Shannon Sharpe Irate Over Crowds Spitting, Dumping Popcorn On Athletes: ‘They Need to Let a Player Whip One of These Fan’s Ass’

Wednesday was a great night for sports fans, with Madison Square Garden rocking on a level New York has not seen in nearly a decade. But it was also an embarrassing night for fans, as a few proved they’re not mature enough to sit near the action.

After Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook had popcorn dumped on him, and Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young appeared to have someone spit at him, Shannon Sharpe was irate over the disrespect professional athletes receive from fans.

“Why would you do this? Why would you dump popcorn on a man?” A seemingly befuddled and frustrated Sharpe asked on Fox Sports’ Undisputed.

“I don’t care if you pay $10 million for a front row seat. I don’t care if you paid $100,000 to get into a ball game. It doesn’t give you the right to be disrespectful!” Sharpe firmly stated to his co-host Skip Bayless. “Stop this! You don’t make enough money to be disrespected…because Russ makes whatever he makes, he should have popcorn dumped on him?!”

“We should be talking about how good the Sixers looked in this game,” the former NFL tight end continued. “But the story is not about the game, it’s about some dumb, jackleg fan, tried to be cute, wanting to tell his boys he dumped popcorn on Russ. They should have let Russ go up in the stands.”

Sharpe explained that fans know they have security as a buffer, and if a professional athlete responds to to any act of disrespect, it’s the player that’s deemed to have lost their cool.

“They need to let one of these players, whip one of these fan’s ass, and that will shut all of this down,” Sharpe said.

Sharpe played 14 seasons in the NFL and undoubtedly performed in front of very hostile crowds. “These players are a lot better than I am,” he said, explaining that NFL fans don’t sit as close to the action as courtside basketball fans do.

After being prohibited from attending games for nearly a year, fans have slowly returned to stadiums and arenas in recent months. For the most part, live crowds do a fantastic job of bettering the atmosphere of a sporting event. But every time there’s a ruthless fight in the stands, a fan dumps popcorn on a player or spits at another human, it discredits the reputation of the entire crowd.

Watch above via, Fox Sports