How to behave at a football game

Everyone who follows the Big 12 have seen the “Horns Down” news. Texas fans, players, and coaches have finally whined enough for Big 12 refs to openly state the sign can be a penalty, depending on the context.

This got me thinking about that old insult hurled around by fan bases, “your schools fans are classless” and similar lines. We seem to have forgotten what it means to be fans, and what actually is inappropriate behavior.

First to settle one thing fan smack is terrible, plain and simple. As a rule if you’re engaging in fan base smack your team sucks and you should feel bad. If all you’ve got against Tech during our dominance this spring is we partied too hard reaching the Final Four then I will laugh in your face.

When a minority of fans do something idiotic and go too far, that doesn’t represent the entire fan-base. If you believe that, I will laugh in your face.

Back to the matter at hand. Look, as fans there are lines you should never cause. Don’t use violence, racist language, and if there are kiddos around watch your mouth.

But your job is to make opposition players miserable and support your teams. Opposing fans should be treated with basic human respect, but I really don’t care if you are mean to their players and coaches. My favorite moments as a student is when I could see players reacting to our taunts (shouldn’t have to be said but no racist stuff) and knew I was messing with his ability to keep his head in the game.

I remember Texas players taunting us by writing comments on a white board and showing us, only to meekly drop it after our response following a fumble by their offense. You should be loud, proud, and in their face. And you can do that without being an ass. Again you know what that line is.

And seriously, the Horns Down should be done by every single fan and player whenever Texas comes to town. Texas fans will mock everyone else’s university from academics to their teams performance, but for some reason they lose it when someone turns the Horns the wrong way. Go figure.

I’ve read comments from Texas fans, and the fact it gets to their fans and players is a green-light. It doesn’t matter if they think it isn’t clever, its disrespectful without being over the line and sports are a freaking game. If you are offended to the fiber of your being because I inverted your schools sign you need to evaluate your priorities. Moral of the story sports fans, have fun.

It is all just a game, be rowdy without crossing the line. That line is big and red and you literally cannot miss it. I have said that a bunch now, but that’s the truth. As long as you respect that line, go nuts. I know your team loves how much you taunt their opponents, how you drown out their snap count, and how you get in someone’s head.

Everyone needs to take a breath, remember this is a game and have fun. I am certain if you polled athletes after their careers they never had more fun than when they went into hostile crowds and balled out.

What makes sports so fun is the environment fans make, the electricity is impossible to match at times. And yeah, sometimes fans are rowdy. But if they mind the line, there is nothing wrong with that. I’ll hop off my soapbox now and see if anyone flames me on twitter or in the comments.