The role of the fan
Herald sports editor
If you consider Happy Gilmore, starring Adam Sandler, a classic, this column is almost for you.
In the movie, Sandler plays the role of Happy Gilmore who turns from a career of sordid hockey to sordid golf to pay for his grandmothers home, which was repossessed by the Internal Revenue Service.
During a Pro-Am celebrity golf match, in which Gilmore is teamed up with "The Price is Right" host Bob Barker, a fan heckles Gilmore to the point he and Barker finish the round in a fist-to-cuffs fight.
Gilmore is suspended from the golf tour while the fan is left getting paid for his performance on the golf course for ruining Gilmore's game. There are a few laughs as an ancient Barker finishes off Gilmore in the process.
But it strikes an interesting conversation piece when examined under the light of Indiana Pacer's Ron Artest's conquest after a Detroit fan during Friday's basketball game with the Detroit Pistons. Artest began delivering slam dunk punches on a fan who threw a cup of beer at Artest.
As a result, Indiana will play the rest of the season without Artest, who was suspended 72 games by the National Basketball Association for the incident.
But what about the fan, or fans throughout the years of professional sports who seem it their duty to throw, curse and try to intimidate these athletes.
Whether is has been basketball or golf, athletes and fans have clashed. From Rob Dibble hitting an old lady with a fastball, or Davis Love III confronting a fan during the Match Play Championship in March of this year.
There are those who watch and cheer and there are those who watch and take part of the process on the field. So where is the line?
When have fans crossed the imaginary boundary? Of course, there will be those who say that these athletes should be above the fans, but when did we place athletes as top-rate citizens and shove the fan into the second-class citizen category?
Players, coaches and officials have been attacked by fans in all spectrums of the sporting world. A missed play, a bad call or poor coaching decision results in the drunken Joe Fan yelling with spit flying from his hoarse mouth using words that make a construction worker.
Other fans sit around, get embarrassed, but cheer on the guy that is saying everything that they don't have the courage to say.
Then again, why should we blame the fan. There is no study manual on how to cheer, who to cheer for and how much beer to drink before the break.
Athletes, they know better. There are rules and boundaries that establish how players react to calls and coaching decisions. They are held at a higher standard.
Artest deserved his penalty, he deserves any criminal action that will come his way, but so does the fan.