Lamar Jackson, Tyrann Mathieu and the perils of fan criticism

When a star athlete takes his frustrations out on social media, especially on fans, it’s always a dicey proposition.

A fortnight ago, the Kansas City Chiefs earned a 10-point victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Arrowhead Stadium. It wasn’t the prettiest or most dominant of games, but it was the result the Chiefs needed. And in the end, that is all that really matters.

Can you imagine how you and the rest of Chiefs Kingdom would have felt if K.C. had lost to the Jaguars? Pretty angry, right? Well, as it turns out, that is exactly how Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson felt.

Jackson and the Ravens fell to the Jags 28-27 on the road on Sunday, a damaging loss that was not just frustrating emotionally but also really hurt Baltimore’s place in the AFC playoff race.

The Ravens were up 27-20 late in the fourth quarter, but a late touchdown pass from Trevor Lawrence—and subsequent two-point conversion—gave Jacksonville an unlikely lead. Baltimore had 14 seconds left to try and salvage a result, and they had a shot at snatching victory, but a 67-yard field goal attempt from Justin Tucker came up short. The Jaguars held on for the win.

It was a tough way to lose a football game, especially one that the Ravens would have expected to win. Afterward, Ravens fans expressed their anger and disappointment on Twitter. But one fan got more than they bargained for when Jackson himself responded to their frustrated tweet.

“When someone is asking for over $250 mil guaranteed like Lamar Jackson … games like this should not come to Justin Tucker. Let La,ar walk and spend that money on a well rounded team,” @CastleWillKill said on Twitter.

Jackson’s response was… lively. “Boy STFU y’all be cappin too much of this app mf never smelt a football field never did shit but eat dick!!,” Jackson replied.

It was a frustrated response, to say the least from Jackson, who played well, but not amazing, against the Jaguars. He completed 16-32 passes, throwing for 254 yards and 1 touchdown, while also rushing for 89 yards on 14 carries, but ultimately he could not lead the Ravens to victory. He also retweeted this video of a Ravens fan having a borderline meltdown after the game ended.

https://twitter.com/Lj_era8/status/1597000243115347969?s=20&t=REwch-URfmFww3ybXg7qzA

Jackson’s frustrations are doubly understandable. He was, of course, annoyed about the result. And it is fair enough that he would want to stand up for himself against someone who (assumably) has no professional football experience whatsoever.

At the same time, his comments aren’t exactly the kind of thing you want to be seeing on social media after a game. Arguing with fans on social media almost always seems to make things worse rather than better, and it doesn’t normally win much sympathy from the fan base

Chiefs Kingdom had a taste of that last season with Tyrann Mathieu. The star safety was having a down year by his lofty standards during what would be his final season with Kansas City, and we saw him bite back at criticism on social media.

The Honey Badger would tweet not-so-cryptic messages after games that not just defended himself, but flat-out criticized Chiefs fans who were critical of him, a habit which did not earn him much favor.

It is totally understandable that Jackson and Mathieu would want to defend themselves against keyboard warriors online. They, along with every other NFL player, are far better athletes than 99.9% of the rest of us on social media or in the stands. And while that sort of response isn’t exactly the kind of thing you want to see, in Jackson’s case in particular, it at least shows that he cares.

Thank goodness that the Chiefs beat Jacksonville in Week 10 so that we didn’t have to see any of K.C.’s players tweet something similar after the game.