John Kincade wrote a story for the 97.5 the Fanatic website titled “John Kincade’s 10 List – Fans I don’t want to sit next to at a game.” Pretty interesting to see main day part talent do something for digital because I can’t remember the last time anybody at the Fanatic or WIP did something like that. Mikey Miss and Joe “The Hammer” DeCamara aren’t writing columns for the web, right?

Anyway, it’s a pretty good list, and it looks like this:

  1. The Up and Down fan – for Gods sake, wear a diaper or did you come just to eat?
  2. Opposing fan looking to stir the pot – at some point, we are going to have words
  3. The drunken frat bros aisle – Alpha Kappa Jackass Night Out
  4. “Everybody hits” yeller or equivalent – nobody came to hear you…over and over
  5. Explain the game “loudly” Dad – Junior, Dad isn’t as smart as he thinks he is
  6. Complain about every call guy – The ref is mic’ed up, you aren’t
  7. Shirtless fan – most shirtless fans don’t need to be…ever
  8. Booing players after the first few plays fan – let it breathe please!
  9. Feet up on the seat in front of them person – If someone is in row in front of you, don’t put your feet next to their head
  10. The device family – stupid pet peeve, but why are you there?

I think #5 here is actually the worst. The “explain the game” guy is invariably annoying at all levels, and oftentimes wrong. “Alright Timmy, so what happened there is Jalen Hurts ran an RPO and decided to take it himself.” Man that wasn’t an RPO. It was a zone read. The receivers weren’t running routes. RPO is a run/pass option. Zone read is a run/run option.

Number six is pretty bad too, the complain about every call guy. It’s a feckless exercise. The ref can’t hear you, and even if he or she does, they aren’t changing the call because of your bitching. No ref or umpire in the history of the game has changed a call because some guy in the crowd said “hey ref, what are you, blind?”

This also extends to youth sports as well. I was doing a tournament in Hammonton a few years ago and this dad was sitting 50 yards away from the bleachers, away from the other parents. In between games I asked him why he was sitting by himself and he explained that he couldn’t stand listening to the other adults yell at the refs and talk about rules they don’t actually know. So his preference was to sit by himself, where he could just focus on his daughter’s play instead.

These other bullets are good, too. Booing players too soon is bad. The device family is also annoying. You can stare at your phone anywhere, right? Why go to a game and do it? Up and down fan is also bothersome. I think people are pretty good about this, though. The ushers sometimes keep people from walking down the aisles while the ball/puck/etc is in play, so there’s some baseline courtesy there. For me, the worst type of fan is anybody that combines loud volume with not knowing what they’re talking about.

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