When Disappointed Fans Take It Too Far

Sometimes fans can do extreme things from stalking a celebrity they admire or in this case, to vandalizing the house of someone they are disappointed of. After the Buffallo Bills’ loss to New England Patriots, cornerback Leodis McKelvin’s front lawn was vandalized. The score to the September 14 game was painted on the suburban Buffalo lawn, along with an obscenity. Other Bills players are disturbed by the incident, fearing that the same thing or worse can happen to them. Linebacker Kawika Mitchell even tweeted against the behavior, calling it disturbing and “not funny at all.”  Mitchell says that if vandalism ever happens to his own home, he will regard it as a threat and not some petty joke. What the Bills have to say: The incident was both shocking and surprising, as Buffalo Bills’ players always thought of their fans as respectful of their privacy. Spokesman Scott Berchtold considers the incident a police matter.  The team’s union representative, George Wilson, was shocked by the vandalism and goes on to say that fans can take their aggression to blogs but should not act upon their disappointment with criminal behavior. The fan’s action was definitely deplorable but what may have prompted it was that the Buffalo Bills was initially leading the game against the Patriots. The Bills were leading 24 to 19 in what seems to be an easy game for them. Everything went downhill, however, after McKelvin fumbled a kickoff return. After three plays, the Patriot recovered. The game actually finished at 25 to 24. This means that the Bills had stopped scoring after 24 while the Patriots scored six more. It was certainly a disappointing loss, given that it also opened the season, but still no reason to behave aggressively. McKelvin, who was from Troy, was a first round pick during the 2008 draft. Since then, he was able to rank second in NFL kickoff returns. He was also able to set a team record and had scored a touchdown for the Buffalo Bills. Even before the vandalism incident and after the loss against the Patriots, McKelvin was already criticized about his costly mistake. He promised to make better decisions on his next game. His coach, Dick Jauron, defended him. Jauron believes that McKelvin “plays hard” and is always trying to make the team win. It is to be noted though, that it was not the only time that the Buffallo Bills had been struggling lately. The team had to struggle just to win and had close call losses. There may be fans out there, who used to respect the team’s privacy, that are starting to get restless. They have so much pent-up frustrations that it seems blogging won’t cut it. What Buffalo Bills have to do is to win more games and show their fans that they still care.