Is the Alabama Fan Base Getting an Unfairly Bad Reputation?

Since Alabama lost the Iron Bowl Saturday night in dramatic fashion, the reaction around the country seems to have been one of glee.

It's as if Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy all made a visit in one night.

I have been bombarded with different messages and teases about the loss. Some of it has been in good humor, and a lot of it has just been obnoxious fans from other schools wanting to rub in the loss.

But one thing that has been bothering me the last few days has been the apparent bad reputation the Alabama fan base has because of a few bad eggs.

Let's start with the Cade Foster incident. As we reported, Foster was sent several threatening tweets from fans after he missed three field goals in that game. Of course, it becomes national news and the Crimson Tide fan base is embarrassed. 

What was not mentioned nationally was the support Foster received from that same fan base rallying around him, including a fan page posted on Facebook that has garnered thousands of fans.

The next item was a murder that took place at an Iron Bowl party in Birmingham where a young woman was shot to death.

Several writers on Twitter, including Sports Illustrated reporter Stewart Mandel and Yahoo college sports reporter Pat Forde, felt the need to tweet out the story.

What was not mentioned was the woman who was shot was an Alabama fan and the fight may not have even been about the game, but an argument about the Miami Heat.

It wasn't important that two kids lost their mother, not it was more important that she was shot at an Iron Bowl party. 

I live in state where we aren't No 1 in anything nationally other than sports.

People take pride in that, probably too much pride, but is the Alabama fan base any worse than any other fan bases?

Florida State fans cheered rape suspect Jameis Winston and hardly a word was said about that.

There was an incident at a New York Jets game this year where a woman was beaten up. That hardly made national headlines. Maybe the public is just numb to the moronic actions of Jets fans year after year.

We have also heard reports of people being beaten, stabbed and killed in some instances at Dodgers and Giants game this year. I've seen Michigan fans tweet out spiteful stuff to a recruit who chose Alabama over them. 

And that's just the fans. We have also had incidents where a coach (Steve Spurrier) tried to get a beat reporter fired at South Carolina, players being arrested seemly on a yearly bases at Georgia and Auburn, a coach allegedly doing dope at Florida Atlantic, and his brother, who is a head coach at Nebraska, insulting his own fan base.

Stuff happens. That doesn't mean all players are bad, all coaches are bad, or for that matter, all fans are bad.

Idiots are in every fan base. It just seems with Alabama, the larger the fan base, the bigger the idiot. 

So before you pick up that rock and throw a stone, you'd better check to make sure you aren't living in a glass house.