The harassment of athletes on social media has become an epidemic, an experience so common that players today accept it as a fact of life.
College basketball players are more at risk than athletes in other sports, the NCAA has found, especially around March Madness, when thousands of abusive or threatening messages flood athletes, many of them from gamblers—some of it so severe and alarmingly specific that the NCAA must alert law enforcement.
The toll it takes, players say, has become difficult to bear. Fighting through tears after his Wildcats lost last March to end a disappointing season, Kansas State’s Coleman Hawkins said the online criticism had gotten to him. “I did a poor job of letting people talk about me and affect my play,” he said, sobbing. “I wish I could just go back and block out everything.”
Read more at NPR.
