JG received death threats earlier this year

[NCFisher]

I've been trying to reserve judgment on this one for a while. Waiting to hear that the threats were investigated by law enforcement, at least once they were made public, and it was found to be true that it happened. There are instances where people sometimes exaggerate the truth a little bit, and I hope that's not what happened here. But as soon as the words came out of his mouth I thought they're going to have to follow this all the way through or it's going to look bad on him. The entire fan base is being smeared with this accusation, so someone needs to be held accountable or it never should have been thrown out there in the media. Should have been handled the proper way behind closed doors and with law enforcement. As soon as Pruitt said that he had never heard that before, I got even more concerned that the moment and emotions might have gotten away from JG a bit there.

But the entire fan base isn't being smeared, so that's hyperbole.
We're not exactly virgins to psychotics among the fan base, either, and may even have slightly more than our share. This happens throughout college and pro sports.
Hell, parents, refs, and coaches savage each other at all levels of child sports and we can't readily believe another sicko in the UT fan base would threaten a player?
Good grief.

 

[Volinnooga]

Is it right, ok, acceptable? No. But it comes with the territory[/QUOT

It does not come with the territory. Criticism, second guessing certainly do come with the territory but death threats? No way

 

[VFL-82-JP]

It's really very simple.

There are only two kinds of people who would make death threats against an athlete, or any other person who participates in a leisure activity designed to entertain others:

-- Utter idiots. They don't mean it, but they're too stupid and selfish to realize how depraved their actions are.
-- Criminals, of the worst sort. These do mean it, and so should be locked away from society.

That's it. So if one of those people who threatened JG or any other player with harm or even death is here on these boards, reading this, and doesn't think they should be locked away for life, I would encourage them to review that list and figure out which one they are.

 

[ShoalCreekVol]

It's really very simple.

There are only two kinds of people who would make death threats against an athlete, or any other person who participates in a leisure activity designed to entertain others:

-- Utter idiots. They don't mean it, but they're too stupid and selfish to realize how depraved their actions are.
-- Criminals, of the worst sort. These do mean it, and so should be locked away from society.

That's it. So if one of those people who threatened JG or any other player with harm or even death is here on these boards, reading this, and doesn't think they should be locked away for life, I would encourage them to review that list and figure out which one they are.

I would add one more type: The dangerously mentally ill, like the stalkers who seem like big fans then turn dangerous and make threats. Rebecca Schaefer paid the ultimate price for one of those.

Since we're dealing with something like football, my suspicion here is that the one who did it would fall into the category of "utter idiots" as you described.

 

[The_Big_Orange]

Touchy subject I know but the whole “death threats” thing is such a grey area. To me a death threat is someone saying “I’m going to come kill you” and that is something the police absolutely will follow up on and arrest people for. Someone saying “I wish you were dead” is a far cry from a death threat as far as I am concerned. And considering almost no one ever gets arrested for these I feel the latter is usually the case.