Just Stop the Boorishness, Please

Tonight, instead of watching the BCS championship game, I had an offer to go watch my alma mater, Georgetown, play a home game against one of its Big East rivals in Villanova. Unfortunately, I came away feeling disappointed - yeah, a lot of it had to do with the Hoyas' close loss in a game they led rather comfortably at halftime. (And though the Florida-Ohio State romp wasn't much of a contest, I wish I could have seen at least a little bit of that history take place.)

But the biggest reason I had a sour taste in my mouth was because some of the Georgetown cheering section, believe it or not. I'm no dummy - I know that jeering the opponent is a huge part of being a fan, especially when it's a rivalry game like this one is. But there have to be some restraint involved, or else you come away looking like an idiot, which some of our fans did.

My pet peeve among the moronic insults is screaming "Bullshit!" at the top of your lungs to any call that goes against the home team. Hey, believe it or not, the home team does commit fouls every once in a while. Instead of priming yourself to shout that out every time the whistle blows, why not try to watch the game instead? And how does that chant of "bullshit" come off to the other fans in the stadium who aren't students? There are plenty of families attending with their children - it's just not appropriate in this venue.

And how about chanting "You suck!!"to cap off one of those jaunty little tunes that the band plays? Yeah...not so effective when you're losing the game. Gotta pick your spots for that classy insult. At least some of the fans around me noticed, and said something to the effect of, "Yeah, but we're sucking more than they are now."

I was especially shocked by what the Georgetown booster club left for the students when they arrived at their seats. On each chair was a sheet of paper that was essentially a forum for taking low-level pot shots against Villanova. On it, it called one of Villanova's freshmen a "white stiff" and coach Jay Wright "a greasy guy." That was really disappointing to me because unlike a few individuals acting like morons, this was a bunch of mean-spirited messages with the Georgetown name affixed to them. That makes the institution look bad, which is a shame because most of the students at the game probably were more interested in cheering on the Hoyas than tearing down Villanova.

When you have to resort to ripping the opponent rather than devoting your energy to supporting your own team, you look desperate and classless - which isn't how I usually think of Georgetown.