Invisible Line Crossed: Fan Confronts Matt Schaub At His Home
Each week, we watch the insults, one-liners and vitriolic rants fly across the social media world, particularly the Twitterverse. The “anonymous” posts berate, mock and deride the on-field exploits of football players, coaches, officials and broadcasters.
All of us participating in the media receive our fair share of emails, Tweets and posts regarding our predictions and analysis. As you’d guess, a good chunk of those messages are not exactly written pats on the back.
But, there’s a line that doesn’t generally get crossed. Most fans spewing anger at their directed target on message boards and the like turn into doe-eyed fanboys in the face of their idols.
On Tuesday, a disturbing story appeared from CBS Houston regarding embattled Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub. The backstory for the uninitiated is that Schaub has struggled markedly of late, having thrown interceptions that were returned for touchdowns in four straight games. He was pulled late in the Texans’ Week 5 loss to the 49ers.
According to this story , a fan arrived at Schaub’s house and began to berate him. He evidently wanted Schaub to apologize for his performance issues and took to seeking him out at home. An image appeared in a gallery of available homes that referenced Schaub’s residence in a city newspaper.
There’s no regard for Schaub’s private, personal life. There’s a line.
Boo vociferously at the stadium. Write angry blogs. Write a letter to the team or hit the local radio host up with an argument for Schaub’s benching or proposing a trade or release.
The incident ended without a physical confrontation or an arrest, but we can all envision the worst-case scenarios. This will be a huge topic of discussion on Houston sports radio, and columnists such as John McClain will offer perspective from around the team. I’ll update this as new information presents itself.
