Tag: Boos

Wil Lutz responds to boos from the Caesars Superdome crowd

Wil Lutz did not exactly receive the warmest welcome in an emotional night at the Caesars Superdome, but he isn’t convinced all that booing was directed at him:

Wil Lutz did not exactly receive the warmest welcome in a night filled with all of the pageantry and about as much embarrassment as the New Orleans Saints could have suffered in their 33-10 loss to the Denver Broncos on Thursday.

And there’s good reason for that.

Lutz himself scored 12 of the Broncos’ points by his own accord with four field goals attempted and made in the victory. That is more than the Saints managed to put together as an entire team in the game.

If it were not for the garbage time touchdown made by pass-catcher Cedrick Wilson Jr. on a pass from quarterback Jake Haener in the final two minutes of the action, the Saints would have had just one field goal to show for TNF at all.

Lutz heard the boos from the New Orleans crowd and responded to a post on social media from fans pointing out that they thought the disdain being expressed was directed at him.

That’s very possible, but the responses to Lutz’s quote post of the comment seem to take a shot at the Saints themselves. After all, it was a plenty boo-worthy performance from a team that seems to lack direction and control now on a five-game skid that they will hope doesn’t turn to six games as they face the Los Angeles Chargers on the road next on the schedule.

“Ehh, I think we know who was getting booed out the building,” Lutz wrote. “All love WhoDatNation.”

Lutz had previously praised the Saints environment earlier in the week and said that he still had a lot of love for those associated with the team, so it seems he’s just having a little fun with this one.

“A lot of love for people in that building,’’ he said in an interview with 9News. “Made a lot of big kicks there. Spent more than half my career there, so excited to get back there but excited to be on the other end of things as well. I think it will be fun for a lot of guys on the team.”

It was fun for Lutz and many of the ex-Saints on Denver’s squad. As for the Saints themselves and their fans? That’s another story.

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Who Dat Nation boos Derek Carr coming back on the field

Saints fans haven’t been happy with Derek Carr this year. Frustrations reached a season-high as they booed Carr returning to the field:

New Orleans Saints fans have completely turned on Derek Carr. This is evidenced by the fan base’s reaction to Carr coming back on the field after a snap with Taysom Hill running for positive yardage early against the Detroit Lions, which followed Carr’s ugly interception on the opening drive.

Fans have been upset with Carr for weeks, but this feels like a season-low. The team struggled to move the ball early and ended the first quarter having been outgained by 148 yards for Detroit to 33 for New Orleans. Deeper than just one game, the fans’ reaction is indicative of this season’s offensive struggles. Carr has a lot of work to do in winning back their support.

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Ben Simmons is now the NBA’s biggest heel and he’ll get a chance to embrace that against the 76ers

Ben Simmons has to embrace his inner WWE superstar.

I don’t watch wrestling as much as I used to anymore. But it was definitely something I grew up on. The WWF — not the WWE, but the one from the 1990’s. The WCW. TNA. All that good stuff. I ate it up.

The concept of heel and face was foreign to me. I didn’t understand anything about the business. I just knew that there were wrestlers that I didn’t like and wrestlers I loved. There were heroes and villains. Nothing more, nothing less. At least that’s how it worked in my mind as a child.

Most wrestlers play both sides of the coin at one point or another. Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Rock. Triple H. Kane and The Undertaker. All immensely popular characters. All have been cheered and all have been booed.

I bring this up because Thursday’s matchup between the 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets is going to feel like an old-school WWF matchup between a heel and a hero.

Why? Because Ben Simmons — Thursday night’s villain — will be on the bench for the Nets.

He’s not going to play in the game, but after what happened in last season’s playoff loss to the Atlanta Hawks and everything that followed? Just the sight of him is going to set 76ers fans off.

It’s bad enough that Sixers fans waited outside of the Nets team hotel to actually boo Simmons. That’s how bad the vibe is between the two sides right now.

There’s nothing that will ever change that. There’s no one who can stop it. There’s nothing that can be done. The boos will forever rain down on Simmons when he’s in Philadelphia. And, as Kevin Durant said, no one is going to hold his hand through it. He’s got to just eat it.

“Absolutely not. That’s one of those things he’s going to have to experience for himself. I can’t go over there. Nobody is going to hold his hand. I’m sure there’s going to be some personal attacks. There’s going to be some words that may trigger you, personally, but that’s just how fans are, they want to get under our skin. They want to let their voices be heard. I think part of the experience of coming to an NBA game is to heckle. Some people don’t even enjoy basketball. Their lives are so [expletive] they get to just aim it at other people.”

Those are some pretty wise words from a veteran player who, by the way, has been through this before with the Oklahoma City Thunder fanbase after deciding to leave that team.

Steve Nash had some advice for Simmons, too.

“I hope he enjoys it. How many people can go in the arena and get booed by the entire place?”

The message: Embrace it. Embrace the hate. Simmons needs to be the heel. He should channel his inner Stone Cold Steve Austin. Be Triple H. Give them his best Undertaker impression.

That’s the best way to handle this. Because, after all, the boos aren’t going away. He’s earned them. Was he right to get out of a situation that he didn’t want to be in? Absolutely. Could he have handled it better? Most definitely.

But there’s no rehashing it now. There’s no doing it over again. It just is what it is. And it will probably be this in perpetuity.

So Simmons better get used to it.