For decades and decades — until about 15 years ago — angry fans interacted with athletes only occasionally, be it during a public run-in or from the stands at a game. Fans shared their opinions publicly via radio show call-ins or letters to the editor.
Today?
Fans have direct and constant access to the athletes themselves via social media, be it Twitter/X, Instagram or Facebook. If you’re, say, a Mizzou Tiger, fans can flood your phone with their opinions about you — good or bad — and fans of opposing teams, too. There aren’t many filters. And often, fans can hide behind an online identity. Their words can be merciless and overwhelming, motivating and over the top. There’s trash talk and utter trash spewed, too.
Really, it’s all too much.
But the horse is out of the barn.
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“For this reason alone, irrespective of (name, image and likeness rights) and benefits that players are receiving today, I’m happy that I played in the era in which I played,†said Howard Richards, a Mizzou offensive lineman from 1977-80 and an NFL first-round draft pick by the Dallas Cowboys. “There was no social media, there were no cellphones, no cellphone cameras. And I could say, probably at that time, I would have been maybe one of those more sensitive players to criticism. You know, when you’re out there, busting your (expletive) to try to put on a good product for the university, the last thing you want to do is hear or read some comment from some clown in the stands that has no clue. So I think in my day it was easier to focus on the sport at hand, even playing professionally.â€
Yet so many Mizzou football players are on social media. So many players of every sport at every level are on social media. It’s commonplace. It’s what you do. It’s the modern world. And the athletes navigate it all — some better than others — while providing access to themselves for strangers. And access to their inner emotions.
“I’m not going to lie: I always check Twitter after games,†said Mizzou receiver Mookie Cooper, a ºüÀêÊÓƵ native. “I’m going search my name and see what people are thinking. ... I look at it, really, for motivation. People seeing you, people care about what I’m doing — they comment on it.â€
It’s pretty incredible, though, that athletes expose themselves to all this fan interaction. To use another idiom: Is the juice worth the squeeze? And these fans are people they’ve never met — and might never meet.
Of course, there are positives from all of this social media stuff. It’s fun for some Tigers to interact with Tigers fans because they share a passion. And there often are nice things said that can pump up a player. And for some athletes, it can be fulfilling to fill the role of local sports celeb (though for others, it can be intoxicating).
“If you engage with anyone, it could be something that’s fun — it just depends on where you are as a person,†Mizzou defensive lineman Kristian Williams said. “But it can affect your mood; it can get you up and down, just seeing different rankings and all types of things.â€
It’s also just understood as the modern way — this is how things are when it comes to athletes and fans in 2024. And now with NIL, social media is a virtual land of financial opportunity. But it also is a minefield of meanness and even ruthlessness.
“I think that’s probably the most challenging part of our sport,†Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz said, “especially when the way that you make money is through your name, image and likeness, so you need to be building a personal brand. But also understanding that you don’t have to be defined by the opinions of others. It’s something that you’ve got to work really hard to do — to separate yourself from your phone and figure out who you are as a person. And understand that social media is both positive and negative. You can’t get caught up in either one of them. You can use it for a tool, but don’t use it for an identity.â€
Drinkwitz had a great line for Mizzou quarterback Brady Cook, who is coming off an 11-2 campaign last season and Cotton Bowl win: “We don’t need a celebrity quarterback; we need a battlefield commander.â€
Luther Burden III is perhaps the most famous current Mizzou player, be it with his following on Instagram or his celebrity via the new EA Sports college football video game, in which the receiver is one of the highest-rated players.
But back in his freshman year of 2022, Burden didn’t get the ball in a loss against Auburn. The five-star recruit deleted references to Mizzou from his social media profile and posted: “Patiently waiting...â€
In a transfer-portal world, you can only imagine the opinions that were sent his way.
Ultimately, two days later — which can seem like a couple of eternities on social media — Burden posted: “Mizzou fans: Please don’t misunderstand my intentions. I’m always a TIGER! Jus be patient, here we come! #Reset #MIZ.†On Twitter, the post was retweeted 596 times, liked 4,900 times and featured 178 comments from fans across the country.
It was a bizarre couple of days — yet perfectly regular in sports’ social media culture.
“It’s a challenge,†Mizzou assistant coach Curtis Luper said of social media. “But the one thing that we try to differentiate is: There’s the real world, and then there’s the one that isn’t. So we try to stay here, in the present, in this world. ... And we try to block out all of the noise, whether it’s good or bad. We have our own reality. ... We’re writing our own books. We’re going to write it our way.â€
To me, Cooper succinctly summed it up best.
“It’s a lot,†he said of social media. “Especially if you don’t know how to deal with it.â€