:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/44248110/usa-today-8234556.0.jpg)
In case you were doing something interesting and missed it - I know I certainly was - the University of Arizona beat Arizona State University 42-35 last night at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe in Tucson [told you I was otherwise engaged!]. This was followed by a Tweet from the D-backs' official Twitter account, offering their congratulations to the winner.
What a game. Congrats and good luck to @UofA in the @pac12 Championship Game! #BearDown
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) November 28, 2014
Seems reasonable, you'd think: one of the pro sports teams in the state congratulating the pre-eminent college football franchises. But you wouldn't know it from the hysterical over-reactions of some ASU fans.
@Dbacks @SportsHubAZ @pac12 What the hell? As an ASU fan never going to a DBacks game again.
— Matt Villanueva (@matt_villanueva) November 29, 2014
@Dbacks @UofA @pac12 If I were still a season ticket holder, I would now cancel. #ASU
— Hank (@HankHpearson) November 28, 2014
@Dbacks screw the @Dbacks for this tweet.
— Rick Spencer (@RickSpencer70) November 29, 2014
— Nathan Westover (@nate_westy) November 29, 2014
"@Dbacks: What a game. Congrats and good luck to @UofA in the @pac12 Championship Game! #BearDown" Not going to spring training
— Jesus C (@Cheesus85) November 29, 2014
@Cheesus85 Who runs their Twitter? Derek Hall, a Sun Devil has a firing to make. Pulling back support of the @Dbacks until further notice.
— Cole Streeper (@sundevilcole7) November 29, 2014
@Dbacks @UofA @pac12 what a joke. No wonder you have no fans. Move the team to northern mexico
— Jason Segall (@jasonsegz) November 29, 2014
And there's plenty more where that came from. About the only legitimate point was made by this one:
@Dbacks so you responded the same last year to ASU with a congratulatory tweet?
— Rosendo Mendez (@saso76) November 29, 2014
Checking their timeline for that weekend, there was indeed no apparent mention of ASU's victory over U of A in that season's contest. Still, one imagines last night's Tweet was less likely the result of some conspiratorial anti-ASU agenda, than the guy who runs the D-backs feed being conveniently near a keyboard when the game ended last night, rather than being in hibernation. As someone with no interest in this state rivalry (and, let's face it, little or no interest in college sports full stop), I tend to agree with this lone voice of reason, whispering to the storm:
@sundevilcole7 @Cheesus85 @Dbacks guys be rational. They're a STATE team. They would have backed whoever won. Chill, y'all look like fools.
— Elise Carrington (@ecarring) November 29, 2014
Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner. It's a freakin' football game, people. There'll be another one along next year. If winning or losing it has any significant kind of effect on your mentality, you probably need to re-examine those priorities. Sure, it's up to you whether or not you congratulate the victorious side - good sportsmanship, even if you have to grit you teeth while doing it - but really, tearing into someone else for offering their congratulations? That's pretty sad.
Still, I suspect a lesson will be learned, and this time next year, if anything is Tweeted by the D-backs (I suspect radio silence may be the preferred route), it will be something innocuous and inoffensive, perhaps taking a cue from the Suns' Twitter feed:
#TerritorialCup is over. Time to reunite the house with something everyone can root for, your Suns. #SunsAtNuggets at 7 on @FOXSPORTSAZ.
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 29, 2014
Loading comments...