Going too Far!

We love football. We live it all year. We feel the highs and lows. When the Bucs win, we feel enormous highs. The Bucs lose and we feel heartbroken.

That’s cool. That’s called being a fan!

What isn’t cool is when a fan base turns on a player.

In plumbing, new depths of completely classless behavior, a section of Tampa Bay fans has stooped to a new low.

It shames me to my core to be associated with some so-called “fans”!

The fact that kicker Matt Gay needed a police escort to get to his car and has received multiple death threats over social media is disgusting.

Yes, Matt Gay missed the game-winning kick. It happens! But what these lowlife fans completely miss is that Gay is a person, a human being. He is somebodies son, he is a husband and father. The fact that people can wish a person dead over a missed kick is disgraceful.

Can anyone here tell me they’ve never had a bad day at work? Never made a mistake? I doubt that greatly.

Don’t even tell me that he gets paid a lot to do his job. That is completely irrelevant! It isn’t Matt Gay’s fault that the NFL has set a pay scale and kickers get paid as much as they do. Matt didn’t march into Jason Light’s office and demand to be the highest-paid kicker in the history of the game. He was offered a contract and signed it.

Anyone who has thought or expressed frustration at the missed kick, I’m with you. That’s our right as a fan.

What isn’t our right, and is taking it too far, is death threats. If this was you then not only should you be ashamed of yourself, you need to take a long hard look at yourself.

How would you feel if people were wishing you dead because of a mistake at work? What effect would that have on you? Your family?

Honestly, this is the hardest article I’ve ever written. I’ve written articles about players being cut, players that I think should be cut, and heartbreak defeats. So why is this the hardest? Because I’ve had to really concentrate on making this acceptable for publication, I’ve struggled to tone down my language because how I really feel about these “fans” isn’t suitable for print. Suffice to say you are the lowest of the low and many real fans are ashamed that they follow the same team.

If Matt Gay isn’t the man for the job, then so be it. It’s a difficult job, and that is proven by the fact many teams struggle for quality kickers. Every team in the NFL has had their kicker miss a crucial kick.

That is the fact of this and if you feel that a loss that wasn’t entirely the fault of the kicker deserves threats of a child being orphaned, a wife widowed and a family burying its son; then get out of this team’s fan base and don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya! – Brit Buc