Vanderbilt offensive line coach Herb Hand recently got a first-hand look at the negative side of Twitter recently when an idiotic Tennessee fan sent him a nasty tweet about his wife. The tweet has since been deleted, but Clay Travis of Outkick the Coverage took note of the exchange.
“dude I think your wife is f—ing someone while you coach your pathetic football team. #slut,” a Tennessee fan named Julian who uses the handle @JulianBucio reportedly tweeted at Hand.
The Vols fan sent several derogatory tweets at Hand but that was the worst of it and the one that annoyed Hand to the point where he felt the need to respond.
“Feel free to come by anytime so we can talk about this in person like men,” Hand wrote. “You are welcome to come to my office so we can discuss this face to face…I fully welcome the opportunity.”
Hand also felt the need to let Tennessee coach Butch Jones know what one of his fans had said. He tweeted a screen shot of a text he sent to the Vols coach after receiving the tweet from Julian.
Eventually, Hand realized he was simply giving the fan what he wanted by responding and basically challenging him to a fight. It’s important to remember that people who send hate messages feel comfortable hiding behind their computers, so a response only gives them the adrenaline rush they are seeking. Hand later deleted the exchange.
“Thanks for the emails and notes concerning yesterday’s posts,” he wrote in a separate message. “There are certain lines of decency that shouldn’t be crossed. I have removed the posts from my timeline because I really don’t want to see them anymore. I know that the ignorance of the few doesn’t reflect the class of the whole. But I also know that I will fiercely defend my wife and children. Thanks again…let’s move on. ANCHOR DOWN.”
The bottom line is this was just another ignorant fan who needed attention. Hand’s decision to text Jones about it seems kind of pointless, since I’m sure there are Vanderbilt fans out there who would say the same stuff. There are morons among every fan base who love pushing the envelope and taking things too far. Some people like this boxer hunt the trolls down. Most others just ignore it, which is probably what Hand should have done.
