Welcome to the fourth edition of the 2009 series of Commissioner's Corner.

Before I get into this week's discussion, I've got to share some sad news: Cheryl Johnson, wife of our long-time Supervisor of Football Officials, Bill Johnson, passed away on Saturday morning (February 21, 2009).  Cheryl was a gem: fun-loving, always up-beat, supportive of Bill and his love for not just football, but the GSC as a whole.

I have to share a personal, special memory of Cheryl.  She loved hosting birthday get-togethers, so I was welcomed to their home several times a year.

Many of you know that I'm Jewish and somewhat traditional.  Among many things, I keep a kosher home and eat in a kosher-style when I'm on the road or visiting other folks' homes.  Cheryl made legendary baked beans, but I always had to stay away from them because pork was an ingredient.  She found out that I loved baked beans and wondered why she never saw any on my plate.  I explained...and the next time she made them, she made a batch with no pork!  Amazingly, the other guests detected no difference in flavor---and from that point forward, she never added pork again.  Heinz could learn a few things from her recipe (by the way, Heinz baked beans are kosher).

But more about Cheryl...Bill has suffered a heart attack and two strokes in the past.  I did not know Bill when he had the heart attacks, but when he went through the strokes, she provided endless care and love---and that's probably part of the reason he recovered so well.  After the first stroke, he could not speak for several days, but when he was at least well enough to come out for lunch, she brought him to the Atlanta Bread Company.  He could not speak a word, but she anticipated his every need and wonderfully assisted with anything.

The tragedy is that it was the second marriage for both of them.  Had they met earlier, perhaps there would be some children from their union who would have benefitted from a wonderful set of people.  As it is, Cheryl's son from her previous marriage, adores Bill and---this is my opinion as an outsider---probably is closer to Bill than to his natural father.  I know Bill always looked at Brian as a third son.

To all who knew Cheryl...may her memory be a blessing and inspire all of us to do great things, thereby honoring the light she brought to our lives!  Amen.

And to those who know Bill, please, take the extra time to call, keep in touch, make the trip to see him---whatever it takes, remember that the nights are long and the holidays lonely in the months and years after the loss of such a loved one.

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Now, let's turn back to GSC business.  I'm completely changing the facts of the examples you'll see below.  The sports and specifics have been changed, but the points are similar.

We had a baseball game recently, and when a particular player game to the plate, a group of students started chanting, "Maria, Maria, Maria?"  Sounds disjointed on its face, but there had to be something to it, some reason for the chant.  There were also posters of "Hey, Jim (fictional name), try Enhanze" and "Jim's not MANLY enough."

Well, there was: Maria was the baseball player's former girlfriend.  Word on Face Book was that they were history, and that he was really upset about it.  Add this to the mix: there was a photo of her with the "other" guy, and that photo was taken about a month before she'd dropped the news on him.  Caption read: "I dumped my ex for a real man."

Want another sample: basketball game, fans chant "divorce, divorce," every time a player touches the ball.  Why?  Because they got from Face Book the information that the player's parents were going through a nasty divorce.  Not enough?  How about this chant: "Beat your wife, Donnie, beat your wife."  Why?  Because the player's dad had been accused---on Face Book---for beating his ex.

Still don't thing there's a problem?  How about this one: the girffriend of a student-athlete suffered a miscarriage.  That's right, a miscarriage.  Somehow, the fans found out.  Every time that person came in or out of the game, the chant was "How's that baby?  How's that baby?"

Enough with the examples.

First, let's understand that this is not about Face Book.  Its about common sense on one hand, common decency on another, and game environment on a third.  Its about treating people with respect and compassion, and drawing the line when fans go too far.  Its about understanding the difference between "freedom of speach" versus "freedom to taunt."

The first question is: why were these kinds of personal things on Face Book in the first place and who posted them there?  The second is: who is failing to understand the difference between what's funny and what's going too far?  The third is: why is this kind of chant being tolerated by the host school?

Today's internet age, complete with Face Book, My Space and the like, has opened the door to wonderful things, such as the opportunity to share good and bad news, post happy or funny photos, etc.  Unfortunately, it also opens the door to outrageous invasions of privacy, malevolent attacks on individuals and the opportunity to create semi-anonymous harm.

Thos who choose to post things on those sites need to keep in mind that everything they post might be seen, read and even downloaded and printed---and often for reasons that may not be the original intent of the posting.  So, for example, if the "friend" who posted the divorcing parents item---intending to make sure that everyone in their circle of acquaintances knew why "Joe" was having a bad time---thought twice about how it might be used against Joe, it might have been posted differently.

But folks don't often think things through---we're all guilty of that---and the unintended consequences of well-inteded acts can be awful, as we've already read in this piece.

So the question then boils down to: if the fans are not compassionate enough to draw the line on what should be chanted and what should not, who is responsible and what might be done to help?  The bottom line is that home-team game-management is responsible, and it needs to be a little more aggressive on the line-drawing.  In the examples above, the chants and banners did not escape the ears/view of the game management folks; in fact, in one of the above examples, they even knew exactly what was going on, and just thought it was "funny, you know, just fans being fans.  There's no real harm, right?"

Or the second administrator, whose explanation was, "we've worked so hard for months to get our students to come to the games, and now you want us to take half the fun out of it."

Well, that's a poor reaction to a terrible situation.

So what might be done?  The starting point is when that administrator hears a strange chant that is repeated whenever the same player is involved.  Its not hard to notice, and even easier when there are signs accompanying the chant.

The next step is an inquiry as to what this is about.  IF the answer is clearly an out-of-line reason, or a suspicious one, the chant should be stopped and the signs ordered taken down permanently.  Is this a violation of freedom of speech?  Absolutely no,t because it is an invasion of privacy into an area of a possibly public figure's life which there is no reason to have in the public view.  What right does the host faciliity have to order the chant ended or the signs taken down?  The ticket to that admits the bearer to the game is a license, and all licenses may be revoked, subject to written notice on the license or at the venue at which the license's use is intended.

So there is a way to deal with this.  And its up to our administrators to do it.