Idiot Vikings Fan Shows the Ugly Side of Twitter

As far as Vikings fans go, there are few in the state more passionate and supportive of the team than me. I love the Vikings and watch them at their lowest and of course their best. It's been a roller coaster ride lately as the team searches for just a touch of consistency from the quarterback position. I've been just as frustrated by the inconsistent play of Christian Ponder as most Vikings fans -- but some moron on Twitter took his frustration to a new low, asking Ponder's wife, Sam Ponder, to kill her husband. Seriously. There are few things in this world more immature than fans who take a SPORT this seriously. It's football people. It's a form of entertainment. And even that sometimes gets lost on me as I throw my hands up in the air and yell at the television with rage as the Vikings implode time after time. But never would I ever take my fandom to the level of asking a wife of a football player to kill her husband -- or even less, I would never even bring myself to write to Sam Ponder saying her husband sucks at football. There are some lines that do not need to be crossed, and "assaulting" an athlete's family for actions on the field is definitely one of them. The 'McNair' reference below is to deceased former NFL quarterback Steve McNair who was shot and killed by his 20 year-old mistress.

 Sometimes, die-hard fans get so caught up in the sport and success of their favorite teams they lose sight of the fact that these players are human beings. These football players are just men working for a living, a living that happens to be the most popular sport in the country televised to millions. Fans can get upset about poor play, but to take action in such a disgusting manner gives football fans and Vikings fans a bad name. What an awful display of fandom. Of course, this bonehead was banned from Twitter. This type of behavior shows the ugly side of social media, the downfall of idiots having direct access to celebrities. Though this clearly was someone going to the extreme, a wife hearing her husband should be killed is hard to swallow no matter the forum. While we all want to be passionate backing our sports teams, we need to keep in mind that it is just a game -- after the final whistle blows, we all go back to our lives, even the athletes.