Where we have a talk about name calling

With the Aaron Rodgers/Anthony Barr matter coming up again today (after I had hoped that we were done with it), I wanted to attempt to bring some attention to something that came up on social media yesterday in the wake of those events.

I understand that fans of the Minnesota Vikings have an issue with Rodgers bad mouthing Barr the way he has, particularly in light of Barr’s (outstanding) rebuttal on social media earlier today. I have an issue with it to, largely that I’m tired of listening to Aaron Rodgers cry more than. . .well, somebody or something that cries a lot.

But, in comments sections across the interwebs (including right here at DN) and on the Twitters and in other places, there’s a disturbing tendency for fans of the Vikings to refer to Aaron Rodgers as “Erin” or “Karen” or “Sharon,” somehow implying that giving him a feminine name is a sign of some sort of weakness.

That’s stupid, and we should probably strive to be better than that.

Yes, I know that there are opposing fans out there that will refer to our favorite football team as the “Queens” or the “ViQueens” or what have you. Those people, without exception, are morons. They will continue to be morons and being a moron is their right. You can encourage them not to be morons, but you can’t necessarily stop them.

But the larger point here is that we don’t need to combat the stupid with even more stupid. That’s what that sort of thing is, seriously. I know plenty of strong women, as I’m sure most of you do. We have women that fill various roles on this very website, and they all do an outstanding job at what they do. That sort of stuff is insulting to them, and insulting to the other kick-ass women in all of our lives.

So, while I don’t know if other sites will follow suit or anything like that. . .and I don’t care if they do, necessarily, because I’m not in charge of any of those sites. . .I’d like to request that we put a stop to that sort of stuff, effective immediately. You’re going to see comments with such things disappearing from the comments sections here as well.

I’m quite certain that there will be some people that aren’t necessarily receptive to this and, really, that’s too bad. . .both in the sense that a) this shouldn’t be that big a deal, and b) that’s just the way things are going to be going forward.

Also, the comments section on this one is not open. This is not something that’s up for debate. So there you have it.

Thank you.