Snyder's Soapbox: Hating is part of being a sports fan, but keep it in check

The worst people let their hatred blur into reality and social media has only made that easier

Welcome to Snyder's Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it's free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you'll get smarter, though. That's a money-back guarantee. Let's get to it.

With football season now underway, we're going to see an uptick of social media videos showing fans fighting and other nonsense. And I understand passionate sports fans means emotions will spill over at times -- in fact, the passion of sports fans is one of the best things about sports -- but I sure wish everyone could find that line of sanity and stay behind it. 

To be clear, I'm not saying there's no room for hate. In fact, I'm totally pro-hate, as long as we all understand it's playful and within the realm of, essentially, an all-in-fun bit. The best part of that zone is you should never even attempt to justify your hate. 

Here's an example of where I was misguided on this front last winter: One of my friends, relating to the Eagles run to eventually becoming Super Bowl champions, kept texting about how much he hated Philadelphia teams. I kept arguing, as I don't hate Philly. He gave reasons a few times and I rejected those reasons. I thought it was stupid, but he had reasons. 

The specific defenses don't matter, though. I was totally in the wrong. Who did I think I was to tell him his hatred was unacceptable? Irrational fan hatred is cool and good and doesn't need to be explained. Why was I playing the role of that loser who quizzes people to make sure they get to fan in the right way? Fan how you want!

To reiterate, I'm of the mind that hatred in sports is good and fun. It makes the entire world of sports more entertaining. Flipping off and/or screaming obscenities at your TV is such a vital component of being a sports fan. I don't want to take that away. I want to embrace it. 

I feel like channeling Emperor Palpatine: "yes, yes, let the hate flow through you!" 

Well, within reason. 

The problem is too many jerks ruin it for the good-spirited, playful haters. Lines get crossed all the time and there is a clear delineation between good-spirited fan hate and actual, real, human hate. Screaming personal shots at players in person at games and especially involving family members with the hate is low rent. Be better than that. 

How about being over-the-top with the taunts at games and ruining the day for other fans in the vicinity? That's awful. It's such a nuisance and it leads to worse things, like physical fights (I've said it before and I'll say it a million times over, but any adult getting in a physical fight is a total loser). 

And, of course, there's the medium that makes so many things worse in society these days: Social media. 

We've got fans hitting up players to tell them how much they suck, which, I guess, is an occupational hazard they can deal with by ignoring. It's lame, though. Where it goes beyond that are the direct messages that come across as threatening or are straight-up threats. That's pathetic and should never happen. 

The true separation needs to be the ability to separate playful, fan hate from reality. These are real, actual human beings and need to be treated as such in personal interactions. Don't talk about their families and don't even joke around about harming them at all. 

Just scream at your TV and tell all your friends how much you hate them. That's fine. Going past that is loser behavior and we should all strive to be better than that. Sports are fun and entertainment. Getting serious, in a negative way, ruins it for everyone.