Remember when you were 19?
Remember that time you bombed a test, skipped a class or botched a job interview?
And then thousands of strangers immediately flooded you with messages to remind you of your shortcomings?
… No? That didn’t happen to you?
Yeah, me neither.
But, some student athletes aren’t so lucky, and that’s the world we now live in. Social media has effectively destroyed any semblance of privacy between athletes and the general public. Anyone, anywhere, can send a message directed at an athlete — and the student athlete can easily see it. It’s one of the marvels of modern technology, but it’s also a curse.
“(Players) hear enough out there from the media, social media, and it’s a tough world that they live in,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said after the Wolverines’ loss to Illinois Feb. 2. “… I mean, it’s like, nasty. Everywhere.”
Take what happened with the Michigan men’s basketball team this Saturday. The Wolverines faced adversity off the court, even before tipoff. Jett Howard and Kobe Bufkin — both sidelined with ankle injuries — faced skepticism of their health status before the game. Multiple social media accounts criticized the duo, claiming they weren’t playing so that they can protect their health for the NBA Draft.
The official statement from Michigan before the game read that the duo was out with injuries. But even if they did choose to sit in order to protect their best interests, who cares?
Howard and Bufkin are projected first-round draft picks, meaning they’re one awkward fall from potentially missing out on a career in the NBA — and with it, generational wealth — altogether. Why go after them for not playing in an NIT game well below the Wolverines’ preseason goals?
After the loss on Saturday, the onslaught only got worse. Terrance Williams II took the brunt of the heat. As his performance was ridiculed, calls for Williams to enter the transfer portal echoed, too.
Think about that. Fans called for a 22-year-old college junior to leave the school he’s called home for the past three years.
Because of basketball.
The backlash got so bad that Williams II’s father — Terrance Williams — took to social media to defend his son, issuing a formal “fuck you” to the Wolverines fans attacking his son.
Hunter Dickinson faced contempt on Twitter, too. Users proclaimed the big man faced a future in the Chinese Basketball Association — implying that he isn’t good enough to make the NBA one day. While making it to the Chinese Basketball Association is still one hell of an accomplishment, fans use it to belittle players.
After the loss to Vanderbilt, Dickinson radiated dejection from the press conference podium. When asked how disappointing this end to the season was, his gaze never lifted from the ground as he muttered one word:
“Extremely.”
Not only did Dickinson have to cope with the loss itself, he also had to deal with the hundreds of people making a mockery of his career.
Why is this the norm?
There is literally no justification for this type of behavior to be deemed socially acceptable. Whether it’s 14-year-olds who don’t know any better or adults who don’t have anything better to do, student athletes are consistently subject to personal attacks on social media.
These are college students. They have classes, lives and futures to worry about. And while they may have been recruited to college to play sports, scholarships aren’t an excuse to criticize them online. Student athletes aren’t professionals. Even with recent sports law developments regarding name, image and likeness, many of them aren’t being paid a substantial amount. For many of them, this isn’t their career path. They are young adults playing the game they love in addition to everything else in their lives.
Now, I’m not saying that student athletes should be put on a pedestal. As a writer, I have criticized athletes before. But, there is a constructive way to do so. There is a line between pointing out mistakes made on the court and personally attacking a student athlete. There is a way to criticize them without demanding they transfer or unleashing profanities in their direction.
Personal attacks on student athletes extend far beyond Michigan, too, plaguing the college sports landscape as a whole. Purdue center Zach Edey — the frontrunner for the Wooden Award — faced derision after the first-seed Boilermakers were bounced from the NCAA Tournament by No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday.
Instead of praising the Knights for their upset — the second victory by a No. 16 seed in the history of the men’s NCAA Tournament — many opted to attack Edey instead.
The 20-year old finished with 21 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks. His performance kept the game close, a bright spot in a disappointing end to the season for Purdue. Yet, one of the best players in college basketball failed to escape the wave of social media mockery following Purdue’s early exit.
This is where the problem lies. When I finish a session of pickup basketball shooting 1-for-10 from deep, or pen a particularly poor paper, I get to go home and unwind, free from personal attacks. When student athletes clock a performance that isn’t deemed “acceptable,” or don’t pull off a win, they get publicly criticized.
So, next time you fire up Twitter with the intent of personally attacking a student athlete, stop and think. Is it worth it?
Resoundingly, no.
Daily Sports Editor Jack Glanville can be reached at jglan@umich.edu or on Twitter @jack_glan.