ORLANDO, FLA – It goes without saying that hockey is a game of passion both on and off the ice. When the players perform with high intensity, the fans in the stands get fired up. When the fans get fired up, the players feed off the energy created outside the glass.
Come springtime, playoff hockey takes passion to a higher level, making players and fans alike do things they might never do otherwise. A perfect example is Boston Bruins’ defenseman Andrew Ference who was fined for flashing an obscene gesture toward Montreal fans in the Bell Centre following a Bruins goal.
Thanks to 21st century technology, fans have the opportunity to live their passions 24/7/365 via message boards and chat rooms all over the internet – all without having to reveal true identities. They can share thoughts and angst with fellow fans as well as engaging in smack talk with fans of opposition teams. Most of the time, the conversation is civil and fun. It is free speech at its finest.
There are however instances when the discussion turns nasty and hurtful, where tempers flare and attacks become personal. When that happens, passion can quickly turn into a variation of “cyber-bullying” that can create problems well beyond the cyberspace they started in.
One of those problems popped up in the last two weeks when an incident at the end of an SPHL playoff series escalated into a war of words on the internet. It also led to a mean-spirited attack on a newspaper reporter who was doing her job by a fan who used the anonymity of the world wide web to hurl accusations.
To be fair, the definition of the “line in the sand” between passion and cyber-bullying is a hard call. One person’s attempt at being funny may not necessarily be funny to someone else. This I can personally attest to.
Back in 2006, I was asked to create content for the Florida Seals’ website by team owner David Waronker. Initially I thought I would be working with Adam Minnick who was the team’s director of media. When Minnick left to join the New Mexico Scorpions, it left me as the sole person providing stories.
One of the duties during the off-season was reporting on player signings. Problem was there was a person at a message board who would take the releases and “rewrite” them, making them into attacks on the Seals’ ownership and making the players look dumb for even talking to let alone signing with the Seals.
I understood the fact that fans around the SPHL did not like the Seals and Waronker in particular. What I did not like was the fact that someone was taking pieces I had written and attacking the players by illegally altering them. I contacted the administrators at the message board to express my concerns and displeasure and within a short period of time the rewriting ceased.
That 2006 incident was the most extreme I had seen up until the events of the last two weeks. Generally speaking, message board moderators do a very good job of cutting off the name-calling and personal attacks that occur when fans with opposing viewpoints duke it out. They also have the ability to ban offenders from their sites and erase any and all records of the nasty conversations.
The moderators also have to deal with fans who attempt to exhibit “intellectual superiority” by bashing fellow fans who try to pass along information, intimating that they have even closer ties to sources. In reality, some do have pipelines to the newsmakers which is fine but using those contacts to belittle others is just plain mean.
Which brings us to the recent events within the SPHL family. It all started with a very emotional and intense playoff series between Columbus and Augusta.
The best-of-three series came down to the final game as the teams split the first two contests. With the host RiverHawks leading late in the contest, Cottonmouths’ coach Jerome Bechard said that Augusta captain Matt Auffrey skated past the bench, blew Bechard a kiss and delivered a verbal deleted expletive. Bechard was so incensed by what he said he witnessed that he refused to partake in the post-game handshake line, the time-honored tradition that follows the end of a series. (As a side note, LA Kings’ coach Terry Murray shook hands with the San Jose Sharks’ coaching staff at the end of their series but did not go through the players line.)
Given the nature of the series between the RiverHawks and the Cottonmouths, which was already tense because of Augusta’s Kevin Fukala stick work at the end of game two, the possibility of emotions overflowing was very real. Under those circumstances, it is possible that something did happen to cause Bechard’s ire but only the coach and Auffrey know what did or didn’t occur and Auffrey has yet to publicly offer his view.
Several Augusta fans took note of the perceived snub by Bechard and took to the internet after the game and the next day to spread the word, calling Bechard’s move “classless” and “an embarrassment to the league”.
As it turned out, the fans were the only ones outside of the teams themselves who noticed what Bechard had done. There were no media reports on the incident because Kathy Gierer of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer and Billy Byler of the Augusta Chronicle had headed downstairs to get post-game reactions for stories and did not witness what had happened. I myself was not in Augusta and only heard about the snub because of an email I received from an Augusta fan.
Normally something like this would have been relegated to discussion to message boards. This time however, the fans took the questions and comments to the on-line editions of the two newspapers. During his coach’s show, the incident was discussed and Bechard offered that he “probably could have handled the situation better”.
Two days later, Gierer sat down with Bechard for the annual end-of-season interview and asked Bechard to comment on the handshake (in between, she had written a blog where she talked about the incident and stated that she felt Bechard should have gone through the handshake line regardless). She reported Bechard’s answer, which was the same as he had given on the coach’s show, in her story.
Once again, the Augusta fans headed to the on-line edition to make their point. The difference this time was that they dragged Gierer into the fray. One fan took clear aim at Bechard with the following statement:
“Bechard showed no class after the final game. He lied to cover his tracks with the Enquirer reporter about Auffrey. I can’t believe your owner would keep him as GM and Head Coach. This guy is no-class and excuses everything he does by blaming other people and things. Truth is he lost and wasn’t able to show the class his players and fans displayed.”
While that first comment would be considered by some to be mean, especially with the clear implication that the author wanted Bechard banished from the SPHL, it was mild compared to the second and more damaging post. Submitted by a fan again using a screen name, it was an all-out attack on Bechard and Gierer:
“Bechard was proven to be a liar. The author of the article is not better. A post game video was sent to Coach Bechard, Ms. Gierer and the SPHL following the game. The video is still on the RiverHawks wall at Facebook. It shows Matt Auffrey make a “B” line for the goalie to celebrate winning the game. He is nowhere near Boom-Boom [Bechard]. Boom decided to be a classless troll avoiding the hand shake line. I hope Mr. Auffrey decides to sue the Author for libel. I can accept making a mistake. When you continue to make the same mistake after knowing the facts. That’s a civil crime.”
The author of the comment continued his or her rant with a very personal attack on Ms. Gierer:
“On another note, the author is classless. It’s not your job to drink beer and eat nachos on top of the concord [concourse] during the game (I took your picture honey). You had the audacity to ask an usher to run and get you another beer. That person swore at you. Hence you need more security. You have no pride. You Have no honor. You should be unemployed.”
The post created a stir among fans around the league as well as colleagues of Kathy Gierer such as myself. First off, to my knowledge, no video was sent to Bechard or Gierer. Exactly when the alleged incident occurred in the game is in question so providing such a clip might be difficult. Secondly, all Gierer did was report what Bechard gave in response to a question so to suggest that Auffrey should sue for libel for “a civil crime” is a head-scratcher to say the least.
The further insinuation that the author had photos of Ms. Gierer “drinking beer and eating nachos on top of the concourse” or had knowledge of Gierer using an usher to make beer runs is both laughable and scary. Since Gierer had only been to Augusta once prior to the night of game three, it would be fair to wonder if the author would have been able to visually pick Gierer out of a crowd. Beyond that, what would possess a person to be taking pictures of complete strangers at a concession stand during a sporting event?
It is very easy to hide behind a screen name and sling statements around the internet. The fact is that teams and message board operators are limited in their control of the message to the social media pages, accounts and boards that they function. Teams can only hope that their fans don’t get out of line when interacting with others and moderators can only hope to stop nasty discussions before they become five-alarm fires. In the end, it is up to the fans themselves to keep the conversations civil and to keep their passions from getting the best of them.
Those of us who consider ourselves hockey fans like to think of ourselves as a family. Maybe it’s time we treated each other like we are.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.