AS Thomas Frank led Tottenham players to pay respects to fans in spite of a 1-nil loss to Chelsea at home this past Saturday evening, the fans at White Hart Lane rained down boos.
This despite Tottenham currently at fourth place in the Premier League with a 5-2-3 record.
In this thrilling and exciting World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays (won by the Dodgers Sunday despite the Blue Jays’ home field advantage), there is no love lost for fans of the former for George Springer who is playing for the Toronto.
The Dodgers and their fans finally got one back against Springer.
Springer was part of that Houston Astros team that was called out for cheating during the 2017 season when they met in the World Series. The New York Yankees also called out Houston for sign stealing, a camera that was illegally installed in a spot where it should, and banging on a trash bin to relay signals.
And this past week, Mexican Formula 1 fans lustily booed McLaren’s driver Lando Norris who won the race and took over teammate Oscar Piastri who he leads by a slim point, 357-356, in the Driver’s Championship standings.
Fans feel that Piastri is being shafted by McLaren so Norris will win. And there’s Mexican fans not taking to Norris’ comments about Sergio Perez in the previous season when he said that the latter wasn’t good enough to push teammate Max Verstappen.
With four races left-Sao Paolo, Las Vegas, Qatar and the season-ending Abu Dhabi-the title is still up for grabs-third running Max Verstappen can still win it.
And a couple of weeks ago, when the Oklahoma City Thunder received their championship rings, Kevin Durant’s Houston Rockets were in town. The OKC crowd cheered for their former center Steven Adams who now wears a Rockets uniform. Yet, when Durant was announced immediately after, a rain of boos cascaded down the Paycom Center.
Fans feel that Durant was supposed to lead them to a title but departed for Golden State where he won with Steph Curry.
The funny thing is-Durant booed the fans right back.
Of course, it is nothing new especially in sports as booing is a sign of displeasure whether because of a loss, unsportsmanlike behavior, players leaving their team in a lurch especially for a rival, lethargic performances by their own team, and others.
Booing of course can be an efficient weapon by the huge home field ally, the fans. It backfires when the foe takes the victory.
There’s the case of the Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun who after being suspended for the use of performance enhancing drugs for 65 games without pay. When he returned, in spite of being on the receiving end of a fusillade of boos, he would smack home runs-game winning ones-on home fields of opposing teams. He performed even better on the road.
In a National Hockey League match, Montreal Canadiens fans booed the playing of Star Spangled Banner against the New York Islanders in protest of the war in Iraq. It pumped up the Islanders who dealt the Canadiens a 6-3 defeat.
When Real Madrid ventured to the Etihad Stadium, to play Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League, fans booed Vinicius Jr after his team’s insisting he should have won the Ballon d’Or over the home side’s Rodri who took home world football’s biggest individual award.
‘Where’s your Ballon d’Or’ fans mocked Vinicius.
Madrid knocked out Man City, 3-2.
So booing can be a weapon or a great motivator. It really is how one responds to adversity whether they have the mental fortitude or not to deal with it.
Having said that, people should take consolation from that Alex Rodriguez quote, ‘Nobody never booed a nobody.’