When grown-ups go bad

You may have heard that there was an Ateneo-La Salle game this past Sunday. You may have also heard that there were a couple of altercations between fans and coaches. If you were there in Araneta last Sunday then you may have also heard an insane amount of “F#@K YOU”s and “P&*!@&% INA”s.

It might come as a surprise but most if not all of the curses and expletives didn’t come from fans our age. It didn’t come from teenagers and it didn’t come from people with open bellies and face tattoos. The verbal filth came from the mouths of old-school alumni who apparently never got enough hugs in life. Even before the first 10 minutes of the game, we already heard a couple of people throwing out words you’d hear in an episode of The Thick of It. The alumni equivalent of your drunk uncles even screamed racial slurs at young athletes who we’ll bet never did anything to them.

You can argue that it’s part of the game, but the nine-year-old kid beside us didn’t come to Araneta to hear words he shouldn’t have to for at least another five years. After the game, the same kid along with everyone else were witnesses to a 50-something-year-old Ateneo alumnus repeatedly screaming “P&*!@%& INA MO” for reasons only his therapist would know. It was both sad and disturbing to see, with children smart enough to cover their ears to protect their innocence.

The only thing that “Atenean” did was prove he really wasn’t an Atenean.The “highlight” of the game came after the final buzzer. It was the fight between Ateneo’s Coach Bo Perasol and a certain La Salle alumnus whose name isn’t really worth mentioning. Based on stories told through text and social media, said alumnus initiated the conflict and heckled Ateneo’s head coach. Way to be mature, guy. We’re guessing the man twice our age thought being an a-hole is what makes a good winner.

As Ateneans, we were sad to see our coach lose his cool and confront the petty heckler — even if the heckler did have it coming. At the end of the day, the only thing that fight did was overshadow the great performances the student athletes demonstrated.

Don’t get us wrong, thinking that we saw nothing but awfulness in the game. There were highlights of goodness showcased by both schools. Handshakes and apologetic pats from players after fouling their competitors. People wearing white instead of their school colors to show that there are more important things outside the court. It’s just sad that a couple of guys who probably wish they were still getting wasted in college, thought it was still cool to be bullies. FYI: Bullying was and never will be cool. We can only hope that the children of these foul-mouths don’t grow up to be like them.

We get the Ateneo-La Salle rivalry. It’s probably the thing we look forward to the most in the UAAP. But for what some call “the two classiest schools in the country,” it sure seems like not everyone took Etiquette 101. It could very well be that it’s not the schools’ fault but of those of the people themselves. Because to paraphrase someone’s tweet, “You can buy your way into a school but you can’t buy class.” The Ateneo-La Salle game was supposed to be fun. To pollute it with words not meant for a general audience is to ruin the fun for absolutely everyone. Sportsmanship should extend beyond the athletes.

It should be expected from each and every fan as well. It doesn’t matter whether you’re seated in gen ad or the patron section, there are always limits to what you can say and do. No matter what happens, take the loss like a man, be humble enough in victory, and remember that it’s really just a game. If you don’t understand that, we suggest you grown-ups go back to pre-school.