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NYU Athletics is finally beginning to attract some much-deserved fans. The Mother Theresa of Washington Square News apparently doesn’t approve of their behavior.

Recent attempts by the Department of Athletics to attract more students to NYU sporting events have been very successful— thousands of fans have been in attendance for each of the last three Friday night basketball games. After years of invisibility, sports teams are beginning to enjoy the attention they deserve, and students are actually getting excited about NYU sports. To me, seeing animated, enthusiastic and, at times, borderline-crazy fans in the stands is great. To one Washington Square News reporter, there’s a problem.

According to this reporter, fans were “screaming malicious, mean and downright wrong things at the other team.” First of all, this is a gross exaggeration. I’m sorry, but chanting (Chanting, yes; Screaming, no) “Safety School,” to me, just doesn’t convey the awful wickedness the author claims. It’s actually a fairly common sports chant.

When the crowd heckled one player with a “You are bald” chant, the reporter wrote “I silently hoped No. 20 wouldn't cry himself to sleep that night.” You have got to be kidding me. After playing competitive soccer for my entire life, including four years of NCAA soccer here at NYU, my teammates and I have been the target of hecklers pretty often. Sometimes it will take a player out of the game mentally, and sometimes it won’t. The bottom line is that it is part of the game. Heckling and sports have gone together forever; it’s all part of that competitive spirit, and part of what makes going to games enjoyable.

The NYU Sports Fans Have Arrived, and They're Idiots WSN