Joshua Morgan, LeBron James' Shoes Inspire Appalling Death Threats

Joshua Morgan committed a personal foul on Sunday, likely costing the Washington Redskins their game against the St. Louis Rams.

Last week, Nike’s LeBron X shoe was unveiled.  

These seemingly unrelated events teamed up to inspire the latest episode of appalling fan overreactions through interactive media, exemplifying the disgusting trend of hyperbole and perceived anonymity in social media.

In the closing moments of the Redskins-Rams game, Joshua Morgan was upset with the rough treatment he received from a Rams defensive back, threw the football at him and collected a 15-yard penalty.  The Redskins ultimately missed a lengthy field goal and lost by three. 

Since the game, Morgan has received multiple death threats via Twitter.  On Wednesday, he told the media (h/t Washington Post) that he is not taking the tweets seriously and is focused on this weekend’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Nike announced that the retail price of the new LeBron X basketball shoe would be $270.  This revelation prompted a heated discussion on the comments section below the ESPN.com article that originally reported this announcement. 

During this discussion, Eric Yee, a 21-year-old man from Southern California, threatened to kill (h/t Associated Press) any teenagers he saw wearing the shoes, even making references to the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado.  He has since been detained by local police and is being held on $1 million bail.

The most appalling aspect of these two stories? They aren’t unique. 

These are by no means the first instances of overly-emotional reactions by fans to sports news and, unfortunately, they will probably not be the last. 

Our sports and our teams hold such a dear place in our hearts, because of this we are liable to allow sports to transcend the entertainment purpose for which they are intended and affect our common sense and reason. 

Combining that tendency with the perceived anonymity of social media and it quickly becomes too easy for crazed and impassioned sports fans to make appalling and sometimes criminal comments online.

The truth is we all are guilty to some extent of letting sporting events become bigger than they really are. 

We have cried after heart-breaking losses, spent our savings on Rose Bowl trips and watched live streams of March Madness games at work.  It is this passion that makes sports fun and interesting. 

But we all must decide where we draw the line. 

There is a line between scheduling our lives around sporting events and threatening mistake-prone players through social media. Fans seem to be struggling to find that line more and more. 

There is a point where Joshua Morgan is no longer a receiver who made a mistake, but a young man trying to make it in the NFL.  This distinction between the sports world and the real world should not be confused and is crucial to keeping sports in its proper place: a source of entertainment in our free time.

The other problem evidenced by these recent events is the perception that everything is allowable on the Internet and one is not accountable for his on-line behavior. 

Would Redskins fans walk up to Joshua Morgan on the street and threaten his life because of an on-field mistake?  Of course not, but while hiding behind a computer screen in the comfort of their home, they lose their grips on reality and feel as though their behavior does not have real consequences. 

Armed with a seemingly anonymous username, one can feel empowered to say anything and everything on the web without having to answer for it. 

This week, Eric Yee has learned the hard way that the Internet is sometimes too accessible for its own good; that a person cannot hide behind the perceived anonymity of message boards; that the passions of sports are dangerous things when they are allowed to escape from the realm of entertainment where they belong and find their way into the person lives of fans and players alike.