Cheers of Matt Cassel Injury Show Fans Take it too Far

In the fourth quarter of the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Baltimore Ravens, quarterback Matt Cassel took a shot that knocked him out of the game with what the team called a head injury.

Simply put, he was knocked out. And that is when the unacceptable happened as the Kansas City crowd cheered while their quarterback was injured.

Matt Cassel certainly hasn’t been the best player in the league, he’s struggling and everybody knows that. However, for any person to cheer a player getting knocked out, that is horrible. Cassel’s teammate, offensive tackle Eric Winston, made it a priority to let everybody know how he felt about the cheering of an injured player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TpaggJG_Xc

And you know what? He’s absolutely right.

Sure, fans can make the point that they pay to watch the games; they can do what they want. Or point out the fact that the athletes get paid millions of dollars to play this game. While those points are correct, it is from a moral standpoint that cheering an injury is going too far.

That isn’t all, though.

Flashback to the San Francisco 49ers’ punt returner Kyle Williams muffing a punt while playing with an injury of his own. When fans felt he cost the 49ers the game with his mistakes, he and his family were met with hostile comments from fans about how he and his family “should all die”.

Once again, to quote Eric Winston, that is sickening.

While they are athletes and fans do pay their hard-earned money to watch them play, they are still human beings. They make mistakes as everybody does. However, if you had 70,000 people follow you around work and cheer every mistake you made or told you that your family should die for a mistake, you would understand that it is taking it too far.

Football is a game and while the athletes know what they are getting into, there are life-altering moments that do occur past football that they do risk for the entertainment of the fans. Eric LeGrand may never walk again and countless players have life-long head trauma that they may never recover from.

To expect athletes to be 100% perfect is a stretch, but to cheer an injury is a disgusting act that fans should be completely ashamed of.

Has the game of football changed so much that it is no longer a joy and entertainment, but now personal hatred is a possibility for another human being that has done absolutely nothing to harm you? A person that you know only because they play on your favorite team (but not personally) and has done nothing to you; but when he takes a hit that knocks him out, it’s okay to cheer that?

One can only hope that fans begin to show sincerity again and actually worry about an athlete getting injured rather than embrace it and high-five the fan next to you.
By: Brandon Williams Member of the Football Writers Association of America