Sullivan | The University of Kentucky should take a stand against abusive fans
In choosing its words too carefully, the University of Kentucky has protected its reputation too carelessly.
Rather than repudiating the violent threats and unconscionable abuse numerous UK fans have aimed at referee John Higgins since Sunday afternoon, the school has issued a vague, mealy mouthed statement discouraging any behavior other than good sportsmanship.
This is not good enough. Not once the police and the FBI are involved. Not when the sane majority of Big Blue Nation risks being painted in broad, unflattering brushstrokes thanks to a small segment of contemptible clods. Not when those same contemptible clods might interpret a milquetoast message as tacit approval.
Not when there’s an opportunity to take a stand on higher ground.
Beyond any criminal charges that might result from fans’ overreaction to Higgins’ officiating in Kentucky’s South Regional loss to North Carolina on Sunday in Memphis, the university should take steps to underscore its standards and to distance itself from those who threatened Higgins and his family or sought to undermine his Omaha-based roofing business with malicious lies.
It should lay down the law and clean out the culprits, borrow a page from the English Premier League and make it known that those fans who post abusive messages on social media will, at the least, lose the right to buy tickets to future games.
That is, of course, to the extent it is possible to police this kind of conduct.
“When you cross that line of death threats, that can’t be OK,” said Kevin DeShazo, founder of Oklahoma City’s Fieldhouse Media. “When you’re trying to prevent him from making a living, that’s not OK.
“What you actually do with it, that’s a difficult thing. When it’s a direct attack, you turn it over to law enforcement. But if you’re Kentucky, what’s your capacity to actually deal with it?”
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Despite the rapid rise in revenues in college athletics, few schools have enough staff to effectively monitor the cyber rants of millions. DeShazo, whose business helps schools shape their social media strategies, said he was aware of only one instance of a school (San Diego State) that had banned a fan over posts made on social media.
“Encouraging and monitoring proper fan behavior is a major point of emphasis at our athletic events,” UK spokesman Tony Neely said Thursday. “(But) We have not implemented any policies regarding behavior when fans are not at our venues.”
What better time to start? Instead of ceding the narrative to critics inclined to view Kentucky fans as an obsessive, misguided monolith, here’s a chance for UK to lead in a responsible, civilized direction. Here’s a chance for Wildcats coach John Calipari to bolster his claim that “we have the classiest fans in the country.”
Inasmuch as the internet is patrolled by vigilante fans only too happy to rat out a rival, identifying the most terrible trolls should be easy. Since social media ugliness afflicts every fan base, polluting recruiting and daily discourse, enlisting other schools in an effort to promote civility should not be difficult. But if the task seems too daunting, it can always be out-sourced.
Since 1993, the Premier League and other British soccer stakeholders have battled racism and discrimination by funding Kick It Out, an independent organization that recently launched an application to monitor abusive comments made on Twitter.
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"We don’t have the jurisdiction to impose punishments, so instead we work with soccer authorities to ensure proper procedures are followed and that discrimination isn’t tolerated within the game," Kick It Out spokesman Mark Jamieson said. "We only deal with discrimination. We don’t deal with bad language, for example.
"In recent years, we’ve started to receive more and more social media discrimination reports. These are usually between fans of rival teams and in some cases can be towards soccer players or managers. We conducted some research and found the problem was large so we ran a campaign last summer called ‘Klick It Out’ "
Last summer, the Arsenal Football Club confirmed the authenticity of a letter to a fan banned indefinitely for offensive Tweets.
“Representatives from the Club have viewed the Tweets and find them both offensive and inappropriate, bringing the name and reputation of the Club into disrepute, and therefore deem it appropriate to impose a Club ban on you."
UK could do the same thing, and Big Blue Nation would be the better for it.
Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com or @TimSullivan714 on Twitter.
