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This is part of a long article on trolls you can read at the link below. Good for Gurley for answering back to an anonymous jerk who is no longer quite so anonymous.
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https://www.si.com/more-sports/2018/03/29/twitter-internet-trolls-sports-athletes
That lust for contact—even if it comes as a scolding—is at the root of this phenomenon, says Justin Patchin, a criminal justice professor and the co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center at Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
“Before social media, the only opportunity you’d have to engage with a sports figure would be to go to a game and maybe heckle or ask for an autograph,” he says. “That took work, time, money. Now you can just lift your phone and they’re right there.”
That leaves 21st-century athletes with a decision to make. Engage? And if so, how?
“Psychologically, it can be very hard to ignore hateful things being said to us,” says North. “It’s human nature to defend yourself at some point.”
Which is precisely what Todd Gurley did in 2016 when a troll using the handle @CodyHasek1 tweeted at the Rams running back: @TG3II if I ever see you in public we’re fist fighting over your fantasy football performance this year. Gurley wrote back, bluntly:
We can all be grateful that Gurley’s troll (a 23-year-old male who works at the Ford plant in Harrisonville, Mo., and who, judging by his Facebook profile, appears to be in far worse physical shape than the All-Pro running back), did not, in fact, pull up—although there’s probably a maxillofacial surgeon near the Rams’ practice facility who missed out on a windfall. Still, the urge to respond the way Gurley did remains hard to resist.
Here's the entire Twitter feed from December of 2016.
View: https://twitter.com/tg3ii/status/809634094795485184?lang=en
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https://www.si.com/more-sports/2018/03/29/twitter-internet-trolls-sports-athletes
That lust for contact—even if it comes as a scolding—is at the root of this phenomenon, says Justin Patchin, a criminal justice professor and the co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center at Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
“Before social media, the only opportunity you’d have to engage with a sports figure would be to go to a game and maybe heckle or ask for an autograph,” he says. “That took work, time, money. Now you can just lift your phone and they’re right there.”
That leaves 21st-century athletes with a decision to make. Engage? And if so, how?
“Psychologically, it can be very hard to ignore hateful things being said to us,” says North. “It’s human nature to defend yourself at some point.”
Which is precisely what Todd Gurley did in 2016 when a troll using the handle @CodyHasek1 tweeted at the Rams running back: @TG3II if I ever see you in public we’re fist fighting over your fantasy football performance this year. Gurley wrote back, bluntly:
We can all be grateful that Gurley’s troll (a 23-year-old male who works at the Ford plant in Harrisonville, Mo., and who, judging by his Facebook profile, appears to be in far worse physical shape than the All-Pro running back), did not, in fact, pull up—although there’s probably a maxillofacial surgeon near the Rams’ practice facility who missed out on a windfall. Still, the urge to respond the way Gurley did remains hard to resist.
Here's the entire Twitter feed from December of 2016.
View: https://twitter.com/tg3ii/status/809634094795485184?lang=en
