Take, for example, the Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. In the opening game of the season today, Vick seemed to disappoint Eagles fans in the worst way. Each year the Eagles fans anticipate the "dream team" and each year they are immediately reminded not to buy into it. Michael Vick kept this streak alive when he threw four interceptions during the first game. Not only were these interceptions thrown, but they were thrown directly into the arms of a weak Cleveland Browns defense (the Eagles were predicted to win 34-16, but actually only pulled away with a narrow 17-16 victory). The insults and the upset of the performance are clearly still resonating in Vick's mind, not only on account of his pressure on himself, but also through the wonderful world of Twitter. Some of the most popular tweets at the moment are as follows:
@FauxJohnMadden: This is one of the worst days Mike Vick has had in a "dawg pound" ever.
@EvilMikeTomlin: Mike Vick went to throw DeSean Jackson a towel in the locker room after the game, but it was intercepted and returned for a TD
@noahrosenfeldt: As for mike Vick 4 ints is Unacceptable and Andy Reid Doing his old thing bein a moron throwing the ball 56 times
And let's not even get started on the bombardment of insults that rained upon Penn State's kicker Sam Ficken after missing four field goal attempts in this weekend's match up against Virginia. Much of it resembled this:
@dakotadebellis: Sam ficken shouldn't even come back to state college because he's going to get lynched
While you feel for the players in the times of grief, fans also use Twitter to shower them with affection and compliments. David Akers, a kicker for San Francisco, hit a 63 yard field goal today and was blown away with support from his fans.
The basic principle I am attempting to reach is this: The world of professional sports is intimidating for the athletes, especially the rookies. They play on a terribly large platform and the world of social media has made a seemingly gigantic platform even larger; even those who are not able to watch the game can instantly see just what has happened. Clear proof of this lies in the way in which the United States seemed to know the outcome of most Olympic events before they had aired on prime time television.Yet this is both a blessing and a curse, and I'm sure the world of social media will only grow more impactful as time progresses. Hopefully, for the athletes' sake, with this sure to come growth also comes a more positive era of fanship through the internet airwaves.
After all, everyone should take a lesson from Penn State's punter Alex Butterworth, who took to the internet last night:
@alexxxbutters: I would trust @sficken1 with any kick in any game anytime and from every distance he's gonna win us a lot of games this year and beyond
Maybe one day, all sports-related tweets will be this positive. Something does tell me, however, that this is wishful thinking on the part of my naive mind.
I remember just after the Virginia game, I tweeted something encouraging about Sam Ficken and how I couldn't wait to see him and his teammates play next week. A blogger/Penn State alumni responded "you are so awesome" and it almost made a disappointing afternoon a bit better. The negativity online from sports fans drives me crazy, but it's nice when people can find each other through positivity.
ReplyDeleteAfter that same game, a friend/former Penn State athlete tweeted something like "Do you really think he wanted to miss?" and then "I wish I could see some of you trying to make that kick." I don't know what it is about competitive sports that makes people believe performance outweighs effort and passion, but it's nice to have a little reminder from an athlete that this shouldn't be the case.
Anyway, as much as that Virginia game taught me from a sports and social media perspective, I'm glad it's long gone. Go State! Beat the Bye Week!
In regards to your blog entry of “Sports: Reputations in Social Media,” I thoroughly enjoyed your writing on sports figures reputations, specifically on Penn State’s field goal kicker, Sam Ficken.
ReplyDeleteI was one of the people that tweeted about my anger towards him after missing four field goal attempts in the Virginia game. I read through various similar tweets that had similar feelings to the feelings I had, and agree with your statement that sports can be intimidating for athletes, especially the Rookies. Sam Ficken hadn’t ever been a kicker in his life and was instead filling in for a kicker that had transferred to another university. He didn’t have enough experience to be put under that type of pressure on such an enormous national stage. Your point where you mention that is fantastic.
But one part of your blog entry I have to respectfully disagree with. I’m referring to the end where you said that that one day, maybe all sports-related tweets will be as positive as the example you provided…. That will never happen, although it is a very optimistic view and I will certainly not rag on your positivity.
Thanks for sharing such an interest blog entry! Best, Andrew Samitz, Comm 497A classmate
This post reminds me of one of my own. I wrote about Twitter in the sports world, and more specifically, Sam Ficken. Being a UVA alumni, I was cheering for UVA in that game (don't hate me). However, watching the game with PSU fans and reading some of their tweets about Ficken's kicking surprised me. Fans are ruthless when it comes to expressing their feelings on social media, especially Twitter. It is one thing for professional athletes, but for a student athlete to take some of the insults that Sam Ficken was receiving was ridiculous. Ficken, however handled it "like a man." He stayed off Twitter and did not retaliate to any. He turned all the insults around and helped the PSU Football Team to a winning season, with a great overtime win this past weekend. Ficken should be an example to some professional athletes, who need to learn when and when not to use social media.
ReplyDeleteKellie, I too am a Philadelphia sports fan and an avid Penn State football fan. I also have a similar blog post on my blog. Mine, however, deals more with what athletes post on their accounts rather than the backlash they receive from a poor performance on the field, so it is refreshing to see your aspect of it. These athletes must have to be extremely thick-skinned nowadays. Social media is mostly being used for criticism as I see it, but it should indeed try to be a form of encouragement for struggling athletes. In the end though, I believe whether it is negative posts or positive posts, it can actually have a motivational effect on the player and cause them to try and be the best that they can.
