idiotic people making my blood boil
By Elizabeth
@Poppylicious (11133)
December 7, 2015 6:51am CST
I wrote a post earlier which I subtitled, The restoration of my faith in human nature. Yesterday I witnessed an incident which can only ever happen in one particular place and which destroyed my faith.
This place is the football match.
The football match is the place where people can be rude. They can swear. They can mock. Children can, not quite literally, get away with murder.
At the match yesterday we were stood on the terraces next to two adult males and a boy of about eleven. There was the usual banter; rudeness, swearing and mocking, mostly in the form of chanting. It happens. It's generally all in good humour.
However, the goalkeeper of the opposing team had a twitch. Every so often he would twitch and this involved him moving his head as though he were trying to look behind him. This didn't affect his goalkeeping {they won, knocking us out of the FA Cup in the process} but was obviously a condition.
Effing twitcher! they shouted.
He's behind you! they called, pantomime style.
You belong in a circus! they screamed, following this immediately with carnival music.
The little boy found this highly amusing. He was loving it, joining in, calling the keeper nasty names.
Twitch! Twitch! Twitch!
Nobody else was joining in. The goalkeeper has tourettes. For them to stand there and blatantly mock him nastily for a condition he has is just horrid. If they did it in the street they'd probably find themselves on the receiving end of quite a few fists, but in the safety of the crowd they're just anonymous.
There's gentle humour, mild mocking and a friendly rivalry at football matches. There should be no place for downright cruelty.
Idiots.
12 people like this
11 responses
@EllaSpringtime (198)
• Israel
7 Dec 15
One of the symptoms of Tourette is swearing with no ability to control your self. It is kind of ironic they mocked him for his Tourette while they have sworn with no control.
3 people like this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
8 Dec 15
Yep! I believe his tourettes is the sort that makes you twitch though, rather than swear. Either way, it's not nice of them to take the Michael.
1 person likes this
@EllaSpringtime (198)
• Israel
8 Dec 15
@Poppylicious I think Tourette syndrome is a general term and ticks, swearing and so on are the symptoms of Tourette. But I have read that most of the people who have it, don't have the swearing behavior.
2 people like this
@Dragonairy1 (1722)
• Newcastle Upon Tyne, England
8 Dec 15
That is awful behaviour, and the young boy will probably start to think it's normal.
2 people like this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
8 Dec 15
Hopefully the football is the only place they do it!
2 people like this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
8 Dec 15
I'd like to think they're only neanderthals at the footie, but I suspect maybe not. I imagine if the boy's mum had heard him she'd be horrified. Or maybe not.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
8 Dec 15
They couldn't attack his goalkeeping skills so they attacked him personally instead. I imagine he's heard it all before, but that doesn't make it okay.
1 person likes this
@JESSY3236 (19968)
• United States
7 Dec 15
That's horrible. But kids do copy what their parents do. I saw a little of commercial that showed how kids copy parents.
2 people like this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
8 Dec 15
'Do as I say, not as I do' comes to mind! Parents need to be careful!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121621)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Dec 15
It's just as bad at American sporting events as well. It's okay to mock the play of the athletes, but once you start attacking them personally, I feel you have crossed the line. People have lost their sense of dignity. You definitely nailed it when you called them idiots! Idiots are what they are, indeed!
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63608)
• United States
3 Jun 16
@Poppylicious but at least you recognize the difference between team spirit and cruelty.
@Auntylou (4264)
• Oxford, England
11 Dec 15
I think that rugby has much higher behavioural standards than soccer, both on and off the pitch