The Story of "No Mom Tom"

Thomas Robinson has lead the Jayhawks
to a 7-0 start in Big 12 play this season.

Fans of sports have a tendency to take it too far.

There's certain things that might be considered crossing the line.  In November, Utah State's student section were chanting at BYU Center, Brandon Davies regarding his suspension for having sex off the court.  Sure, I found it amusing, but I am sure it offended many people.  It must have been offensive to BYU, who administered the suspension.  It must have been offensive for the LDS Church, which owns and operates BYU.  I found it amusing, but I will admit that it was in bad taste and crossed the line for certain people or institutions.

Fast forward to January.  The BCS National Championship was over and the Crimson Tide were on top of college football once again.  Then someone, who calling a knucklehead is an understatement, does this (NSFW) to a passed out LSU fan.  Not to pick on Alabama's fans, because I know there are many loyal, dedicated fans of the Tide that know how to be diehards without acting like a complete jackass.

Events like this prompted current Columbia resident, Jordan Husted to say, "If I was in charge of the world, I would abolish professional sports."  Granted, that is not going to happen anytime soon.  However, it encourages you to look at fans.  Particularly, the ones that shame your favorite teams.

I will admit, the people who do these things are immature at best.  However, they are audacious enough to commit such acts in public.  Many of these acts are alcohol induced, but that makes my prior statement no less true.  Recently, more drama has been instigated by fans on message boards.  There are two worth noting that have raised eyebrows here at Mizzou in Columbia.  These involved Arizona State University and Kansas University.

Brock Osweiler is 6'8"

The first one involved an Arizona State fan making a comment comparing the weeks' football contest against Missouri to the victims of a tornado that leveled the city of Joplin, Missouri in May.  All that came out of that was a few perturbed Mizzou fans that by the end of that weekend, had moved on to talking about Joe Tessitore's alleged "man-crush" on now former Sun Devils' Quarterback, Brock Osweiler.  No Harm, No Foul.

However, this week, one fan took it too far.  A user on a message board said that himself, along with other Mizzou students would wear shirts bearing the letters "NMT".  "NMT" is an acronym for "No Mom Tom", referring to Kansas Forward Thomas Robinson.  As you may or may not know, he lost his mother, grandmother and grandfather within a months' span in 2011, making this grotesque moniker self-explanatory.  These shirts, as far as I know, are nonexistent and any person that would wear a shirt bearing those letters better stand for "No More Taxes."  Otherwise, they need to take a serious look in the mirror.  

After Mizzou and Kansas students and fans alike were left stewing.  Kansas students were upset for obvious reasons.  Mizzou students were upset because they believed that this ignoramus was in their camp.  Au contraire mon ami, the offenders' IP address was traced to Lawrence, Kansas.  

The plot thickens.

That being said, my condolences go out to Robinson.  Even though these losses were over a year ago, I  still feel for him as a man who loves his mother.  He's a tremendous athlete and I firmly believe that God will bless him.  I can only assume that he is a good man, and I wish the best for him.  That being said, he is a Kansas Jayhawk and therefore is the enemy on February 4th.  But for the love of God, leave the man's mother alone.

Hate week is next week.  So this is a call for every True Son and Daughter along with Rock Chalk Nation to hate the right way.

There's a reason they don't officially call it the Border War these days.

UPDATE:  A representative of notorious MU cheering section, The Antlers, had this to say via the sections' official Twitter account.


"ATTENTION INTERNET: STOP BEING SO STUPID! We aren't making any signs, shirts, billboards or keychains with a "NMT" slogan. That's below us."