Too many are too quick to say the blue-haired Detroit Lions fan who instigated with DK Metcalf should be banned from games.
But that fan paid to get in.
Metcalf was paid to be there.
If the stadiums are empty and televisions don’t get turned on, the NFL doesn’t exist.
If Metcalf doesn’t play, you know who does? Somebody else. (Evidence will be provided in the next two Steelers games.)
The players are the most disposable part of the equation in big-time sports. But all the ex-jocks with microphones make us think anything but.
That Lions fan, Ryan Kennedy, is a longtime season-ticket holder in the front row at Ford Field. Those seats aren’t cheap.
He’s loyal. He wants the Lions to win. He’s long-suffering, like all Lions fans. It doesn’t seem like he did anything bad beyond being obnoxious.
Sure, Kennedy is an attention junkie.
But no more so than the Steelers pope, or Steelers Jesus, or the face-painters, or a whole lot of eccentric Pittsburgh football fans dating back to Franco’s Italian Army. Just look around the parking lot at Acrisure Stadium on a Steelers game day.
Why in the world would the Lions want to ban Kennedy? They probably wish they had a thousand more like him. He adds to the atmosphere at Ford Field. He loves the Lions.
Metcalf doesn’t like Kennedy. The Steelers don’t like him. Steelers fans don’t like him.
But none of the above are supposed to, and that’s hardly his concern.
Fans matter.
Players are entitled narcissistic brats who have been put on a pedestal since junior high school. They think the game can’t exist without them. It can, does and always will.
That was proven when Babe Ruth retired and baseball continued. In context, there has never been a bigger American sports star than Ruth. Yet baseball kept getting bigger.
It’s hard to paint Kennedy as well-meaning.
He planned his shenanigans out ahead of time, to the point of being lawyered up in advance.
But reports of Kennedy’s alleged racist and misogynist speech toward Metcalf seem to have disappeared. That’s despite hardcore, deep-dive reporting done by noted journalists James Harrison and Chad Ochocinco.
Typical jockocracy podcasting. Just say it. Who cares if it’s true?
If you trust social media, somebody who says he sits near Kennedy at Ford Field shed some light on Reddit. (I’d believe Reddit before I’d believe Harrison or Ochocinco.)
Kennedy “never goes too far or says anything out of line.” He’s just loud and annoying. The fan on Reddit says Ford Field security is always nearby, and never has a problem with Kennedy.
Kennedy heckles players by using their full name. Or, as Kennedy said, their “government name.” As in “DeKaylin Zecharius Metcalf.” Which is quite a moniker.
Kennedy definitely baited Metcalf. So what?
Kennedy has a history with Metcalf. So what?
To reiterate things previously written in this space, you simply can’t hit a fan. Metcalf never should have been over there. He did his team a disservice.
Aaron Rodgers said that “it would never happen face-to-face.”
Uh, Aaron … it literally did happen face-to-face. And your guy screwed up.
The Steelers are 9-6, in the ascension with three straight wins.
The Steelers are a legit threat to win a playoff game, and maybe more than one.
But everybody is talking about Metcalf and the blue-haired guy. Fans, Steelers players, local and national media, everybody. It’s a shame. (Not Metcalf. Not Mike Tomlin. Lawsuit pending.)
It’s a bigger distraction than any George Pickens created during his three seasons in Pittsburgh. And Pickens is a better receiver than Metcalf.
Here’s hoping that neither of the Steelers’ final two games matter. If they do, they have to play with a passing game crippled by the stupidity of DeKaylin Zecharius Metcalf.
You know what? Maybe not.
Metcalf isn’t that good. Certainly not as good as his $132 million contract. (Steelers ownership will reportedly make good on the guarantees voided by Metcalf’s suspension, by the way. Only one word to describe owner Art Rooney II: S-A-W-F-T!)