article.

[snarling Bull]

People who are idiots will be idiots most if not all of the time.

You get cursed at, racial and sexual slurs spew out of peoples mouths everywhere, not just at football games.

[TheBullies]

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

ZOMG!!!1

a "teh fanz are evil" thread!!!!1

no way!

how did you ever come up with THAT idea????

:

[flsportsfan83]

that was a great article. People need to learn how to act. If they act like morons and are disorderly then arrest them.

[Knight_Light]

Remember, this is the same Bianchi that has an anonymous rivals.com screen name that would go to various team's message boards promoting a "good article" about College Football...and ALL links were to Bianchi articles!!!