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Here’s a newsflash: It’s possible to like and respect Sheriff Joe Berlin and to also like and respect Coach Todd Breland. And, call me crazy, but it’s also easy to listen to what happened between them after last Friday night’s game and come to this controversial conclusion: It’s understandable why both men reacted like they did in that situation.

A brief rehash: South Jones beat rival Northeast Jones in double-overtime, so emotions were high. Boys will be boys, and there was a little pushing and shoving during the traditional on-field handshakes. No big deal. 

But one of the SJ players took it a step too far. Instead of going to celebrate the final score with his teammates, he marched over to the visitors’ fieldhouse and tried to settle a personal score. He cursed an NEJ administrator and coach, then cursed the sheriff as he made his way back across the field to the SJ locker room. 

Berlin followed him in and a half dozen or so Protec security officers followed. Some words were exchanged. Breland was in his office and had no idea what was going on. If there was an issue with one of his players, he wanted to deal with it, especially in his locker room. That’s understandable. That’s his kingdom. 

He wanted the yelling to stop and the outsiders out so he could get to the bottom of it. Things got a little heated when he invited the security officers — most of whom are certified law enforcement officers but are school district employees when they’re working for Protec — to kindly exit the building. Berlin, who can invite himself wherever he needs to in order to enforce the law, believed Breland was talking to him. Cooler heads prevailed, and it was all worked out. Both agreed that it was a misunderstanding, shook hands and moved on.

But before that gentlemanly resolution was reached, social media did … well, what people on social media do. They jumped to conclusions, posted half-truths to suit their side, made cryptic references and veiled accusations. Odes to the lifetime of leadership of the protagonists in this passion play were offered. 

They immediately went to the Facebook playbook and began posting passages in extra-large type, boxed in colorful backgrounds, with a couple of misspelled words and unnecessary apostrophes, sweetened with fortune-cookieesque platitudes or, better yet, Bible verses.

Hundreds of emojis and gifs were sent into the social-media stratosphere as a testament to these two men’s character and fortitude. It wasn’t long before the crowning achievement of a bonafide cause celebre came about … Yes, there were hashtags.

The battle lines were drawn, if not clearly defined. Details don’t matter in cases like this. You were either on #TeamTodd or #TeamJoe. There’s no time for fact-gathering or thoughtful analysis or even a single deep breath. Pick a side. Pledge your support with a thumb or a heart. Then find the opponent. Ready. Aim. FIRE!

OK, maybe I got a little carried away with that odd combination of melodrama and hyperbole. But, you know, when in Rome, you’ve gotta speak, you know, Roman. I’m communicating with you, Facebook peeps. Just sayin’ …  

All of this lazy pageantry, conducted from the kitchens and couches across Jones County, portrayed Breland as a martyr on par with Mandela, sentenced to spend the next quarter century on Robben Island, and the sheriff as if he were head of the Stasi in East Berlin circa 1961. In reality, Breland was suspended with pay for a day while school district officials investigated the incident — an unexpected paid vacation day. (Hey, Jim, what can I do to get the same “punishment” Breland did?) And Joe admitted that he may have jumped the gun and it was a misunderstanding. Both men agreed that’s what it was and shook hands. They moved on. And the Facebook mob will, too, when the next perceived Earth-stopping-on-its-axis incident occurs … or when the McDonald’s drive-thru attendant forgets to put the ketchup in the bag with the fries. You know, whichever comes first.

There are so many things to dissect from this single incident that reflect where society is today, but the one that keeps coming back to mind is how it implicated two good men but completely ignored the real culprit. That was the smart-mouth, disrespectful turd in a South Jones uniform who cursed and disrespected a Northeast Jones administrator and coach and then the sheriff. He deserved to be the object of scorn, but I didn’t see a single word posted about him or what he did. 

Our country would probably be better off if that coach and sheriff could have dealt with him like he was the man he thought he was. But, no, thugs know the rules that the good guys have to play by, and they exploit that. They run their mouths, push the limits, knowing they won’t have to worry about the street justice they’d face for similar actions with anyone other than a school or law enforcement official. 

A few weeks ago, I sent a message to fellow decision-makers here at the paper with a simple plea: Can we just go back to being a newspaper only and trash the Facebook page? I knew that wasn’t a practical request. In this day and age, businesses have to have a presence on social media. But it wasn’t an emotions, reactionary request either. I’m not sensitive. I’ve been dealing with everything from scorned softball mamas to governors who thought they were implicated in a murder over the last 30-plus years. It’s a time-consuming nuisance, not something that keeps me up at night.

No, what makes me crazy is the shear ignorance that’s exposed and how it metastasizes in an instant in response to a story. The misfit masses who “congregate” there have the emotional stability of a seventh-grade girl. One second, they’ll be screaming, “I need to know right now who was killed in the wreck on Highway 84 East!” and the next, the gang of unoriginals who need affirmation in the form of “likes” in the same way normal people need oxygen will shout, “The Leader Liar should take down that wreck photo. It’s so insensitive to the family!” Then they’ll threaten to cancel a subscription that they never had or organize an advertiser boycott. 

Seeing the stupidity and hypocrisy would be amusing if it wasn’t for the fact that these non-contributors to society have somehow taken hold of our government, corporations and culture. They all live in fear of being “attacked” by them, and they act accordingly, ignoring those of us who actually do things of value.

The argument is often made that the founders couldn’t have foreseen “assault” rifles and on-demand abortion when they drew up the Constitution, but they damned sure couldn’t have foreseen Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and the like when they formed the all-important First Amendment. 

Social media isn’t going away and neither is our freedom of speech. But I go back to the first line of this and every column I’ve done for the last couple of years: It’s possible to just read something, snicker and scroll on. You don’t have to respond. Stop feeding the beast that’s eating up our society.

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