Jake Gardiner is a lot of things, among them a defenceman for the Toronto Maple Leafs who drives me nuts sometimes.
He’s also a human being.
During Game 7 last week against the Boston Bruins, I was cursing the guy’s name in my living room. I’ve ripped on him many times on my YouTube channel. I even have a recurring slapstick-y bit where I joke about how I love him but sometimes he makes me want to beat him with a giant fish like in a cartoon.
But what I’ve seen in the aftermath of the Leafs’ Game 7 loss to Boston last week has been awful.
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Look, athletes get criticized. It comes with the territory. “Boo-hoo,” you might say. “The poor guy plays a game for millions of dollars and got a few mean tweets. Cry me a river.”
Well, it’s a bit more that, isn’t it?
“u actually suck i hate u,” read one comment on his public Instagram account.
“Your not very good,” read the next.
For those of you keeping score, yes, that’s some really bad spelling.
“Your the worst,” begins an account with a display picture that appears to be two parents and a small child. “get traded -4 tonight loser.”
There are hundreds more like that. There are some nice ones as well, of course, but there are hundreds of over-the-top hate posts on Gardiner’s Instagram account right now.
You might think, “Well, maybe he shouldn’t have posted a picture so soon after the game. What did he expect?”
What if I told you this Instagram post was from March, almost a full month before Game 7? People actually made the conscious decision to search him out and blast him! Oh, his most recent picture is from a month ago? Good enough! RAAAHHH!!!”
You might also think the comments I posted are tame. And relatively speaking, you’re right. I’ve been making videos on YouTube for 11 seasons. Heck, I get plenty of it on here, too. Trust me, “Your a loser” is the tip of the iceberg. There’s a tweet that went around that screen-grabbed 26 comments from his Instagram and I can’t even share it on this site because the comments are so bad.
Maybe I’m giving these jerks too much consideration. After all, every fanbase has jerks. I’ve seen a lot of people cry “Typical Leafs fans!” but anybody who’s ever spent five minutes in the depths of “Hockey Twitter” knows that isn’t true or is lying. Every fanbase in every sport contains people who stink, or at very least, have moments of momentary smelliness.
This isn’t some defence of Jake Gardiner the player. Hate him and want him traded? Sure, whatever. Love him and want him to stay forever? Sure, that’s fine, too. Like him but want him traded anyway because he only has a year left on a relatively affordable contract and even though it’s difficult, you think it might make some sense in the long run?
Well, now we’re just talking about hockey. Isn’t that nice?
I prepared a bunch of statistics to talk about why, even though he drives me nuts sometimes, Gardiner is actually pretty good most of the time. No possession stats, just simple traditional hockey stuff. But the point I’m trying to make here isn’t about his performance. This isn’t a hockey discussion. I’m writing this so that the next time an athlete on your favourite team makes a mistake – and oh, there will certainly be a next time – you remember this.
I’m not going to tell you to calm down because sports don’t matter. There’s a reason this site exists and there’s a reason you’re reading this. Sports matter to me and they obviously matter to you, too. Sports can make you feel fantastic or devastated. I doubt anybody would be posting those awful things if they weren’t upset about the outcome of a hockey game.
But just because you’re mad your hockey team lost isn’t an excuse to be a smouldering pile of garbage.
If you’re at a game and you want to boo a player, whatever, boo them.
If you’re watching the game with some friends and a player makes you swear, let it fly.
Just don’t hunt them down on social media like some lunatic.
