Cowards senselessly harass McAfee

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There is one significant difference between West Virginia kicker Pat McAfee and the detestable people who harassed him after he missed a couple of field goals in the big loss to Pitt Dec. 1. McAfee is a man, someone who has the strength to put it all on the line and do what he does in front of 60,000 emotional fans and a national television audience, and do it with the millions of dollars in college football at stake.The sick people who tried to make his life miserable are cowards who hide behind the anonymity of the Internet and never would have the courage to confront him to his face.It's the sick people you should pity, not McAfee.It's understandable why McAfee was given much of the blame for West Virginia's 13-9 loss, a defeat that denied the Mountaineers the chance to play for the national championship Jan. 7 in New Orleans. The junior had been a reliable kicker and punter all season, but he missed field goals from 20 and 32 yards early in the game.Those missed kicks were huge at the end.But it's not as if McAfee was responsible alone for the defeat. Linebacker Reed Williams took a foolish personal foul penalty late in the first half that led to a Pitt field goal. Return man Vaughn Rivers fumbled on the second-half kickoff, setting up Pitt's winning touchdown drive. Running back Steve Slaton, who was being compared to Tony Dorsett a year ago, had 11 yards on nine carries.Quarterback Pat White missed half of the game with a dislocated right (non-passing) thumb before returning in the fourth quarter, prompting two questions: If White was OK to play at the end, why couldn't he have come back earlier? Isn't that what a true Heisman Trophy candidate is supposed to do?Then, there was West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. An alleged offensive genius, he had no answers for the brilliant game plan devised by Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads.But it was McAfee who was harassed. He was the easiest target for the gutless, I suppose. He's just a kicker, you know? People in groups screamed at him from outside his off-campus house. He had nasty text messages sent to his cell phone. His car was vandalized. There was even a death threat on his Facebook account.All of this brought back sad memories of the way former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart and coach Bill Cowher were treated at times here. When the Steelers were losing in the late-1990s, they were subjected to vicious Internet attacks. The cowards really were proud of themselves then. They could torment two of the city's biggest sports figures and no one could stop them.Anonymity really is a powerful thing. It makes the meek so very bold.It's easy to suggest that the passion generated by sports is somehow responsible for that abhorrent behavior, although that would be an inaccurate assertion.There's no question that a lot of people take the games way too seriously.In West Virginia, not getting a shot at the national championship is almost like the end of the world to some, especially to those who have an inferiority complex to start.Here, it's the Steelers' three-touchdown loss Sunday to the New England Patriots. That's the way it works in every sports town. Too many people lose their perspective about what's really important. If they cared as much about their faith and their families as they do about their sports team, the world would be a better place.But to blame the outcome of a game for the criminal acts directed at McAfee is wrong, tantamount to a justification for those acts. Make no mistake; the despicable people who committed them are criminals. They really don't care if West Virginia won or lost. They have so little in their lives that they were just looking for an excuse to cause misery for someone else. McAfee happened to give it to them by missing those field goals.The good news here is that McAfee -- like Stewart and Cowher before him -- will get past this. He's an excellent student and seems certain to graduate with a degree in communications. Chances are he'll make something of the rest of his life. And one more thing: If the kid has a chance to kick the winning field goal to beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl -- West Virginia's consolation prize after missing out on the national title game -- I'm guessing he drills it. He'll certainly be out there trying, willing to live with the results one way or the other.As for those who harassed McAfee? They'll continue to suffer in their warped little world. For them, that seems like punishment enough.(Contact Ron Cook at rcook@post-gazette.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)