Mike Elko walked it back Monday, which should make the burning bile in your gut rise a little bit higher.
The nameless, faceless misfits won again.
And what happens when the dregs of social media are emboldened, you ask? When they leave the protection of their anonymous message board bomb throwing and have to function in the real world?
You get a 40-something Alabama fan, hepped up on canned courage and undoubtedly with too much Bama in him, slapping and pushing the helmet of Georgia linebacker Raylen Wilson after the Tide’s home loss to the Dawgs.
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You get those same nameless, faceless throwing objects from the stands at Georgia players.
You get pathetic gnats sprinting on the field at Kentucky — not to celebrate a big win over LSU, but to find Tigers coach Lane Kiffin and give him the middle finger. All while recording on their phones.
Because, you know, “influencers.”
“I think everybody knows I appreciate our fan base and everything they’re about, and everything they mean to Texas A&M,” said Elko, whose third season as the Texas A&M coach has hit some tough times on the field. “Outside of that, I’ll leave it alone.”
Yeah, I won’t. Nor should any of us.
This isn’t about the loyal and passionate fans, those who spend money, time and emotion bleeding for their schools. Where victory is glorious, and defeat is deflating.
While that’s the wide majority of fans who frequent the TexAgs message boards, you’d be absolutely foolish to think there isn’t also a “cesspool” — as Elko said after a loss to Missouri — of the loud and gutless.
Just like everywhere, on any platform, of social media. Sports, politics, life. You name it, everyone has their incandescent vituperation — and you’re going to hear it.
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They bully, they threaten, they dox — all within the safety of their miserable, anonymous existence. The insular and the unaccountable, as dangerous a combination as you’ll find.
So Elko blew it when he called out the vocal minority by using the name of the owner of TexAgs, and conflating the two. Foolish, no doubt.
But he was spot-on with the assessment of the mindless clout-chasers on social media, the nattering nabobs of negativism who frolic through the mud with their absolute and unquestioned right to complain.
The whole ecosystem — the philosophy, the execution of it all — is so bizarre. Drop verbal bombs wherever and however, stalk family and friends of coaches and players, and complain about their dad/wife or son/daughter.
Then sit back and watch the carnage unfold.
Dude that was SO cool.
Actually, it’s stupid. And dangerous.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: social media is the best worst thing ever. It emotionally connects us like nothing ever has — yet physically separates us to the detriment of all.
It’s a voice for the needy, and a megaphone for the unfiltered. It’s beautifully sadistic and wildly temperamental.
Until the moment comes when those within the insular world believe it’s real. Believe what plays out on a minute by minute basis in narcissistic crazy town is truly how the world revolves.
Spoiler alert: it’s not.
So you get an idiot fan leaning over the rails at a game, taking swipes at a man twice his size and half his age. He can’t hurt me, he doesn’t know me — and he’s surely not coming into these stands after me. Until he does.
Or you get four nobodies chasing the most high-profile coach in college football, Pavlov’s phones stuck at arm’s length. Nobody is going to stop me, they don’t even see me.
Until the state trooper trailing the action does.
And then in the irony of ironies, those attempting to reset the social media madness — in any way they can — become the heavy. The death of fun.
That Alabama “fan” is lucky Wilson didn’t reach into the stands, grab him by the sweaty shirt with one hand, and give him the people’s explanation of college football with the other. If you know what I mean.
Wilson later responded to the incident on his Instagram — because where else would he? — and said, “I thought the dude was a UGA fan tried to dap him up.”
Nope. Just another in a long line of faux social media muscle. Take a stand, make a statement — but only with the cloak of anonymity.
Meanwhile, Mike Elko is the problem because of his awkward way of calling it out. Go leap into the cesspool with that victory, misfits.
It’s right in your wheelhouse.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. Listen to him daily, from 12-2 p.m., on 1010XL-Jacksonville.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Elko was right. There is deep and disturbing college football cesspool | Opinion