In my eyes, fans should not ever have to watch what they say. An 18-22 year old isn't a 4 year old. They are old enough to make their own decision, voice their own opinions and make their own mistakes. If you are too thin-skinned to hear and know what people are thinking about you, then you probably shouldn't be on TV week in and week out putting yourself on display.
Can I come to your place of work with a couple hundred other people and criticize you and how you do your job...every day and see how you handle it? I think you would not like that very much, and we probably wouldn't know anything about your job most likely, just like you don't know every detail of what their job is on the field for every play. I think you have to kind of cut a break, unless they do something or say something that warrants criticism. If they were THAT good, they would already be in the NFL. I think you can criticize an NFL player, but most of these kids are far from perfect. I think they only criticism that they are required to actually accept is from the coaches, not the fans, when it comes to football. If they do something off the field, then I think they are open to anyone that wants to criticize them.
Effort or lack of effort that can be seen can be commented on, if blatant, but should also be dealt with by the coaches. But when it comes down to performance, we don't know what they are being told to do on different schemes...for all we know it could be just a bad game plan. We also all have bad days, but it does seem like lately there are a lot of bad days being had on this football team. At some point you have to hope that they will figure out where the problems are and fix them.
I do agree that they need to represent themselves and the university in a positive way, and it is part of the deal when they sign on. Doing or saying something that reflects negatively on the university should be dealt with by the coaches and the legal system when appropriate. I think anything they put out there in the press is open to comment by the public...and they should expect it.
I have a daughter getting ready to head to college. I know for a fact that she would never be able to handle much of the pressure some of these kids are under being in the public eye. When people are under pressure, they do strange things...even stupid things.
