Obsession for Excellence: How Abusive Fans Have Corrupted the Games We Love

I usually write about fantasy sports or the next breakout player, but the events that have risen over the past year are extremely important and warrant immediate discussion.

Sports has always thrived on the support and obsession of their fans.

Without the fans, sports wouldn't exist.  It's that simple.

While fan involvement helps create that ambient noise that gets your arms waving and mouth shouting, its demand for a level of competition that goes beyond the norm often puts a strain on players and the game itself.

There will always be fans.  No matter what the price is, how far the venue or who's playing, people will still come to watch.  But with today's economic troubles that the average sports fan is facing, the demand for more exciting games and worthwhile game play is on the rise, making the feeling of satisfaction that much harder to achieve.

It's no secret that fans like to drink, which has become another source of strain on sports.  Whether it's tailgating for an NFL game or grabbing a brew during the seventh-inning stretch, fans like to drink and there's nothing wrong with that. 

But considering the cost of beer, alongside ticket prices, fans will go that extra distance during games to fulfill their empty pockets and make the day memorable, which often leads to abusive actions.

While drinking isn't the main source for fan abuse towards players and other fans alike, it's a direct cause for many of the situations that the fan-player relationship encounters.

Over the past decade alone, drunken fans and abusive slurs have led to some of the most dramatic player reactions that we've ever seen.  Remember Ron Artest jumping into the crowd?  Or Jermaine O'Neal knocking out a fan on the court?

Can you blame them?

While the thought of going into the crowd and making physical contact with a fan should warrant more than an extensive ban from playing, the provocative fan should be held more accountable.

Throughout this year, fans have played a major part in some of the top stories in sports.  Jumping an opposing team's fan in the parking lot hardly screams compassion.  It screams obsession. 

Our obsession for sports is at an all-time high.  I'm one of them, but I would never attempt to harm a fellow fan or a professional athlete—who would probably crush me otherwise, but that's a different story.

It's our actions that lead to backlash from players, causing an unneeded sense of betrayal to the other guys that suit up and put on the best show they can.  If we decide to buy courtside tickets to a Bulls vs. Heat Eastern Conference playoff game, we need to act accordingly and responsible, not make crude slurs about a player's personal self while he sits on the bench and looks on.

Why do we continue to fuel this idea that we need to mentally disable an athlete, especially a player who's playing in a different city, away from his own fans?

Does yelling "LeBron sucks!" while he shoots two free throws really provide fans with a sense of accomplishment or that they're really helping their team win?  I realize this is just the usual banter that you'll hear at any sporting event, but does LeBron really suck?  Does one of the best athletes in the world really suck?

No, he doesn't. 

However, fans will continue to berate athletes in an attempt to attack their mentality on the court.  It's become obsessive in the way we try to take away an athlete's self worth to the game they know best.

This leads to imminent backlash, such as Joakim Noah using a gay slur at a fan who continuously made personal attacks at the Bulls center.

Who's held responsible?

Noah.  Not only in the media, but among NBA authorities.  This a player who has done nothing, but be respectful to the game of basketball and all NBA fans throughout his career, getting fined $50,000 for his defensive actions against a drunken fan courtside.

It's not worth it.  Why force this situation upon yourself and a professional athlete who eats, sleeps and breaths the game he loves?

As fans, we should be held accountable for our actions towards players and more importantly, towards sports as a whole.  Stories like Joakim Noah's or actions like the men who beat a fan nearly to death at an MLB game take away from sports and prove that our obsession has grown problematic.

Has it grown out of control?

I don't think so, but we need to realize what's taking place in the world of sports.  It has become evident that the actions of fans are starting to invade on-field and on-court play. 

Whether it's an increase in security, a decrease in alcoholic drinks or a system set up to punish abusive fans, something needs to control future outbreaks because another NBA brawl, parking-lot fight or vocal encounter might end more tragically.