Bleacher Bits: Sports not a matter of life or death

Normally, when writing this column, I try to address a topic that is as current as can be. After all, a newspaper is supposed to write about things that are "new."

But other times a topic just irks me or is asinine enough that I need to comment on it even if it happened more than a few days ago.

And this is one of those times.

By now, we all know who is going to the Super Bowl, but I'm going to talk about the last two teams that are NOT going to the Super Bowl, or at least players from those teams who figured prominently in the outcome of the conference championship games.

San Francisco 49er fans are painfully familiar with the name Kyle Williams and the place he now occupies in Niners lore. In much the same way, Baltimore Ravens fans will remember kicker Billy Cundiff long after he has hung up his cleats.

Williams fumbled two punts that led to 10 New York Giants points in the 49ers' loss on Sunday, and Cundiff missed a field-goal attempt that would have sent the AFC game into overtime.

Both players reported getting death threats on social media websites.

Yes, I'm a 49er fan and voiced my frustration with Williams to my fellow Niners fans where we were watching the game, and to my wife when I went home. But I was also over it within about 10 minutes. After all, what could I do about it? Nothing.

Granted, it was on a huge stage, but all either of the players did was make a mistake on their job.

Who among us hasn't?

You can't blame Williams for the 49ers going 1-for-13 in third-down attempts. Maybe if they convert a few of those, the game doesn't even get to overtime. Likewise, Cundiff did not have a possible touchdown pass knocked out of his hands in the end zone with less than two minutes remaining, as Lee Evans did. Maybe the kicker shouldn't have been out there at all.

And there's no maybe about it, people who call themselves fans and resort to making anonymous death threats are taking the games way too seriously.

I don't get death threats when I misspell a name in the sports section and it's a good thing — because I would have "bought the farm" years ago.

Williams and Cundiff made mistakes. The people who can't learn to live with it need to get themselves lives.

CONTACT Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com