I am NO sports fan.

A fan, aficionado, or supporter is someone who has an intense, occasionally overwhelming liking and enthusiasm for a sporting club, person, group of persons, company, product, activity, work of art, idea, or trend.

The aforementioned relatively positive definition of fans does not necessarily convey the true meaning or connotation of what fans, indeed, are. Fans are irrational individuals that have unrealistic expectations and behavior.

On Sept. 16, two fans admitted to Hamburg, NY police that they had spray-painted messages of frustration in the form of profanity and the final score of last week's Monday Night Football game on McKelvin's front lawn in the Briercliff Estates subdivision off Amsdell Road about 2 a.m. Sept. 15 because of his fumble that cost the Bills the game. Under what circumstance is it acceptable to deface one's home because of something that happens at work that is a part of the job? Mistakes are expected at work. Would would happen if me or you made a mistake at work? Probably not what happened to McKelvin. Everyone fumbles in the NFL. Adrian Peterson fumbled the ball 9 times last year. I mean do we think that McKelvin tried to fumble the ball? Or do we think that Peterson fumbled the ball intentionally?

Not to be outdone, someone stole $400,000 worth of jewelry from Buffalo Bills safety Donte Whitner's home while he was at Ralph Wilson Stadium for a home game.

Whitner spokeswoman Patricia Horton tells The Associated Press that Whitner found out about the larceny after Sunday's win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Whitner, who lives in the suburb of Hamburg, returned an interception 76 yards for a touchdown in the Bills' 33-20 win.

Horton says Whitner is upset and hurt by the theft and is on "high alert" because he doesn't know who is responsible.

She says he isn't interested in pressing charges and just wants his belongings back.

The theft comes a week after teammate Leodis McKelvin's front lawn was vandalized by two teenagers following Buffalo's loss to New England.

Where is the ridiculous fandom you may ask. The irrational fanaticism can be found on the bottom of the ESPN page that reported the story in the conversation part. There have been more than 719 posts and a overwhelming number of them have been negative.

I have included 3 of the first few posts

"$400,000.00 WORTH OF JEWERLY???? ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME!!! YOU DESERVED TO BE ROBBED FOR BEING SO STUPID!!!" and "Really, REALLY hard to feel sympathy for a person who, 1. spends $400,000 on jewelry; and 2. leaves it lying around his home." and "$400,000 worth of jewelry but doesn't have a $40 a month alarm system to protect it. You do the math!"

The 3 aforementioned posts are the epitome of irresponsible fandom. Fans blame the player for being robbed, fans are incredibly jealous of the athlete but continue to support him, fans analyze athlete's purchases, fans think that athletes are to blame for everything that occurs, and fans think that they WOULD act differently if they were the professional athlete.

On April 30 during a quarterfinal match with Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg in which Monica Seles was leading 6–4, 4–3, Günter Parche, an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf, ran from the middle of the crowd to the edge of the court during a break between games and stabbed Seles with a boning knife between her shoulder blades, to a depth of 1.5 cm (.59 inches). Parche admitted that he stabbed Seles to help Graf regain the No.1 ranking. She was quickly rushed to a hospital. Although her physical injuries took only a few weeks to heal, she did not return to competitive tennis for more than two years. Fans desperately want to be a part of athlete's lives and fans take matters into their own hands literally and figuratively.

People often times accuse me of being an apologist for professional athlete's. However, I am no apologist. I am a realist that has quite a bit of perspective. The thing that I always try to remember is that these people are just like me and you... just with significantly more money and exposure. These athletes have moms, dads, wives, significant others, children, friends, bills, headaches, and pretty much everything that WE as regular old folks have. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I can't and don't judge them. That is, I can't be mad at them for buying expensive jewelry, a yacht, multiple houses or whatever. It's their money. I can't tell them what to do with their money. And, I certainly can't say what I would do if I were them. We have to always remember that we think we know what's going on with athlete's but we have no idea. There are many things that happen under the surface and behind the scenes that we can never know is going on.

My cousin Vinny, sent me this article about Ray Lewis that was in Sports Illustrated many many years ago. Check it out. It's a great quick read.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/news/2000/12/08/yir_lewis/

Sporty nation, this is my Minority Report.