ReplyDelete-Anthony Plocinik
As a Philadelphia sports fan myself, I know how ruthless yet loyal Philadelphia sports fans can be. I am not a Michael Vick fan and have tweeted multiple times about my frustration with his performance as quarterback. As he is an adult NFL player, he is in the spotlight and understands such. While I am not defending that he should be able to tweet criticism, the majority of people tweeting negative remarks and Vick, and other professional athletes, are not their peers. That being said, I personally try to not tweet negative remarks about Penn State athletes. What people forget is that Penn State athletes are all still kids and still students. Tweeting negatively about these athletes would mean that I would be tweeting negatively about my peers, especially since a lot of student athletes are in some of my classes. It is important to remember that social media is there for us to us, but not abuse and use to hurt others.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I am not a Philadelphia sports fan, forgive me but I am a Pittsburgh sports fan. Regardless of our differences I do know what you mean about social media making the already large stage of sports even larger. People can now more directly target their praise and discontentment at the players. I think as an athlete you have to expect it though. Playing sports and being good at them is your primary job. If I went to work and say lost my company thousands of dollars I would be criticized as well. I just chose a less notable career. I think that any criticism of players needs to be in good taste. These players are only doing their best and we don't know what they are going through. Social media is only getting larger so sports fans and celebs need to learn to accept it and ignore it.
ReplyDeleteI am an Eagles fan as well and I have been going to games all my life. My boyfriend is a Steelers fan and always teases me for "giving up" on them all the time, but hey, that's just how we Philly fans are. I really enjoyed your post and you made some great points. I am sure that the players, such as Vick and Ficken, are aware of what is being said about them and I can't imagine what that feels like. I really felt for Ficken in that game, I can't imagine being under that kind of pressure, but to then be able to sign onto your Twitter account and see what people are saying about you has to be rough.
ReplyDeleteMy blog is about social media and body image and one of the points I have made is that when our parents were kids, they of course had to deal with body image issues, but when they went home it was done. However, when kids get home from school these days they sign onto Facebook and Pinterest and they are bombarded with the image all over again.
This is very similar to sports- when a player had a bad game in the past, sure it was in newspapers and discussed, but it wasn't posted everywhere and not everyone had the chance to humiliate their performance publicly.
A New York sports franchise fan born and raised, I definitely understand a pretty volatile fan base. I think social media has made it pretty easy for fans to lash out at their teams, and players. Its an interesting phenomenon because it is a line of communication that never existed before. These are comments people might have previously just been screaming a their television screens, but now they are sent to 200 of their closest "friends". I feel for the players, because people are definitely entitled to having a bad game, or just not playing well, they aren't super heros. I think that might be the problem. Media and our society has blown the expectations of being a professional athlete. Its definitely not a pressure-free environment to compete in, but I'm sure their million dollar salaries soften the trauma caused by grumpy fans. -- Emily Mckenna
ReplyDeleteBeing a huge sports fan, I found reading this post to be very interesting. I remember when Sam Ficken missed several kicks during the Virginia game, my entire Twitter timeline and Facebook newsfeed was covered with people bashing Ficken. I too was pretty upset that we lost the game, but after reading so many negative posts about the guy, I started to feel sorry for him. I put myself in my shoes and thought about how I would feel if thousands of people, who are supposed to be supporting me, are talking trash about me in every way possible. I think Ficken handled himself very well and actually ended up improving as a kicker as the season went on. I think the negative comments about athletes is one of the downsides of social media becoming so huge.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure why- maybe it’s the increased popularity of Twitter this past year- but there has been a lot of recent hostility towards athletes on social media. In a way I guess we should expect this, since Twitter is a place to share your thoughts through a seemingly protected, closed-screen forum, so naturally people will feel that what they say won’t have any real effect. I mean, what fans say really have no effect on the athletes, right? Absolutely not. I thought this was an interesting topic because recently there have been a lot of athletes being suspended from teams for what they’ve been saying online, especially concerning Penn State. Hofstra wrestler Russell Benner and Boston College soccer player Stephanie McCaffrey both had to delete their Twitter accounts because of controversial, insensitive tweets they posted regarding the Sandusky scandal. This shows that not only is it inappropriate for students to post things about athletes, but for athletes as well. Perhaps this trend of ‘athlete bashing’ is something we are learning from the athletes themselves. Whatever it is, I hope it’s something that stops soon.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, your entire blog is so well written and interesting, you did a really great job! I really enjoyed reading your post about athlete’s reputations and social media. Using Sam Ficken and people’s tweets of anger about him as an example was a great choice. He was the first athlete that came to mind when reading your post! It really bothers me when people tweet angry comments at the athletes, acting as if the whole game was their fault for missing a kick or a play. When Ficken was tweeted about, I felt really bad for him. But now the joke is on everyone else because Ficken won us our last football game of the season! I completely agree with you that Twitter and every other social media sites are a blessing and a curse. People praise athletes on their Twitter for doing well but when they disappoint their fans in a game, people use Twitter to profess their anger. I really hope fans would keep their comments to themselves and let the athletes do their job!
ReplyDelete