Are you saying it was ok for Buzz to return the favor to the student section, regardless of whether or not it was professional of him to do so?
Yes. First of all from initial accounts, he didn’t use expletives in his response. He didn’t lay a hand on anyone and he wasn’t inches from someone’s face shouting his response. Sure he had a range of choices how to react from ignoring to an all out assault. What he did was basically a non-issue. Where else is it being given the time of day except here?
Given his response, I just find it quite laughable that some people actually take issue to his responding (and he wasn’t taunting because he did not instigate the interaction) to stuff thrown at him.
In your estimation, it is ok to yell expletives at someone while you are on the job, even knowing fully well that it is a part of the job?
No it’s not. And again from what’s been accounted, neither did Buzz.
If that is not what you're getting at, please correct me because I am just misinterpreting it, but if that is what you're saying, allow me to provide an example of why this is not acceptable.
I teach in the inner city. I hear expletives all day every day, and occasionally they are even directed toward me. That is fine, I realize that is a part of the job - if I'm not able to accept that, then I shouldn't be working in the position I do. In no way will it ever be acceptable for me to use profanity toward a student, even if they use it toward me first. I will lose my job within 5 minutes if I do that.
Similarly, think about customer service representatives, telemarketers, credit collectors, etc. I'm sure they hear rudeness and profanity all the time, but they know it is part of the job, so they do not treat customers in the same way they are treated by the customers. If they do, they also will lose their jobs.
You gave examples of jobs where it can be very confrontational and each has their own limitations in the manner of response. But that is where the comparison ends. In the examples you gave, there is a very small window of what you can do. Not so much in college basketball.
There’s a little more leeway in what is allowed. Put it in perspective, in Huggins more recent road loss, he had to be restrained from going after a fan because of what was said, definitely a much more personal response but even that was a non-issue.
How about referees? Do you think they should be fired if they talked back to a coach? Mind you, I am not talking responses with expletives, maybe shouting back to “Can it!” or an “I don’t want to hear about it!”. That seems like an equivalent response to what Buzz did. The answer is no because of the certain leeway the job affords. And hopefully you won’t play the “but these are college kids” argument because we are not talking about some profound life altering setting here. We are talking about a college basketball game.
In general, you are correct - no one should be surprised if they yell expletives at someone and the sentiments are returned. However, if someone takes a job knowing full well that being mocked and cursed at is part of the deal, they shouldn't be returning those sentiments.
Yes and ideally fans should just be cheering their own team and not badgering the other team. Now that we got the Sports Utopia down pat, we both know that more happens. Buzz had a choice to ignore the fans and make it a non-issue. I’m saying what he did was not ideal but not even close to offensive to make it an issue. Thus my categorizing this as a “non-issue”.
