Rudeness and Sports’ Fans

Good sportsmanship is just as important on as well as off the field. 

Play Nice or Stay Home

Rude fans at sports stadiums don't stop at heckling. Hell, no. Why should they be satisfied merely yelling trash about a player's mother's STDs (yikes!), when they can step it up to an arrest for disorderly conduct?

These people are jackasses. Plain and simple But come on... we both know it's more than that. I'm going out on a limb here. I'm going to say that I believe these... offensive individuals... may have some special help. And I think it's alcohol.

What?? Get outta town...

These losers are somewhere on the scale between "Buzzed" and "Hammered Off Their Asses." And here's the thing... If you can't hold your alcohol, you should not be at the game. Drinking. That's it right there. You should not be at the game drinking if you cannot hold your liquor.

For the longest time until it was finally stopped, the old Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands had a weekly gathering of about five hundred drunks near the infamous Gate D, harassing women every Sunday football game. It was a total mob mentality. And people would wonder, how did five hundred people get away that for so long?

I know why. It's exactly because there were five hundred of them. Call it vulgarity in numbers. Because if no one gets reported, or nobody gets in trouble, a guy figures, "Well, if I'm with them, I can't get in trouble either. They can't find me in five hundred other people." And when you include alcohol in that, man... Alcohol tends to make people believe that it's OK for them to do or say anything.

Duh.

But, oh, what stunts they pull... Like the fans who like to pack batteries in snowballs and throw them at the football players. That's just dangerous. What gives anybody the right to come in and throw a brick dressed as a snowball at somebody and think it's funny? What if they hit him? That's one player going to the hospital and one fan going to jail.

The hot new summer sport doesn't seem to be baseball. It's fans running out onto the field to be Tasered by cops. Why?... Really, why??

What makes people think they have the right to leave their house and go to some stadium and be obnoxious?

Stay home.

Who decided a stadium is a free pass? I think a lot of people believe it is. It's the "If It Happens in Vegas" mentality... only in the bleachers.

How about when you're sitting there and folks show up with all sorts of crap and start spreading it out on the seats like it was a sale? They spread out like they were in their living rooms or Man Caves at home. If you're one of these people, here's The Big Question: What gives you the right to go to a stadium and pretend you're at home? And if you have a Man Cave? You may already be a lost cause.

I bet you don't pull anything like that at home. I doubt that they would let you. And maybe that's why you're moving around to ball parks and stadiums so much. You think that you're entitled to do it because you paid $490 for a ticket? What about the other people who paid for tickets too? What are they entitled to? What if everybody does it?

It's nuts.

Now, there are some annoyances at sporting events that you can't really do anything about. For instance, some folks complain that they don't like it when people keep getting up and down during the game 'cause they make everybody stand up and move every two minutes. I say, let that one go. It's annoying, but know if they have to go to the bathroom or get food or maybe just walk off a leg cramp from being crowded by that guy you don't who spread his crap out all over the row. That's one we just relax and live with. Choose your battles.

If you want to get angry at someone, save it for the fans who think it's cute to harass or belittle the food and souvenir vendors... giving them demeaning nicknames, or tossing their money so they have to stoop for it. They think it's funny. But every thing's a little more amusing when you're buzzed.

Most people don't know how to drink. I'm going to take a wild guess that these are not the people paying attention to the end of the TV ad where it says, "Enjoy responsibly."

They enjoy being jerks.

Meanwhile, these stadium vendors are working stiffs. They're not enjoying a Sunday afternoon in a reserved seat pounding back a cold brew. They're the ones serving it. Carrying fifty or sixty pounds on their backs, making change while some joker makes fun of them.

I'm a sports fan. I'm supposed to come to this game and enjoy myself and cheer my team. You, however, are not supposed to be throwing things and acting up right next to me. Or leaning over my kid and being rude. You're not supposed to do that.

I have an idea for a new tradition at the stadium. Throwing out the first drunk. From “Is It Just Me? Or is it nuts out there?” by Whoopi Goldberg, 2010

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Golf Etiquette

Agreeable companionship on the links is one of the great attractions of golf, indeed a famous golfer has said that companionship is the chief joy of this game. 

Golf and How to Play

Every golfer should learn the printed rules of golf etiquette by heart. They should be his spiritual leading and no golfer should step to a tee without knowing these rules of conduct. Golf etiquette aims to regulate one's conduct toward one's fellow players and a knowledge of it will help us to see ourselves as other golfers see us. 

Agreeable companionship on the links is one of the great attractions of golf, indeed a famous golfer has said that companionship is the chief joy of this game. Look around you at any club and you will see that the man who frequently disregards the etiquette of the game has few invitations to play with the more desirable players, for there is no surer way to lose popularity than selfish violation of the rights of others. Try not to earn this sort of unpopularity. 

Talking and moving when a player is about to drive is a serious offense and so is standing within a player's line of vision. Keep a good distance away. Replacing divots is a rule to be faithfully lived up to. 

When several matches are on the fairway, singles, foursomes, etc., the player farthest away (technically designated "away") invariably plays first. The single match has the right of way, but if a single is not going any faster than a foursome, it should not in courtesy ask to go through. Golf etiquette is a series of rules plus common sense. I think a player should always help look for a ball. 

I think it should be assumed that the least that can be asked of anyone is that he follow the written rules, but there are many unwritten rules, the observance of which classes a man as an honest sportsman and a gentleman. 

Watch yourself for annoying mannerisms. I remember I once took a great dislike to a golfer who had a bad habit of coming over to his opponent's ball and thus making his presence unpleasantly “felt.” Don't practice putts when those behind are waiting to play up. A man should not take too many practice swings for the benefit of his own game and at the expense of his partner's patience. The proper spirit of golf shows itself in a scrupulous regard for every right of your opponent. 

There is such a thing, too, as insisting too much upon one’s own rights. Although golf is not golf, if not played according to the rules, the average player should avoid the manners of a school master on the links. Rules should be enforced by officials. In all the years I have been playing golf, I have never called a hole, or stroke on anyone through a technicality. I have no desire to win except by actual strokes. 

As a consequence I have lost many important matches, but I feel that I have gained much of more importance. To my way of thinking, it is better to give your opponent a little more than he has a right to ask. Summed up, golf etiquette is regard for the other fellow. It means avoiding offense, being not unduly depressed over ill fortune, or puffed up over good. “And if you fall, or if you rise. Be each, pray God, a gentleman.” —Sacramento Union, 1919

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia