Las Vegas Raiders at New York Giants: 5 Things we learned in Week 9

Las Vegas Raiders at New York Giants: 5 Things we learned in Week 9

1: Fans On Social Media Need Some Perspective

One of my least favorite things about fanhood is someone trying to be the fan police. Someone trying to tell fans what to say or how to feel about certain things but in this particular case, something has to be said about the reaction from Raider Nation on social media this weekend.

The vitriol directed to the Raiders, especially Derek Carr, was embarrassing on so many levels. This is a team and a player that has had to deal with the fallout of their teammate killing someone in a car accident and him likely facing decades in prison. It is understandable that the offense, the unit where Ruggs would have built most of his relationships on the team, wouldn’t be 100% focused on football this week.

Instead of showing any level of understanding or empathy to what the players are going through, fans turned on the team and the vitriol began. The familiar barbs at Derek Carr started along with the shots at the rest of the offense and instead of taking a minute to understand what they are dealing with, the tweets and Facebook posts cussing them out came instead.

Understandably, Raider Nation is frustrated with how the last two seasons flipped around the midway point and the fears that it would happen again are understandable as well, but we can’t give this team a week of grace and understanding?

We talk about mental health and giving athletes the space to address those issues but when it comes down to it, most fans simply don’t care and see these guys as robots who need to just go out there and win for our enjoyment. We can criticize the team for poor performance, but we can also do it with some semblance of understanding and empathy.

Simply put, we need to be better.